''Dracula Lives!'' was an American black-and-white

horror comics Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. In the US market, horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the ...

magazine published by

Magazine Management Magazine Management Co., Inc. was an American publishing company lasting from at least 1947 to the early 1970s, known for men's-adventure magazines, risque men's magazines, humor, romance, puzzle, celebrity/film and other types of magazines, and ...

, a corporate sibling of

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

. The series ran 13 issues and one '' Super Annual'' from 1973 to 1975, and starred the Marvel version of the literary vampire Dracula. A magazine rather than a comic book, it did not fall under the purview of the comics industry's self-censorship

Comics Code Authority The Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation. The CCA allowed the comic publishers to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. ...

, allowing the title to feature stronger content — such as moderate profanity, partial nudity, and more graphic violence — than the color comics of the time also featuring Dracula stories. Running concurrently with the longer-running Marvel comic ''

The Tomb of Dracula ''The Tomb of Dracula'' is an American horror comic book series published by Marvel Comics from April 1972 to August 1979. The 70-issue series featured a group of vampire hunters who fought Count Dracula and other supernatural menaces. On rare ...

'', the continuities of the two titles occasionally overlapped, 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!'' featured a serialized adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel, written by Roy Thomas and drawn by

Dick Giordano Richard Joseph Giordano (; July 20, 1932 – March 27, 2010) was an American comics artist and editor whose career included introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes and serving as executive editor of DC Comics. Early ...

Publication history

Copyrighted as simply ''Dracula Lives'', without an exclamation point, but commonly known by its trademarked cover title, ''Dracula Lives!'', the magazine ran 13 issues from 1973 to 1975. With sister titles including '' Monsters Unleashed!'', ''

Tales of the Zombie ''Tales of the Zombie'' was an American black-and-white horror comics magazine published by Magazine Management, a corporate sibling of Marvel Comics. The series ran 10 issues and one '' Super Annual'' from 1973 to 1975, many featuring stories of t ...

'' and ''

Vampire Tales ''Vampire Tales'' was an American black-and-white horror comics magazine published by Magazine Management, a corporate sibling of Marvel Comics. The series ran 11 issues and one annual publication from 1973 to 1975, and featuring vampires as both ...

'', it was published by

' parent company,

, and related corporations, under the brand emblem Marvel Monster Group.''Dracula Lives''
at the

Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information useful ...

. The character Lianda first appeared in ''Dracula Lives!'' #1. The character Turac first appeared in ''Dracula Lives!'' #2 (Sept. 1973). The character Nimrod the First debuted in ''Dracula Lives!'' #3 (Oct. 1973), created by

Marv Wolfman Marvin Arthur Wolfman (born May 13, 1946) is an American comic book and novelization writer. He worked on Marvel Comics's '' The Tomb of Dracula'', for which he and artist Gene Colan created the vampire-slayer Blade, and DC Comics's ''The New Te ...

and John Buscema. Painted covers of the series were done by artists including Boris Vallejo,

Neal Adams Neal Adams (June 15, 1941 – April 28, 2022) was an American comic book artist. He was the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates, and was a creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and recognition for Sup ...

, and

Luis Dominguez Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

. Text and photo articles were mostly of the Count's various film appearances. The title of the magazine's

letter column A comic book letter column is a section of an American comic book where readers' letters to the publisher appear. Comic book letter columns are also commonly referred to as letter columns (or lettercols), letter pages, letters of comment (LOCs), o ...

was "Dracula Reads!" An annual publication titled ''Dracula Lives! Super Annual'' was published in 1975, reprinting stories from the magazine.

Reprints and collections

Much of the material in ''Dracula Lives!'' was reprinted in a

Marvel UK Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US-produced stories for the British weekly comic market. Marvel UK later produced original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Di ...

weekly reprint title of the same name. It eventually merged with the Marvel UK ''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is an American science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a world in which humans and intelligent apes clash for control. The franchise is based on Frenc ...

'' weekly, 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

s) was reprinted in the ''

Marvel Omnibus ''Marvel Omnibus'' is a line of large format, high quality, full color, hardcover graphic novel omnibuses published by Marvel Comics. The ''Marvel Omnibus'' series reprints comics previously printed in single-issue format. Unlike Marvel's '' Esse ...

'' 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

. Following ''Dracula Lives!'' cancellation, an additional installment appeared in ''The

Legion of Monsters Legion of Monsters is the name of different fictional superhero teams appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Publication history The Legion of Monsters first appeared in Marvel Comics chronology in ''Marvel Premiere'' #28 ( ...

'' #1, for a total of 76 pages comprising roughly one-third of the novel. After a 30-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).''Stoker's Dracula'' (Marvel, 2004 series)
at the Grand Comics Database The entire adaptation was collected by

Marvel Illustrated Marvel Illustrated was a Marvel Comics publishing imprint specializing in comic book adaptations of classic literature. Each novel's story is told in the form of a limited series, the issues of which are later collected as a trade paperback. Writ ...

in 2010.

References

External links

* {{Dracula Comics magazines published in the United States 1973 comics debuts 1975 comics endings Defunct American comics Horror comics Comics based on Dracula Comics by Gerry Conway Comics by Marv Wolfman Comics by Roy Thomas Vampires in comics Marvel Comics titles Horror fiction magazines Defunct magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1973 Magazines disestablished in 1975 Comics anthologies