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Post by richardwrite on Oct 11, 2017 12:02:43 GMT -5
In preparation for Halloween, I'm reading vol. 1 of Marvel's Tomb of Dracula, which I bypassed as a child in favor of superheroes. I was wondering what the general consensus is on this series. I'm up to issue 5 and, to be honest, it's the first series in a long, long time that has made me anxious to see what happens in the next issue. I just feel that sometimes, the art makes Drac look.....odd, but the stories I'm loving. But what is the overall opinion of this series?
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Post by sabongero on Oct 11, 2017 12:18:18 GMT -5
Richard, why not post your review of each issue you read on Tomb of Dracula. I am sure all of us would appreciate reading them, and those that has read it can provide comments as well. And those that are interested can have questions about it.
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Post by richardwrite on Oct 11, 2017 12:21:02 GMT -5
Richard, why not post your review of each issue you read on Tomb of Dracula. I am sure all of us would appreciate reading them, and those that has read it can provide comments as well. And those that are interested can have questions about it. Great idea. I'm going to read the suggested guidelines for doing reviews for this forum and do that. Thanks for the idea. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 11, 2017 12:21:25 GMT -5
You actually haven't gotten to the good part yet. The book lacked any direction until Wolfman took over as permanent writer and got his sea-legs. The uptick starts with issue 12 and the book stayed high quality to the end. The art by Colan & Palmer is among their best.
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Post by brutalis on Oct 11, 2017 12:26:00 GMT -5
Those early TOD's are somewhat difficult to categorize as it was in continual evolution. Outside of Colan as the penultimate pencil pusher there was a rotation of writers and inking until Marv Wolfman and Tom Palmer come along. Every series in the beginning struggles to find its way as the writer and artists are all feeling their way as to what works and what doesn't. Colan was outdoing himself on pencils but each inker gave him a different look which may explain why good old Vlad was odd looking. Continue reading though as the series settles into a wonderful groove and tone that continues until the very end. This is one of the best if not the very best comic book series around. A stellar example of horror styling's done up proper. Be sure to read all of the Essential's as I do believe the black and white printings make this series in particular a moody gothic masterpiece. I had much of it in color and once I had all of the essentials I traded those in.
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Post by richardwrite on Oct 11, 2017 12:33:14 GMT -5
I was a huge Dark Shadows fan, and I think it's hooked me from the start because the spirit of the issues reminds me of that show.
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Post by Rob Allen on Oct 11, 2017 14:56:27 GMT -5
I was a Dark Shadows fan too, but I never noticed the similarity to TOD before. Now that you mention it, though, I can see the similarity in tone and spirit.
Echoing what others have said, Tomb of Dracula is one of the best comics of the 1970s. You have some great reading ahead of you.
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Post by batusi on Oct 11, 2017 22:45:30 GMT -5
In preparation for Halloween, I'm reading vol. 1 of Marvel's Tomb of Dracula, which I bypassed as a child in favor of superheroes. I was wondering what the general consensus is on this series. I'm up to issue 5 and, to be honest, it's the first series in a long, long time that has made me anxious to see what happens in the next issue. I just feel that sometimes, the art makes Drac look.....odd, but the stories I'm loving. But what is the overall opinion of this series? I have to admit that I also bypassed this series in favor of superhero related comics. I love the Gene Colan art and eventually want to read every issue. I have the digital collection so maybe I should make this my Halloween reading priority. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 12, 2017 7:32:30 GMT -5
I was head-over-heels in love with Tomb of Dracula from the first issue and only grew more enamored of it as it went along. Not only is it my favorite body of work by my all-time favorite comic book artist but Marv Wolfman's Drac is one of the most psychologically complex "heroes" to ever grace the medium. Not every issue is a winner but, in my opinion, ToD is one of the three best Marvel titles of the '70s (with Master of Kung Fu and Howard the Duck ranking about equally in my affections). As someone else mentioned, it's also one of the few series that unequivocally improves when presented in the black-and-white Essentials format.
Cei-U!
Good stuff, Maynard!
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Post by dbutler69 on Oct 12, 2017 8:14:43 GMT -5
I enjoyed the series, though it does get better starting around #12.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 12, 2017 9:40:38 GMT -5
The series also never peters out... It rises in quality after the first year and remains at the top until the end. Like Preacher or Sandman, it was cancelled at a time everyone would have been quite ready to read more.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 12, 2017 12:05:32 GMT -5
Because I read mostly super-heroes, I didn't start reading TOD regularly until #68. Though I did read the cross-over in Doctor Strange #14 (I think) and Tomb of Dracula #40-something. (Which was odd because I didn't read either title regularly until much later.) TOD was canceled as of #70 but I had really gotten into it in those three issues and I started gathering up back issues. I think I ended up with most of the issues after #40 and a few scattered issues from around #15 to #40. Great series! One of the things I like about the scattered back issues is how compelling they are even if I only one issue in a storyline. You can tell you've only got part of a storyline but the art is great, the characters are so well developed and interesting, and you feel more than satisfied even if it ends with a cliffhanger! There's several stories from the middle years from which I've never read the conclusion. But I'll get around to it some day. One of my favorite issues is #64. It's not an issue I had as a kid. It was long a gap among a bunch of issues that I had for a long time. But I finally saw it at a comic book store in L.A. and remembered I didn't have that one. It's great! I pull it out and read it from time to time. I don't have any of those other issues from that period any more but I love being ale to pull out #64 every once in a while. |
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