''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 c. 1947 to the early 1970s, known for men's-adventure magazines, risqué men's magazines, humor, romance, puzzle, celebrity/film and other types of magazines ...

, a corporate sibling of

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

. The series ran 13 issues and one '' Super Annual'' from 1973 to 1975, and starred the Marvel version of the literary vampire

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

. 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 enabled comic publishers to self-regulate the content of American comic book, comic books in the ...

, allowing the title to feature stronger content — such as moderate profanity, partial nudity, and more graphic violence — than the color comics of the time which also featured

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 Roy William Thomas Jr."Roy Thomas Checklist" ''Alter Ego'' vol. 3, #50 (July 2005) p. 16 (born November 22, 1940) is an American comic book writer and editor. He was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and possibly bes ...

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. Ear ...

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 List of comics magazines published by Magazine Management in the 1970s, Magazine Management, a corporate sibling of Marvel Comics. The series ran 10 issues ...

'' and '' Vampire Tales'', 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 use ...

. The character Lianda first appeared in ''Dracula Lives!'' #1. The character

Turac T-Ray Taegukgi Taegukgi (Tae-Won) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character, created by Jed MacKay and Alessandro Vitti, first appeared in ''Taskmaster'' (vol. 3) #3 (February 2021). Taegukgi ...

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 (character), Blade, and DC Comi ...

and

John Buscema John Buscema ( ; born Giovanni Natale Buscema, ; December 11, 1927 – January 10, 2002)Social Se ...

. Painted covers of the series were done by artists including

Boris Vallejo Boris Vallejo (born January 8, 1941) is a Peruvian-American painter who works in the science fiction, fantasy, and erotica genres. His hyper-representational paintings have appeared on the covers of numerous novels in the science fiction, sword ...

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 Creator ownership, creators-rights advocate who helped secure a pension and re ...

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

letter column A letter to the editor (LTE) is a letter sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Usually, such letters are intended for publication. In many publications, letters to the editor may be sent either through conventional mai ...

was "Dracula Reads!" An

annual publication Annual publications, more often simply called annuals, are periodical publications appearing regularly once per year."Annuals", in '' Encyclopedia of library and information science'' (1968), vol. 1, pp. 434–447. Although exact definitions may v ...

titled ''Dracula Lives! Super Annual'' was published in 1975, reprinting stories from the magazine.

Reprints and collections

Some of the material in ''Dracula Lives!'' was reprinted in the

Marvel UK Marvel UK was an imprint (trade name), imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint United States of America, US-produced stories for the United Kingdom, British weekly comic market. Marvel UK later produced original material by British cr ...

weekly reprint title of the same name (but without the exclamation mark), but most of the Dracula material in the British periodical came from the monthly ''

Tomb of Dracula ''The Tomb of Dracula'' is an American Horror comics, 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 Dracula (Marvel Comics), Count Dracula a ...

'' comic. The UK ''Dracula Lives'' eventually merged with the Marvel UK ''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes c ...

'' weekly. From issue #60 until #87 (its final edition) 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'' 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

and drawn by

. Following ''Dracula Lives!'' cancellation, an additional installment appeared in ''The Legion of Monsters'' #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 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