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Tomb of Dracula #24: Review

Sep 1974
Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan

Story Name:

A Night for the Living…A Morning for the Dead!

Review & Comments

Rating:
3 stars

Tomb of Dracula #24 Review by (January 11, 2021)

Review: The centerpiece of the issue is Drac’s stalking of Trudy and his battle with Blade, with both being fairly formulaic. Taj’s subplot will become clearer in a few issues while Frank going off to “find himself” is a very 60s trope and still seems stupid after all of these years. And the idea of Blade killing a man then having sex with his girlfriend is a trope straight out of Shaft; looks like Safron is turned on by such things, which is also a Blaxploitation trope. Aren’t we glad it’s not the 70s anymore? Gene Colan makes it all palatable. 

Comments: The events of issue #3 are said to be three years ago. First appearance of Taj’s wife Jyota. One of the letters in the letter column is by Dean Mullaney, future founder of Eclipse Enterprises.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Tomb of Dracula #24 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Frank Drake and Rachel van Helsing return to the bridge where they had met (issue #3); he confesses that with Dracula dead, he doesn’t know what to do with his life; Rachel confesses her love for him. Count Dracula, alive again, watches and is nauseated. At Castle Dunwick, Shiela Whittier waits for Dracula to return to her, not believing he is the evil vampire everyone says he is….

Blade returns to his apartment to find a sinister stranger threatening his girlfriend Safron Caulder. The baddie is a vampire named Marko, sent to summon Blade to a meeting with his master. Blade kills him and makes love to Safron….

Later that evening, Trudy Taylor, Safron’s coworker at the strip club, comes asking for help. A sinister looking customer, Count Vlad (we see that it’s Dracula), hypnotized her into taking him home and once there he attacked her but she was able to fend him off with a cross. She ran to Safron’s place for help, a huge black bat following her all the way. Recognizing the name Count Vlad, Blade is confused as he was told Dracula was dead but he goes out looking for the fiend. Dracula, in bat form, swoops down pushing Blade into the path of an omnibus….

Taj Nital arrives home, having left years ago and not intending to return. His wheelchair-bound wife tells him their son is dying. Taj slaps her face and walks out….

Blade rolls so that the bus passes over him and lures Dracula into a department store where they fight throughout the place. The bat throws his foe down a flight of stairs but Blade manages to stab him when he comes too close. Dracula flees. Blade has nothing he can explain to the police so he goes home. Dracula returns to Castle Dunwick and lies in his coffin. Frank tells Rachel he has to go off and find himself and leaves her….



Gene Colan
Tom Palmer
Tom Palmer
Gil Kane (Cover Penciler)
Tom Palmer (Cover Inker)
Tom Palmer (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: John Costanza.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Blade
Blade

(Eric Brooks)

Plus: Safron Caulder, Shiela Whittier.

> Tomb of Dracula: Book info and issue index

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