Gone but not forgotten: Planet of Vampires issues 1-3 – Atlas comics 1975

The troubles of Atlas/Seaboard periodicals were many and are well documented within comic book circles. However, to many kids at the time who were suddenly confronted by a plethora of new comic book titles that seemed to appear from out of nowhere, Atlas comics were, for a short time at least a total joy to behold. Sadly, many of the Atlas titles turned out to be derivative or downright weird (See my blog on Morlock 2000) and as a result, wholesale creative changes were implemented to almost every title after only 2 issues which exacerbated their already mounting problems. For example, Howard Chaykin's character the Scorpion (probably their best title) started out as a 1930s pulp adventurer, but by issue 3 the character was suddenly rebooted into a poorly designed and standard 1970s superhero title. No Atlas title lasted more than 4 issues but despite this some of their comics had merit such as the above title "Planet of Vampires".

Planet of the Vampires (PoV) issue 1 (Feb 1975) started out with great promise featuring a stunning cover (above) pencilled by Pat Broderick with inks/finishes by the legendary Neal Adams. The first issue, written by Larry Hama recounts the story of 5 astronauts (it says 6 astronauts on the cover but we only ever see 5 people) the crew of the Mars probe Aries VII , who return home on 21 April, 2010 (then 35 years in the future and now almost 13 years in the past – how can that be?!) after a 5-year voyage only to find that they have returned to an Earth very different from the planet they left.

After a successful water landing (above splash page from issue 1) outside of Coney Island, the astronauts (2 married couples and a single older man) are attacked by a group of savages and one of their crew (the older single astronaut) is immediately killed before a floating aircraft appears obliterating the savages to rescue them. The remaining astronaut crew are then taken to a huge dome designed to keep the savages out by a group known as the “Domies”. Of course, the remaining astronauts soon find out that the “Domies” are not the good guys and are mechanised vampires who have set up an industrial scale assembly line to extract bodily fluids from humans to feed on. Freeing what savages they can the 4 astronauts destroy the assembly line.

As noted above the problem with Atlas comics was that they regularly changed the character(s) or the focus of the story after only 1 or 2 issues. In the case of PoV the changes were less drastic than for most Atlas titles with only the original writer Larry Hama (an artist undertaking his first comic script) being replaced by John Albano. This issue titled "Quest for Blood”, featured the remaining 4 astronauts (Craig, Chris, Brenda and Elissa) fighting off a second band of savages and fending off an attack by the “Domies”. The story ends with both of the female astronauts being captured by the “Domies” leaving their husbands vowing to rescue them.

Planet of Vampires issue 2 - Cover by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. The Dracula character on the cover never appears in the actual comic.

Above: The splash page to issue 2.

With issue 3 (“The Blood Plague”) the cover (above) and art chores are taken on by the wonderful Russ Heath with John Albano remaining as the writer. In the story itself Chris and Craig go back into the dome to rescue their wives. The issue is pretty much just them battling the forces of the dome but it’s a fun romp nicely illustrated by Russ Heath. In the story Craig finds his wife, Brenda, but she has already had her blood harvested and is dead, later he finds and rescues Chris’ wife Elissa, and they make their escape and take refuge in an abandoned zoo. However, they are attacked by giant spiders and Elissa is killed!.

I did enjoy "Planet of Vampires", it wasn’t a classic but it was an exciting title at the time and unlike many US comics Atlas were very well distributed in the UK which was strange as in the US thier distribution was very poor and contributed to the companies failure. The problem with PoV was that they killed off 3 of their main characters in just 3 issues leaving only 2 astronauts to seek revenge on a planet full of vampires. Did they succeed? , well, we will never know as not long after issue 3 was published Atlas/Seaboard closed up shop. However, a 4th issues does seem to have been created as can be seen by the advert and splash page that appeared in issues 3. Atlas comics may not have been a success but they provided a lot of excitment and fun for comic book fans at the time.

Above: The advert for the 4th issues of Planet of Vampires that sadly never appeared.