- Paperback: 592 pages
- Publisher: Marvel Comics (21 April 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0785114610
- ISBN-13: 978-0785114611
- Product Dimensions: 25.2 x 17.2 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 961,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
...and again, and again, and again...
This is a somewhat erratic collection. Volume 1 of Tomb of Dracula was fairly focussed; Dracula had awoken and was trying to take over the world, and Quincey Harker's band of vampire hunters had to stop him. Volume 2, by contrast, is all over the place. For long stretches of this collection, the vampire hunters either think Dracula is dead, or have no idea whatsoever where to find him, while Dracula himself often seems uncertain of what exactly he's trying to do; he keeps forming evil schemes, pursuing them for a few issues, and then forgetting all about them. What unity there is is provided by a central storyline in which Dracula finds his powers waning, and must seek out the cause, which turns out to be an enemy so dangerous that he and his hunters are compelled to join forces against it; this is a decent idea, but the execution is somewhat confused, and the actual plotline borders on incoherence. On the plus side, Gene Colan's art remains great, and Marv Wolfman's dialogue and narration is a little less horribly overwritten than in volume 1.
Any pretense that Tomb of Dracula is really about Frank Drake, Quincey Harker, and friends has clearly been abandoned here. These are stories about Dracula. To their credit, he continues to emerge from them as a gratifyingly complex figure, remaining entirely monstrous while continuing to possess some redeeming features: courage, fortitude, a twisted sense of honour, a grudging respect for his enemies, and above all a sense of *style* that sets him apart from the more vulgar evils he is occasionally called upon to dispatch. The soliloquy in which he meditates on all his past enemies is one of my favourite parts of the volume, and really casts the struggle against Dracula into a new light: Dracula, like death, is never truly defeated, but he has to be continually fought against anyway, just in order to allow life to go on. Dracula's rather confused attempts to take stock of his existence, to understand just what he is and what he is trying to do, are so fascinating as to make me forgive a great deal: even the hopelessly distracting and out-of-place 'funny' dialogue of the new and desperately unnecessary comic relief character Harold H. Harold, or the woeful parody of hard-boiled dialogue that fills the air whenever the risible Hannibal King, Vampire Detective, steps onstage.
This collection also includes a few issues of 'Giant-Sized Chillers', stories starring Dracula but taking place outside of the main flow of the plot. Most are drawn by Don Heck, whose clear, hard lines are not nearly as well suited to the series as Gene Colan's mists and shadows, and whose trademark drawings of women - with their wasp waists and giant, conical breasts - are serious liabilities in a series that features as many distressed damsels as Tomb of Dracula. Claremont's writing is fine, although he clearly has a slightly different take on Dracula to Wolfman, which can make these stories a little jarring. None the less, they are enjoyable changes of pace, especially as each one tells a complete story: a welcome shift from the endless multi-issue narrative arcs of the main series. I particularly enjoyed the one in which Dracula confronts the daughter of one of his oldest enemies...
Overall, this is still a very good collection, and definitely worth buying if you enjoyed Volume 1, but it does meander about a lot. I'm hoping that things will tighten up in Volume 3 as the series moves towards its grand finale.
This is a somewhat erratic collection. Volume 1 of Tomb of Dracula was fairly focussed; Dracula had awoken and was trying to take over the world, and Quincey Harker's band of vampire hunters had to stop him. Volume 2, by contrast, is all over the place. For long stretches of this collection, the vampire hunters either think Dracula is dead, or have no idea whatsoever where to find him, while Dracula himself often seems uncertain of what exactly he's trying to do; he keeps forming evil schemes, pursuing them for a few issues, and then forgetting all about them. What unity there is is provided by a central storyline in which Dracula finds his powers waning, and must seek out the cause, which turns out to be an enemy so dangerous that he and his hunters are compelled to join forces against it; this is a decent idea, but the execution is somewhat confused, and the actual plotline borders on incoherence. On the plus side, Gene Colan's art remains great, and Marv Wolfman's dialogue and narration is a little less horribly overwritten than in volume 1.
Any pretense that Tomb of Dracula is really about Frank Drake, Quincey Harker, and friends has clearly been abandoned here. These are stories about Dracula. To their credit, he continues to emerge from them as a gratifyingly complex figure, remaining entirely monstrous while continuing to possess some redeeming features: courage, fortitude, a twisted sense of honour, a grudging respect for his enemies, and above all a sense of *style* that sets him apart from the more vulgar evils he is occasionally called upon to dispatch. The soliloquy in which he meditates on all his past enemies is one of my favourite parts of the volume, and really casts the struggle against Dracula into a new light: Dracula, like death, is never truly defeated, but he has to be continually fought against anyway, just in order to allow life to go on. Dracula's rather confused attempts to take stock of his existence, to understand just what he is and what he is trying to do, are so fascinating as to make me forgive a great deal: even the hopelessly distracting and out-of-place 'funny' dialogue of the new and desperately unnecessary comic relief character Harold H. Harold, or the woeful parody of hard-boiled dialogue that fills the air whenever the risible Hannibal King, Vampire Detective, steps onstage.
This collection also includes a few issues of 'Giant-Sized Chillers', stories starring Dracula but taking place outside of the main flow of the plot. Most are drawn by Don Heck, whose clear, hard lines are not nearly as well suited to the series as Gene Colan's mists and shadows, and whose trademark drawings of women - with their wasp waists and giant, conical breasts - are serious liabilities in a series that features as many distressed damsels as Tomb of Dracula. Claremont's writing is fine, although he clearly has a slightly different take on Dracula to Wolfman, which can make these stories a little jarring. None the less, they are enjoyable changes of pace, especially as each one tells a complete story: a welcome shift from the endless multi-issue narrative arcs of the main series. I particularly enjoyed the one in which Dracula confronts the daughter of one of his oldest enemies...
Overall, this is still a very good collection, and definitely worth buying if you enjoyed Volume 1, but it does meander about a lot. I'm hoping that things will tighten up in Volume 3 as the series moves towards its grand finale.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There are certainly far more good points than bad points about this book, the main downers are the Giant Size Dracula stories that, by and large, are here for completion sake and add very little to the main story flow.
At the start of this book Dracula's main protagonists, thinking he is dead, have gone their own way whilst the Prince of Darkness quietly goes about his main business. Taj is back in India and we learn more of why he came to join the vampire hunters.
Some minor supporting characters come to the fore especially Inspector Chelm and Sheila Wittier and psychic Kate Fraser who is a mutant. The early tales with the Chimera statue are especially memorable. The vampire threat enters the Houses of Parliament and over time Dracula starts to realise his power is waning.
Throughout the early tales there are hints as to who is responsible and it comes as no great surprise when Dracula is drawn to the USA.
Slowly most of the old team are drawn together, Frank joins with Brother Voodoo to fight zombies in Brazil before being re-united with Quincy and Rachel as they arrive in America to track Dracula down.
The USA stories have some great moments, the unsurprising return of Dr. Sun with comedy relief provided by Harold H. Harold and Aurora. Blade re-appears, as does Hannibal King as they learn they are both searching for the same white-haired vampire Deacon Frost. There's a cross-over tale with Doctor Strange and Dracula gets married.
The Tomb of Dracula tales by Marv Wolfman are the stand-outs and the Gene Colan and Tom Palmer team brought these tales to the forefront of the Marvel titles, they were always amongst the first ones I used to buy and it is great to re-read so many of them.
At the start of this book Dracula's main protagonists, thinking he is dead, have gone their own way whilst the Prince of Darkness quietly goes about his main business. Taj is back in India and we learn more of why he came to join the vampire hunters.
Some minor supporting characters come to the fore especially Inspector Chelm and Sheila Wittier and psychic Kate Fraser who is a mutant. The early tales with the Chimera statue are especially memorable. The vampire threat enters the Houses of Parliament and over time Dracula starts to realise his power is waning.
Throughout the early tales there are hints as to who is responsible and it comes as no great surprise when Dracula is drawn to the USA.
Slowly most of the old team are drawn together, Frank joins with Brother Voodoo to fight zombies in Brazil before being re-united with Quincy and Rachel as they arrive in America to track Dracula down.
The USA stories have some great moments, the unsurprising return of Dr. Sun with comedy relief provided by Harold H. Harold and Aurora. Blade re-appears, as does Hannibal King as they learn they are both searching for the same white-haired vampire Deacon Frost. There's a cross-over tale with Doctor Strange and Dracula gets married.
The Tomb of Dracula tales by Marv Wolfman are the stand-outs and the Gene Colan and Tom Palmer team brought these tales to the forefront of the Marvel titles, they were always amongst the first ones I used to buy and it is great to re-read so many of them.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
The Dr. Sun storyline comes to a head in "Tomb of Dracula"
22 Nov 2004
Format:Paperback
The horror comic book died a horrible death when E.C.'s celebrated lineup of "Tales from the Crypt, "The Vault of Horror," and "The Haunt of Fear" fell victim to the creation of the Comics Code of America, a censoring board created in 1955 in response to Dr. Fredric Wertham's book "Seduction of the Innocent" and the resulting public outcry against horror and crime comics. A decade later a few publishers but out black & white magazines with color covers, such as Warren's "Creepy," "Eerie," and "Vampirella," to evade the Comics Code. If anything, they were more violent than the precode comic books. DC Comics continued the anthology tradition with "House of Secrets" and "Tales of the Unexpected," and eventually released "Swamp-Thing." When Marvel introduced "The Tomb of Dracula" in the early 1970s it was a rather modest entry into the horror market. But because of the success of this comic book it would be followed up with "Werewolf by Night" and "The Frankenstein Monster." But it was "Tomb of Dracula" that would end up proclaiming on its cover that it was "Comicdom's Number 1 Fear Magazine, starting with issue #43, which comes near the end of "Essential Tomb of Dracula, Volume 2.
This second volume includes #26-49 of "Tomb of Dracula," a crossover with "Dr. Strange" #14, and a quartet of less than stellar stories from "Giant-Size Dracula" #2-5. By this point the comic book has put together a team of fearless vampire hunters: Frank Drake, a descendant of Dracula himself, Rachel Van Helsing, the great-granddaughter of the professor in Bram Stoker's novel, Taj, her mute servant from India, and Quincy Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker, now an old man in a wheelchair (because of an encounter with the Count), who brings a scientific approach to vampire slaying. Joining the group in this volume are the vampire slayer Blade and the writer Harold H. Harold, and their are visits by Hannibal King and Brother Voodoo. Consequently, "Tomb of Dracula" was basically a quest to track down and stake the King of the Vampires.
Of the three volumes reprinting "The Tomb of Dracula" in black & white this one has the best stories, mostly dealing with mysterious Dr. Sun. We begin with the search for the Chimera (#26-28), a device of power the Dr. Sun's minions are tracking down. We then find out the tragic story behind's Taj's muteness (#31), but the larger story arc her is towards the final confrontation between Dracula and Dr. Sun. There is a problem since Dr. Sun kill Dracula before that point (#39), but one of the advantages of having a vampire for the villain is that he can die and be brought back to his undead life. With the Dr. Sun storyline writer Marv Wolfman does what has to be the longest set up in the history of the Marvel universe. For years we were tantalized with a page of panels about Sun's minions doing strange things with vampires before we started having entire issues devoted to the machinations of the living brain. Perhaps the payoff was not as great as the years of anticipation (we are talking "living brain"), but the bits and pieces as Dracula was tested and cornered by Dr. Sun were excellent. By the time you get to the end of this volume Wolfman is already into the final giant story line with Domini, the bride of Dracula, and the Church of Damned.
All of "The Tomb of Dracula" issues in Volume 2 are scripted by Wolfman, penciled by Gene Colan and inked by Tom Palmer. If Wolfman was the perfect writer for this comic book then Colan was the perfect artist (when you look at the "Giant-Size Dracula" issues drawn by the Don Heck and Nestor Redondo this point will be underscored). I still tend to think that Palmer's inking was at its very best when he was working with Neal Adam's pencils but what he did will Colan is the proverbial close second. Reading the entire series again made me appreciate how these comics were character driven, making comparisons with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" not only obvious but accurate, and the nice thing about having these reprint volumes is that it is a lot easier to read "The Tomb of Dracula" now than taking the originals out of plastic.
Volume 1 of the "Essential Tomb of Dracula" contains issues #1-25 of "The Tomb of Dracula," along with a crossover story in "Werewolf By Night" #15 and the "Giant-Size Chillers" #1 story that introduced Lilith, Dracula's daughter. Volume 3 has "Tomb of Dracula" #50-70 and stories from "Tomb of Dracula Magazine" #1-4. I understand there is going to be a Volume 4, which hopefully would continue to reprint some of the stories from Marvel's black & white "Dracula Lives" magazine. Obviously you need to get all three volumes of the "Essential: Tomb of Dracula" so that you can appreciate how Wolfman, Colan, and Palmer crafted the best "fear" comic book since the days of E.C.
This second volume includes #26-49 of "Tomb of Dracula," a crossover with "Dr. Strange" #14, and a quartet of less than stellar stories from "Giant-Size Dracula" #2-5. By this point the comic book has put together a team of fearless vampire hunters: Frank Drake, a descendant of Dracula himself, Rachel Van Helsing, the great-granddaughter of the professor in Bram Stoker's novel, Taj, her mute servant from India, and Quincy Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina Harker, now an old man in a wheelchair (because of an encounter with the Count), who brings a scientific approach to vampire slaying. Joining the group in this volume are the vampire slayer Blade and the writer Harold H. Harold, and their are visits by Hannibal King and Brother Voodoo. Consequently, "Tomb of Dracula" was basically a quest to track down and stake the King of the Vampires.
Of the three volumes reprinting "The Tomb of Dracula" in black & white this one has the best stories, mostly dealing with mysterious Dr. Sun. We begin with the search for the Chimera (#26-28), a device of power the Dr. Sun's minions are tracking down. We then find out the tragic story behind's Taj's muteness (#31), but the larger story arc her is towards the final confrontation between Dracula and Dr. Sun. There is a problem since Dr. Sun kill Dracula before that point (#39), but one of the advantages of having a vampire for the villain is that he can die and be brought back to his undead life. With the Dr. Sun storyline writer Marv Wolfman does what has to be the longest set up in the history of the Marvel universe. For years we were tantalized with a page of panels about Sun's minions doing strange things with vampires before we started having entire issues devoted to the machinations of the living brain. Perhaps the payoff was not as great as the years of anticipation (we are talking "living brain"), but the bits and pieces as Dracula was tested and cornered by Dr. Sun were excellent. By the time you get to the end of this volume Wolfman is already into the final giant story line with Domini, the bride of Dracula, and the Church of Damned.
All of "The Tomb of Dracula" issues in Volume 2 are scripted by Wolfman, penciled by Gene Colan and inked by Tom Palmer. If Wolfman was the perfect writer for this comic book then Colan was the perfect artist (when you look at the "Giant-Size Dracula" issues drawn by the Don Heck and Nestor Redondo this point will be underscored). I still tend to think that Palmer's inking was at its very best when he was working with Neal Adam's pencils but what he did will Colan is the proverbial close second. Reading the entire series again made me appreciate how these comics were character driven, making comparisons with "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" not only obvious but accurate, and the nice thing about having these reprint volumes is that it is a lot easier to read "The Tomb of Dracula" now than taking the originals out of plastic.
Volume 1 of the "Essential Tomb of Dracula" contains issues #1-25 of "The Tomb of Dracula," along with a crossover story in "Werewolf By Night" #15 and the "Giant-Size Chillers" #1 story that introduced Lilith, Dracula's daughter. Volume 3 has "Tomb of Dracula" #50-70 and stories from "Tomb of Dracula Magazine" #1-4. I understand there is going to be a Volume 4, which hopefully would continue to reprint some of the stories from Marvel's black & white "Dracula Lives" magazine. Obviously you need to get all three volumes of the "Essential: Tomb of Dracula" so that you can appreciate how Wolfman, Colan, and Palmer crafted the best "fear" comic book since the days of E.C.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Check the ISBN folks
11 Oct 2004
Format:Paperback
Just wanted to point out to everyone interested that the ISBN on this listing is the one already used on Volume Two (just checked my copy), not the upcoming Volume Three.
(Now, it might just be a mistake of some kind and it might actually be Volume Three, but I know I don't want to take the risk since the ISBN is what these book dealers really go by.)
Since Amazon is currently only offering two listings for "Essential Tomb of Dracula", this one and the one clearly labeled as "Volume Four", I don't know what this means for those of us who still need to order Volume Three.
David Young
(Now, it might just be a mistake of some kind and it might actually be Volume Three, but I know I don't want to take the risk since the ISBN is what these book dealers really go by.)
Since Amazon is currently only offering two listings for "Essential Tomb of Dracula", this one and the one clearly labeled as "Volume Four", I don't know what this means for those of us who still need to order Volume Three.
David Young
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Take heed, everyone...
29 July 2004
Format:Paperback
Just so you're aware, everyone, this is volume TWO of the "Essential Tomb of Dracula" series- if you simply assume (like I did) that the only one listed would be the first volume in the series, you're gonna be mighty disappointed when you open up that Amazon box. Trust me on that one.
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