The Afterlife of Tomb of Dracula
No sooner was the original series canceled than Marvel transformed it into a black-and-white magazine for “mature readers.” Wolfman continued for a few issues, Colan for even fewer, but the magazine’s focus on single-issue, one-off stories did not lend itself to the sort of character development that was the hallmark of the color comic.
Tomb of Dracula began its unlife as an easy exploitation of a character in the public domain. After Wolfman and Colan, that is exactly what Marvel’s Dracula became again. In the four decades since Harker slayed his archenemy, Dracula’s portrayal has varied a bit, but the one constant is his lack of ongoing character development. No one at Marvel who has used the character after Tomb of Dracula has had to grapple with the dilemma that proved so productive for Wolfman, since there has been no chance for Dracula to serve as the object of readerly sympathy or identification. Consigned to the category of occasional antagonist, Dracula has no need of an inner life. Previously, he had been a challenge to the reader: do you like what you see when you look at me? And should you? Now he has taken on the role that the mirror normally plays in vampire lore: if we look directly at him, nothing is reflected back.