Tomb of Dracula #58: Review

Jul 1977

Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan

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Story Name:

Undead by Daylight!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Tomb of Dracula #58 Review by Peter Silvestro (November 9, 2021)

Review: The cover calls this “A very special issue!” What’s special is no Dracula but an emphasis on Blade’s circle of acquaintances and an unusual situation for a vampire story. A woman psychically bonded to a vampire (we’re never told how this came about and I can’t imagine how it happened) becomes a vampire while her master is asleep by day, returning to normal when he awakens by night. Cool idea, rather original, and it puts Blade in the difficult position of having to subdue a vampire non-fatally. Even then his instincts nearly kill her. The problem? They catch her at a remote lighthouse and Blade is so proud of figuring out that she went there that he never asks why she is there; logic would dictate that her master’s coffin is there somewhere. But they didn’t think of this so didn’t look and stretched out the story another three pages. The most important thing we learn is that Blade’s girlfriend Safron really hates his vampire hunting activities. This while Blade has a midlife crisis over achieving his one life’s goal of killing Deacon Frost. Which raises yet another question: how does Blade support himself? He doesn’t have a job and with his mother dying in childbirth and no father in sight, it’s unlikely he has inherited a lot of money. So what does he do for spending cash?

Comments: Dracula does not appear in this issue. Blade’s and Musenda’s previous encounter with Dracula was recounted in issue #30. Blade mentions singer-dancer Lola Falana, popular in those days. The misleading cover says, “Blade fights alone...against a legion of hungry vampires!” Well, Blade isn’t alone, he has Musenda with him and there are only two vampires in the story which is a lot less than a legion.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Tomb of Dracula #58 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Blade confides in his girlfriend Safron Caulder that since killing Deacon Frost, the vampire who had killed Blade’s mother (issue #53), he no longer has a sense of purpose. Safron has some ideas….

At a nearby hospital, Musenda is worried about his wife Lorraine: at dawn every day, she becomes a vampire, returning to normal at sunset. The doctor has called in a specialist on vampires, Rachel van Helsing who, learning that Musenda is a friend of Blade and has faced Dracula, refers him to his old pal. Musenda goes to Blade’s apartment and persuades him to come, annoying Safron; they return to the hospital where they arrive just as vampire Lorraine has broken her bonds and attacked the doctor. She battles Blade but returns to normal seconds later with the sunset. Rachel realizes that Lorraine is psychically and symbiotically linked with a real vampire, gaining his powers when the vampire sleeps by day and losing them when the vampire awakens. So it’s time for a hunt….

They go to Quincy Harker who demonstrates a device that is programmed to track vampires; after some testing with a live bat, the Detectron is ready. At dawn the next day after being dabbed with radioactive dye, Lorraine goes vampire and turns into a bat to go out for her prey with Blade and Musenda following by motorcycle. In the mountains by the shore, they are run off the road by a driver hypnotized by Lorraine and they fall into the ocean. Back home, after changing into dry clothing, Blade has an idea and heads out with Musenda, angering Safron once again. They return to the mountain road and puzzle out that Lorraine must have been heading for a lighthouse on an island when they lost her trail. The two men swim out to the lighthouse; they confront the vampirized Lorraine and Blade instinctively stabs her in the heart with a wooden knife. She is not dead as long as she is in vampire form; removing the knife just seconds before sunset restores her to undead life and then to normality. Her vampire possessor arrives, seeking revenge on Blade for “killing” Lorraine and there is a fight ending with Blade staking the evil vampire. With his death, Lorraine is released from her trance….

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