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Tomb of Dracula #2: Review

May 1972
Gerry Conway, Gene Colan

Story Name:

The Fear Within!

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Tomb of Dracula #2 Review by (June 22, 2020)

Review: Some nice standard Dracula stuff, well drawn by Colan and Gerry Conway scripts as the first of a trio of two-issue writers, keeping things simple and wrapping up the Jeanie plot threads from issue #1. There are a few oddities in the tale. First, there is a plot against Frank worked out by Dracula and Jean, which explains how Drac knows who Frank and Clifton are and more or less what has been going on in the decades he’s been dead, including the publication of Bram Stoker’s novel about him. But it isn’t clear how Drac knew of his betrayal by von Harbou as a boy, as Jean would not have known, or Drac’s apparent knowledge that von Harbou is now a doctor. This last mention brings up an even stranger bit: what is it that von Harbou does to Dracula that gives him a normal Caucasian skin tone and why doesn’t Drac look any different? Colorist’s error? For an entire issue and a half, as Drac doesn’t look pink until issue #4? Anyway, this is a pretty good intro for a Dracula series and now the writing duties move on to Archie Goodwin for his two issues.

Comments: The cover supplied the image for Dracula’s Marvel Value Stamp. Final appearance of Jean; sole appearance of Gort who seems like a dry run for Taj in the next issue.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Tomb of Dracula #2 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Frank Drake, with a companion named Gort, returns to the burned-out husk of Castle Dracula. There Frank finds Dracula’s tomb and also Clifton Graves, his pal who was thrown alive into a pit by the Count. Frank is taking Dracula’s coffin as part of a plan to rescue his girlfriend Jean—now a vampire—from the Count’s clutches….

Nearby, Dracula preys upon a village girl, then visits Doktor Carl von Harbou, an aged physician who was Dracula’s servant as a boy. With some experimentation, von Harbou manages to make the Count able to pass for a normal human. Dracula then kills his servant, revenge for his having betrayed his master as a boy….

Frank and Clifton return to London with Dracula’s coffin. That night, Frank hears a noise in his hotel bathroom and, investigating, discovers Jeanie, saying she has returned to him. But Frank knows she isn’t his Jeanie but a trap sent by the Count. Clifton enters and Frank flashes a cross before her face to show Clifton she isn’t the same Jean….

Dracula hears Jean’s scream and moves on, chatting up a prospective victim named Ellie in a bar and when her tough guy boyfriend Bart objects to the stranger’s attentions to her, the Count knocks him across the room with a blow. Dracula takes her out and bites her neck in an alley to sate his hunger and flies off in bat form as Bart and his pals look on in horror….

Back in the hotel room, a bound Jean convinces Clifton that Frank is insane and he was the one she’s loved all along, causing Clifton to drug Frank’s coffee and free Jean. But Frank awakens and Jean orders the hypnotized Clifton to kill him; Frank decks his woozy pal with a blow. Dracula enters and fights Frank while Jean prepares to feast on Clifton’s blood. Frank stabs Jean with a broken stick of furniture and the sun rises. Dracula takes off in bat form while Jean dies in the sunlight and Frank breaks down….



Gene Colan
Vince Colletta
?
John Severin (Cover Penciler)
John Severin (Cover Inker)
Marie Severin (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: John Costanza.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

> Tomb of Dracula: Book info and issue index

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