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Friday, October 27, 2023

Page Turners: Russ Health's (mini) Marvel Dracula Portfolio

Marvel's original foray into the black & white magazine format was with the wonderful "Savage Tales" #1 in May 1971. However, this was not an immediate success as the second issue took more than 2 years to produce when it was eventually published in October 1973. Thankfully Marvel reconsidered the black and white magazine market and produced no less than four horror magazines along with a revived "Savage Tales" magazine in 1973. The first of the black and white horror magazine to be launched was "Dracula Lives" in June 1973 no doubt chosen because of the success of the excellent "Tomb of Dracula" colour monthly. Although the first b&w issue only contained around 35 pages (out of 72) of original material it's success meant that more all new marterial would soon follow and some of it was horrifically wonderful as can be seen by the stunning Russ Heath Dracula protfolio that appeared in "Dracula Lives" #13
Sadly interest in horror and the black and white magazines started to wane and "Dracula Lives" #13 (1975) was the last issue. In the UK a weekly comic called "Dracual Lives" managed an impressive 87 issue run (October 1974 to July 1975) featuring tales from the colour monthly before merging with "Planet of the Apes" (with #88) and then appearing in the "Mighty World of Marvel".
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6 comments:

  1. lord mikolajOctober 27, 2023 at 3:31 AM

    Wow! Another comic to add to the list. I so wish that someone would have given Russ a big pile of cash and said, do whatever you want! Oh well! Russ was such a great draftsman and his inking is just beautiful. Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. McSCOTTYOctober 28, 2023 at 12:20 AM

      Hi LM, glad you enjoyed these pages. This issue was a complete surprise at the time as I was expecting more Gene Colan art (never a bad thing) so it was really good to see these 3 stunning pages of Russ Heath’s artwork. Based on the horror/mystery art I have of his in my collection (most from Warren) I would have loved to have seen Russ draw a full Marvel Dracula, Morbius or Werewolf by Night strip. There’s more Russ Heath on this blog, just click on his name on the “Labels” tab under this post.

      Delete
  2. KidOctober 27, 2023 at 6:56 AM

    Russ Heath's art is always worth a look, eh? Why, he's nearly as good an artist as me (cough). And I believe you meant 'wane', not 'wain'. Also, you've typed 'Dracula Live' in one place, not 'Dracula Lives'. (Courtesy of Kid's proofreading service - no charge.)

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  3. McSCOTTYOctober 27, 2023 at 11:49 PM

    Cheques in the post Kid.

    ReplyDelete
  4. baggseyOctober 28, 2023 at 7:01 AM

    I don't believe I've ever laid my hands on a US B&W copy of Dracula Lives , but I'll certainly try to track one down. I certainly collected the UK comic weekly. Last year I saw a copy of the UK Dracula Lives #1 for sale for $99 in a shop near Palm Springs, California. I should have hung on to my UK weeklies.

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  5. McSCOTTYOctober 28, 2023 at 12:14 PM

    Hi Ian, this was the only issue of "Dracula Lives" (US) that I managed to pick up at his time (1975s ish) I'm not sure if it was regularly shipped to the UK or if this just “slipped “ through. I picked up issue 9 (with a nice Frank Robbins lead story) in Brighton a few years ago and issue 2 which reprints (from issue 1!?!) the Neal Adams origin tale, which you may prefer and its a cracker . I still have my UK "Dracula Lives" issue 1 (above) and have seen this in the UK for £15 which I thought was high, but $99 arrrghh!!! -I recently saw MWOM #3 in Glasgow for £30 (with the free gift of stickers) and it sold!!!.

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