Dracula Lives! was an American black-and-white horror comics magazine published by Magazine Management , a corporate sibling of Marvel Comics . The series ran 13 issues and one annual publication from 1973 to 1975, and starred the Marvel version of the literary Dracula vampire.
More than a comic book, it did not fall under the purview of the comics industry’s self-censorship Comics Code Authority , allowing the title to feature stronger content – such as moderate profanity, partial nudity, and more graphic violence – than color comics of the time. featuring Dracula stories.
Running competitor with the longer-running Marvel comic The Tomb of Dracula , the continuity of the two titles overlapping, with storylines weaving between the two. Most of the time, however, the stories in Dracula Lives! were standalone Dracula tales by various creative teams. Later issues of Dracula Lives! has featured serialized adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel , written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Dick Giordano .
Publication history
Copyrighted as simply Dracula Lives! Commonly Known by ict and trademarked cover title, Dracula Lives! , the magazine ran 13 issues from 1973 to 1975. With the title of Monsters Unleashed , Tales of the Zombie and Vampire Tales , it was published by Marvel Comics ‘ parent company, Magazine Management , and related corporations, under the brand emblem Marvel Monster Group . [1] [2]
The character Lianda first appeared in Dracula Lives! # 1. The Turac character first appeared in Dracula Lives! # 2 (Sept. 1973). The character Nimrod the First in Dracula Lives! # 3 (Oct. 1973), created by Marv Wolfman and John Buscema .
Painted covers of the series Were done by artists Including Boris Vallejo , Neal Adams , and Luis Dominguez . Text and photo articles were mostly of the Count’s various movie appearances. The title of the magazine’s letter column was “Dracula Reads!”
An annual publication titled Dracula Lives! Annual was published in 1975, reprinting stories from the magazine. [3]
Reprints and collections
Much of the material in Dracula Lives! was reprinted in a Marvel UK weekly reprinted title of the same name. It eventually becomes more popular with the Marvel UK Planet of the Weekly Apes , and with issue 60 The title Became Dracula Lives Featuring the Legion of Monsters .
All 13 issues of Dracula Lives! were collected for an Essential Marvel edition in 2005. ( Dracula Lives! # 1-2 was also collected in 2006 as part of Essential Tales of the Zombie: Volume 1. ) In 2010 the complete series (including the letter columns ) was reprinted in the Marvel Omnibus title Tomb of Dracula Volume 3 (which included The Tomb of Dracula Magazine # 1-6 and The Frankenstein Monster # 7-9).
Serialized adaptation of Stoker’s Dracula
Issues # 5-8 and 10-11 featured a serialized adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel , in 10- to 12-page installments written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Dick Giordano .
Following Dracula Lives! ‘Cancellation, an additional installment appeared in Marvel Preview # 8 (“The Legion of Monsters”), [4] for a total of 76 pages comprising roughly one-third of the novel. [5] After a thirty-year hiatus, Marvel commissioned Thomas and Giordano to finish the adaptation, and ran the reprinted and new material as the four-issue miniseries Stoker’s Dracula (Oct 2004 – May 2005). [5] [6]
The entire adaptation was collected by Marvel Illustrated in 2010.
References
- Jump up^ Dracula Lives at theGrand Comics Database.
- Jump up^ Marvel Monster Group (brand emblem)at the Grand Comics Database.
- Jump up^ Dracula Lives Annual at the Grand Comics Database.
- Jump up^ Marvel Preview # 8 (Fall 1976)at theGrand Comics Database
- ^ Jump up to: a b Weiland, Jonah (30 September 2004). “30 Years of Horror: Editor Beazley talks the return of Stoker’s Dracula ” . ComicBookResources.com. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012 . Retrieved 18 January 2017 .
- Jump up^ Stoker’s Dracula (Marvel, 2004 Series)at the Grand Comics Database