Great art in this issue. Like, top five Gene Colan and Tom Palmer Tomb of Dracula so far. Not just the strange variety of things—seventies British romantic thriller, zombie vampire movie, Ray Harryhausen picture. It’s a lot, and it’s glorious.

Unfortunately, writer Marv Wolfman goes overboard with his religiously-tinged script. He started it last issue because it was about a guy finding some magic statue from his Yeshiva student son’s perspective. This issue it makes sense if you remember last issue, but then it turns into this weird “Co-Exist” thing with Wolfman lecturing Dracula for being bad in the second person. It’s not You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, obviously, but also because Dr. Seuss wasn’t chastising the Grinch for not being churchy. Or, in this case, synagoguey.

But Dracula’s religious failings are the finale. First, we’ve got to resolve last issue’s cliffhanger, which had a still unseen new Bond villain dumping holy water on a caged Drac. Dracula escapes, of course, using two of his superpowers. Even with the nicely paced visuals from Colan, Wolfman plods through in the narration explaining how Dracula rolled a five so he could do the mist conversion.

Except, he’s just like misting out of a room. It doesn’t need to sound so hard.

I don’t think we actually find out how his escape resolves, either. It’s a mystery for next time and the Bond villain. Dracula comes to out by the highway just in time to intercept Yeshiva student David and his familiar, Shiela, who is low-key seducing David to get the magic stone tail away from him. Dracula assumed Shiela would tell David he was aiding in Dracula’s (actual) plan to conquer the universe with this Infinity Statue. Instead, they all bicker in the middle of the street, and Dracula sends a fire demon to scorch India.

Why India?

Dracula’s just a dick.

But it hits Taj, who’s moping around about still being on his endless subplot about visiting his wife and kid. He beats his wife. Not sure what he does to the kid. I think I remember, but no spoilers.

We also check in on Frank Drake, who’s down in Brazil, being a colonizing white guy. There’s a funny moment when Chastity the fixer gets off the plane and kisses Frank’s old rich pal hello, and the guy tells Frank he’s next. But no. They’re not going to be a throuple. Bummer.

Meanwhile, back in England, Rachel’s moping over Frank leaving her (not thinking he’s banging his way to South America), and Quincy has a new gadget.

It’s a packed issue; there are lots of varied scenes for Colan and Palmer to excel in rendering.

Just not a great script.

I’m not sure if this issue’s Marv Wolfman’s best Tomb, but it’s his most ambitious. He weaves the story—which involves a missing magical statue, a dead shop owner, Frank Drake and Taj being shitty dudes, a Kull-related flashback, and Dracula’s familiar, Shiela, meeting a British witch—through Old Testament verses. The shop owner’s Jewish, and his son (David, who seems like he’s going to recur even after next issue) is visiting him from a yeshiva. Just as the old man is about to complete his life’s work, some bad guys break in and kill him.

Dracula shows up a few minutes later at the active crime scene, wanting the statue and realizing the son’s got a piece of it. Dracula tasks Shiela with befriending David, and he takes her to see this old British witch who tells them about Kull. No editor’s notes with issue numbers, which was kind of disappointing. This statue can grant wishes—an Infinity Gauntlet you don’t need to snap—and Dracula wants it to… make himself immortal immortal, not vampire immortal. So he can still be evil but during the day.

David and Shiela are a nice couple. Like, Tomb of Dracula’s humans are usually obnoxious. Look at Frank Drake, who’s laying about since abandoning Rachel Van Helsing and the vampire hunters. It’s been three days since he left her—I swear this book has three different timelines going at once—and a sexy troubleshooter named Chastity Jones has tracked him down. She wants to give him a job being rich and fabulous again, plus she wants to get busy. Does he want to call Rachel (who he luvs, he said), or does he want to get horizontal?

So, immediately, David’s a bit more sympathetic a human character.

Oh, wait, then there’s Taj. He only gets a page because he’s not white; he’s moping around India because beating up his wife last issue or whatever didn’t make him feel better. Some old friend comes to plead with him to see her. So he beats that guy up too. Taj is a dick.

After spending the issue in the literal shadows, watching the humans do their things, Dracula gets into some trouble of his own while looking for the statue pieces, leading to a surprising cliffhanger. Though only because Dracula assumes he can’t possibly be in danger, but there wouldn’t be much of a comic without it.

It’s a strange combination of character study, mystical adventure, and Dracula. There are some bumps, but Gene Colan and Tom Palmer’s art is exquisite, and Wolfman’s working his buns off.

Unfortunately, there’s much to talk about this issue, like writer Marv Wolfman’s use of a racial slur, which was indeed “Code approved.” It’s not clear if the speaker is supposed to be a bad guy for being a racist, which sadly tracks given Wolfman’s Werewolf by Night Black neighbor character.

The issue’s all about private investigator Hannibal King, who narrates the issue like he grew up on pulp novels. It’s the point, but it also shows how banal hard-boiled comes off when not done well or when done for a gag. Wolfman doesn’t do it well, and he does it for a gag. King’s new client is a recent widow, and it’s her wedding day. As they were getting ready to consummate, Dracula came in and killed her husband. Dracula’s motive has something to do with shipping coffins from England to somewhere else, but it’s red herring nonsense. At one point, Drac makes it sound like he killed the guy as a warning to his boss.

The widow comes to see King, who looks her over approvingly (she’s Black, so he’s not a racist if he wants to bang her). Now, he won’t exactly put the moves on her, but he’ll think about it, and he’ll be really shitty to her during their initial meeting. Especially after finding out her husband died. You have to yell at dames to make them talk sense, just ask Marv Wolfman.

Especially since the widow doesn’t believe in vampires, King tells her a bunch of stories about his encounters with vampires, including one with the guy who looks like the dude who killed Blade’s mother.

King investigates, roaming London (he’s originally from Milwaukee, which fits), getting into fights, narrating ad nauseam, and discovering how Dracula fits into this whole thing.

There’s great art. Gene Colan and Tom Palmer are made for London private eye stories. Wolfman, not so much. Worse, he’s doing that strange thing where he writes Dracula from the perspective of the humans, and Dracula’s dialogue’s all of a sudden worse. He’s Fearless Leader, not Lord of the Undead.

The end’s doubly problematic, but it’s such a gorgeous book… read the endless text fast, linger on the beautiful panels.

The issue opens with original series protagonist Frank Drake whining about being an unexceptional white man to his extraordinary vampire-hunting girlfriend, Rachel Van Helsing. The only thing the scene is missing is Rachel telling Frank she needs him because no one else will love her with her Dracula-inflicted face scars.

It’s a beautiful scene—art-wise—with penciller Gene Colan and inker Tom Palmer heading back to the London bridge where Frank met the vampire hunters back in issue two or whatever. From Big Ben, Dracula watches the tender moment, amused the vampire hunters still don’t know he’s alive. They thought he died a few issues ago, though they do know Lilith is back. Nothing about her in this issue.

Instead, it’s actually a Blade issue. Almost entirely, because Dracula doesn’t want Blade to know he’s back yet either, so Drac stays in bat form for their fight.

After the introduction with Frank and Rachel—which comes back at the end for some emotionally inert closure—writer Marv Wolfman moves the action to Blade’s apartment, where a random vampire attacks Blade’s “woman,” Saffron. There’s a brief fight scene, then some padding, then Saffron’s fellow “showgirl” Trudy running into the apartment. She’s just had a terrifying experience, and since Saffron mentioned her man’s a vampire hunter, Trudy thought Blade could help.

We then get a flashback with terrible narration from Trudy. Wolfman’s really bad at writing it. And it’s interminable. You know Tomb’s masterfully paced because Wolfman can have a sixty-two-page flashback in a nineteen-page story and have it be immediately forgotten and forgiven when the action gets going again. There’s a magnificent running fight sequence between Blade and Dracula (in bat form) through the streets of London, with Dracula’s wonderfully petty and spiteful narration accompanying.

There are a couple other diversions, both problematic as hellfire. First, Taj goes home to India to visit his wife and smack her around a bit because, you know, wives. Then Shiela Whittier, Dracula’s new familiar, moons over him while he’s out eating, making excuses for his professed evil plans.

I mean, great art on those scenes—Colan’s so good at the visual pacing, which is essential with the moody style—but it’s clear why Wolfman doesn’t understand he’s writing Frank Drake as a dipshit white guy.

And, yet, Tomb succeeds. Despite its definite failings, Tomb succeeds. Wolfman’s Dracula writing and Colan and Palmer’s art, how can it not?

So this issue continues from Giant-Size Chillers, even though the timeline’s off between that comic and the previous Tomb. Writer Marv Wolfman tries to retcon it a little, with the flashback to Chillers showing Dracula talking to his stooge about his Russian holiday, even though the Russian vacation went unmentioned in Chillers itself.

The timeline disconnect doesn’t end up mattering since the vampire hunters don’t appear this issue. I mean, Taj goes back home to India for a page (his last name’s Nitall, which means his name rhymes with Taj Mahal), but it’s only to keep the burner going on a C-plot. And to reveal Taj has a wife back home no one knows about.

I’m sure it’ll matter eventually.

Anyway.

Dracula.

He’s in a haunted mansion with tortured young woman Shiela. She’s recently inherited the house, and it’s been haunting her ever since she arrived; it also killed her boyfriend, but in a way no one would believe her. Except for Dracula; because when the house starts screaming and the wind blows from closed windows, it’s hard not to believe in haunted houses. However, Dracula’s still relatively unimpressed. He tells Shiela he’s seen lots in his years, and this haunted house isn’t special.

Of course, if it were literally slicing into his skin like it’s doing Shiela, he might have more of a vested interest.

After a couple flashbacks, Dracula decides they’ll solve the mystery the next night and goes out for a snack. When he returns (presumably very close to dawn), the situation has gotten much worse for Shiela, and he’s got to intercede.

In Chillers, Dracula decided Shiela would be his next familiar. It’s been long enough since Clifton Graves screwed up the job; he’s ready for (no pun) fresh blood.

It’s a solid issue; nice art from Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, and some decent character development on Dracula. He does, however, rant about his daughter, Lilith, being more inhumane than even her father… which doesn’t gibe with her solo adventures but whatever. It’s like they figured out the general Dracula timeline, but everything else is up in the air.

I got halfway into this issue, until Quincy Harker shows up after Lilith attacked him in Giant-Size Chillers, and stopped to go read Giant-Size Chillers, as it seems to have taken place before this issue.

But then the end of the issue says go read Chillers and then you’ll be ready for next Tomb. Dracula goes from the U.S.S.R. to England in record time, even for a Marvel comic.

Drac’s still in the Soviet Union after his encounter with Roger Corman’s James Bond villain Doctor Sun. He gets into a regional squabble with a local vampire who won’t bow to Dracula’s commands. It’s an ego trip for Dracula, who then becomes the Soviet vampire’s suffering widow’s de facto protector. The Soviet vampire, Gorna, has been terrorizing his wife since he died, feeding on her, killing her suitors, and just being a general pest. Her parents knew Gorna was a vampire but didn’t tell her, so when she thought he was dying, the wife told him off.

So now he’s torturing the wife more than he would’ve otherwise, dragging out her vampiric conversion.

Outside a very awkwardly written flashback, the wife’s not even as big a character as her parents. They’re the ones who finally confront Gorna (it’s unclear why they waited so long to actually intercede), and they have the best moments with Dracula. He’s vicious to them, but the comic can’t help but play it like a comedy beat.

The parents are also the ones who bemoan how godless Communism has made Russia ripe for vampires and all sorts of other evils, as they’ve abandoned God. It’s unclear what writer Marv Wolfman’s going for—obviously, somehow, U.S.S.R. bad, but the parents are also numbskulls. And they enabled their daughter’s abusive marriage; the husband used to lock her up for weeks on end, which the parents must’ve known about. Basically, it’s a horrible situation for the wife from every angle.

Even before her dad and his town council buddies form a lynch mob and put on skull masks to go kill the vampire. It’s entirely unclear if the family tells the town they’ve got the Lord of Vampires, Count Dracula himself, on their side.

Good art, obviously; it’s Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, and the story’s engaging. It’s a little ho-hum, especially Quincy’s whiny C plot, but an okay TOD.

Writer Marv Wolfman has been working on his Doctor Sun subplot since he took over Tomb of Dracula, with the arc running at least ten issues. So, it’s too bad it’s got such an underwhelming finish. It’s a Bond movie conclusion, only with the “good guys” literally inert the entire issue instead of just being dramatically inert.

The issue starts with Dracula, Frank Drake, and Rachel Van Helsing held in a stasis beam. Vampire Brand tells Dracula the origin story of Doctor Sun, presumably because it’s supposed to be interesting to someone—Doctor Sun was a Chinese scientist who lost the Party’s trust, so they took his brain out and put it in a computer. They even made his own son—Doctor Sun’s son—do the dirty work. There are a couple entirely pointless digs at “Red China” in the comic; strange how Wolfman wasn’t concerned about inequities in the West.

Though it tracks given the now dead Harker daughter was straight-up racist about Blade.

Speaking of Blade, he and Quincy Harker have another entirely pointless check-in scene to remind readers if they hang out long enough, the story might someday get back to hip, Black vampire hunter Blade or decidedly un-hip old rich white guy vampire hunter Quincy. Wolfman covering all the reader bases there.

The rest of the issue is Dracula and Brand vampire-fighting in a Bond lair while Doctor Sun monologues about his master plan: create a vampire more powerful than Dracula and transfer Dracula’s memories to this new super-vampire. But, see, Doctor Sun’s computer circuits run on human blood (Wolfman never reveals why the Red Chinese designed the hardware to be blood-dependent, though, again, Occam’s razor), and the only way he can figure out how to get a steady supply is to get a vampire to bring him victims.

Since Frank and Rachel are in stasis for most of the issue, it’s unclear if they understand they’re pawns in a living brain’s plans. They may not even hear Doctor Sun communicating; they give no indication they do, but, again, they’re in a stasis field, so who knows.

In other words, no one comments on Doctor Sun’s plan being insipid and not the work of a genius human brain-powered supercomputer. The plan’s not even good enough for a seventies comic book.

Gene Colan and Tom Palmer’s art continues to be magnificent and make the book more than worthy, but, wow, does Wolfman’s first big long arc fizzle.

It’s another fantastic issue. Not quite as good as last time because there was so much more human drama (and fewer hapless white dudes), but fantastic. Writer Marv Wolfman starts the issue with a hunted Dracula and ends with a captured Dracula, but by entirely different foes. The story’s called The Coming of Doctor Sun and Wolfman’s been steadily building this subplot for at least eight issues, though then he reveals some elements go back even further, with Wolfman tying in elements from before Tom Palmer was inking Gene Colan on the steady. It’s a culmination.

And it’s also a ret-con. At one point, Frank Drake makes some glib remark to “good God, she’s too good for him, it could be a sitcom” Rachel Van Helsing, and so she has to school him on her origin facts. One would think she might’ve mentioned them in the second issue or some time between then and now, but Frank’s a dipstick. It also gives the comic a chance to plug the Bram Stoker’s Dracula adaptation running in Dracula Lives. Rachel is Abraham Van Helsing’s granddaughter, after all.

Wolfman again reveals details of the post-novel era for Dracula, coming back and hunting down all the Van Helsings in revenge. Then there’s Quincy Harker saving little Rachel with his missile darts in his wheelchair. It’s a combination effective and silly sequence, punctuated with Rachel talking about how Quincy then “raised her into womanhood.”

Frank and Rachel are in a helicopter shooting at Dracula with wooden bullets as he runs through a blizzard in the Transylvanian Alps. He can’t turn into mist because the winds would blow him apart; he can’t turn into a bat because the winds would toss him around. Has he ever turned into a wolf in Tomb? Maybe not.

The chase is excellent. Beautiful art from Colan and Palmer.

The kidnappers are Doctor Sun’s thugs. They’re tracking him through the storm and set a trap for him. No explanation on how they set the trap, but Doctor Sun’s presumably a genius. We get a big reveal on him, changing him from an evil Chinese Bond villain trope into something weird and wild. Wolfman’s fairly straight-edge as far as his plotting, never wanting to give Colan anything too silly to realistically render, but Doctor Sun appears to be Wolfman coloring outside the lines.

It’s cool. And silly. And fantastic.

There’s particularly great Dracula writing, especially after one of the surprises.

The book’s on a phenomenal roll right now.

I’ve read Tomb of Dracula before, but I have an incredibly vivid memory of this issue, which has Dracula and Rachel Van Helsing stranded in the Carpathian Mountains during a days-long blizzard. Dracula’s keeping her alive as a blood bag insurance. She’s injured and too weak to try to kill him (or so he thinks). The art’s fantastic, the writing’s pretty good, and it’s a memorable, outstanding comic. I just wish I understood the nostalgia.

The issue begins with Drac and Rachel already slogging through the snow. Writer Marv Wolfman waits until the fifth page to recap what’s happened since the end of last issue, giving the duo a chance to hate banter at each other, both in the storm and then in shelter for the night. Err, day. They rest during the day because Dracula can’t be out in the sun. But he doesn’t need a coffin because he’s on his own country’s soil, which Wolfman never addresses but assumes the reader will get it. The situation drastically changes Tomb’s rules. It’s awesome.

Last issue ended with Dracula chasing Rachel in a helicopter. He’d been fighting Werewolf by Night in an underwhelming crossover—in both series—for the werewolf’s dad’s secret journal. There are anti-vampire spells in it; Rachel grabs it and makes off into the chopper and the storm. Dracula catches up, makes some bad decisions, then they crash.

They’re heading towards civilization, but Rachel knows it’s her best chance to kill him; Dracula’s keeping her on proverbial ice for a meal of last resort, meaning he’s drinking foul animal blood to avoid ruining the last meal. Dracula talks about the arrangement at length, one of Wolfman’s most successful recurring dialogue bits. There’s some awkward dialogue—Dracula’s always monologuing to himself, sometimes far less successfully than other times—but it works out. It’d be impossible for it not to work out with the gorgeous art from penciler Gene Colan, inker Tom Palmer, and colorist Glynis Wein; it’s a beautiful comic.

Wolfman checks in on a couple existing subplots—“Vampire Brand” going through his training and testing for the mysterious Doctor Sun, then Quincy Harker and Blade having an exposition dump of a conversation about how Blade’s origin reveal is going to affect things going forward. Speaking of origins, the comic—perhaps unknowingly—breaks with the historical Dracula; Tomb’s Dracula had fun winters with his parents like it was Doctor Zhivago or whatever. The real Dracula spent his childhood a hostage.

Anyway. Historical trivia.

Doesn’t matter; exceptional comic.

This issue ought to be good. It’s Marv Wolfman writing, it’s Gene Colan, it’s Tom Palmer. Wolfman’s written Tomb; he’s written Werewolf by Night, so there shouldn’t be any problem doing a crossover. Except Wolfman’s amalgamation of Tomb and Werewolf doesn’t work. Colan and Palmer do a great job illustrating Jack Russell and his psychic girlfriend Topaz, but they do a lousy one with the werewolf. Maybe it medium long shots, but the face is terrible. It’s the first time Colan hasn’t been able to do something exquisitely.

The story has Jack and Topaz investigating his family history in Transylvania, which at one point is described as a Romanian village, another time as a country. Unfortunately, the issue often feels like it didn’t get enough editorial passes, or maybe they were focusing on the wrong things, like shoehorning Dracula into Jack’s werewolf story.

Because it’s a strange Werewolf by Night comic, not a Tomb of Dracula. Wolfman overwrites the scenes with Jack and Topaz, which doesn’t help them at all because Jack’s still a surfer bro. It’s more of a bad thing but written to be accessible for Tomb readers, so it’s all exposition dumps. Gorgeous Colan and Palmer art, lousy scenes. Over and over again.

The Dracula stuff is limited and middling. Drac’s back in Transylvania because Quincy destroyed all his coffins in England; it’s Dracula’s first time back since he left in Tomb of Dracula #2. Except he’s only staying a night, and then it’s back to England. He literally went home for long enough for there to be a bunch of editor’s notes telling you to read Dracula Lives to understand paintings and exposition, but it’s all a retcon. It’s a little bold, a little too much, but also Wolfman and company emphasizing Tomb is different now than when it started.

It’s a nice flex.

When Dracula goes out for his evening snack, he sees Topaz and Wolfman Jack—they’ve just destroyed the inn, and Wolfman Jack’s killed a rapey sailor—and Dracula attacks Topaz. Then he’s surprised when the werewolf attacks him.

The next time, Drac sees Topaz and Jack, then sees the werewolf and Jack gone, and is bewildered. He also can’t mind control the werewolf, which maybe is normal, maybe isn’t. Wolfman’s indecision hurts the already mildly grating crossover guest stars.

There are some hints for next issue, post-crossover (after it finishes in Werewolf), and it’ll be nice to have the book back on track after this unnecessary detour.o