Action Comics #425: "The Short-Walk-To-Disaster Contract!" (Neal Adams art)

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I've been meaning to upload some more comic books that were drawn by Neal Adams and this one was a long time in coming. The Grand Comics Database credits Dick Giordano as the sole artist, but we know better, don't we? This back-up story is the first of a two-parter featuring the Human Target, who is hired by his servant Luigi to pose as Luigi's cousin Antonio. He is a circus artist and his act has been sabotaged a couple of times. This was written by Len Wein, but Neal didn't draw the second part so I am going to omit that issue. Enjoy!

Dracula Lives! #2: "That Dracula May Live Again!"

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Dracula, who has a knack for coming back to life, was introduced in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula in 1897. He reached the Broadway stage in 1927 and was first seen upon the silver screen, in the definitive performance by Bela Lugosi, early in 1931. The count, however, did not appear in a regularly issued comic book of his own until 1972, when Marvel introduced The Tomb of Dracula. The artist for the entire run was Gene Colan and the writer for most of that time was Marv Wolfman.

There had been numerous comic-book vampires before Dracula, especially in the early 1950s. Even the count himself had appeared sporadically in the heyday of horror comics in the early 1950s. As comics historian Lou Mougin has pointed out, "Adaptations of Dracula, both the novel and the character, had been around for at least twenty years before Marvel's version." Avon had used the count in Eerie in 1953, Dell issued an adaptation in its Movie Classics series in time for Halloween of 1962, and Creepy featured a two-part Dracula tale by Archie Goodwin and Reed Crandall in the middle 1960s. The strangest use of the character occurred late in 1966, when Dell issued a Dracula comic book in which he appeared as a costumed superhero who vaguely resembled Batman. Tony Tallarico drew all three issues.

The Marvel version of Dracula was set in the 1970s and dealt with a Lord of Vampires who "spreads his reign of terror across a twentieth century world." The Colon-Wolfman count was a nasty, brutal fellow with a moustache and none of the Continental manners or sly humor of the Lugosi characterization. Among those who pursued him through the continued narrative were Rachel Van Helsing, a blonde young woman who was descended from Dracula's original nemesis, and Blade the Vampire Stalker, a costumed ghostbuster. The title was relatively successful and lasted for seventy issues before expiring in 1979.


Credits

Cover painting: Jordi Penalva
Script: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: Neal Adams
Inks: Neal Adams

Reprinted:

• In Dracula Lives Annual (Marvel, 1975 series) #1 (1975)
• in Tomb Of Dracula Omnibus, The (Marvel, 2008 series) #3