Essential Tomb of Dracula, Vol. 3

Essential Tomb of Dracula #3

by Marv Wolfman, Roger McKenzie, Frank Robbins

The Essential Tomb of Dracula series continues featuring tales of Dracula through the ages - from when he first became a vampire and eventually Lord of the Undead to his resurfacing in modern times.
Collects Tomb of Dracula #50-70 & Tomb of Dracula Magazine #1-4.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Vampires, Comic Book

584 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.

Reviews

[Peter]

Hours of bitey Dracula fun. I loved my childhood.

[Tara Hall]

I grew up reading TOD, and having the issues all collected was a wonderful way to revisit one of the fun parts of my youth. While some of the issues are pretty formlua-riffic, I enjoyed reading this several times now and will reread it again.

[Little Timmy]

Marvel Comics did a good take on the Dracula legend in this comic series. The awesome Gene Colan art was perfect for the story. Recommended.

[Quentin Wallace]

Another volume of the greatest horror comic of all time. I will say that to me the story of Marvel's Dracula officially ended with Tomb of Dracula 70. They continued the series with the black and white magazine, but other then the story in issue 1, which picked up right after Tomb of Dracula 70, they all seem to be self contained stories.

The magazine stories are good, but to me they are just "deleted scenes" from the main comic rather than a continuation, since that takes way from the climactic ending of the 70 issue series.

Gene Colan and Tom Palmer are the best Dracula art team ever, as I'm sure they did more issues featuring Dracula than any other team.

Just a great series, highly recommended for any Dracula fan, or fan of horror comics in general.

[Michael]

This volume wraps up the Tomb of Dracula comic series. The conclusion is satisfying, but a couple of stories aren't as strong as they should be. The stories work best when Wolfman focuses on horror. A couple of fun stories include Blade's showdown with Deacon Frost, and a storyline where Dracula loses his vampire abilities. Gene Colan's incredibly creepy art throughout is fantastic and establishes a dark tone throughout.

The weakest part of the book is also the longest story involving Dracula's son Janus, who is "destined" to destroy Dracula. The resolution of the story is abrupt and unsatisfying. There is also a Silver Surfer story that is a cop out.

After the end of the comic, the book also reprints stories from the black and white magazine Tomb of Dracula, these stories are self-contained and were not submitted to the comics code authority, so are a bit edgier. If you enjoyed the prior two volumes, definitely check this one out.

[Bob Wolniak]

For me, the true high point of horror comics in the era when they were most popular (Bronze age of comics, mostly 70s) was this marvelous series by Wolfman and Colan. Only Swamp Thing comes close. Obviously, one of the reasons it got so good was that the creators were allowed to stay with it and its characters for so long uninterrupted. Colan was ideally suited to the horror genre in my opinion. Yes I have many of his comics with the typical super-heroes and many quite good, especially Daredevil, Batman and Captain America, but his whispy and shadowy pencils tend to look better in the shadows of black and white.

[Devero]

Ho centellinato la lettura da brividi in questa estate calda e afosa.
Se nei primi due Essential qualche brivido l'ho provato, devo però dire che in questo terzo volume il calo di qualità delle storie c'è. Non dei disegni, perché l'accoppiata Gene Colan & Tom Palmer è sempre magnifica, specialmente in questo b/n. Wolfman però ha perso qualche colpo, non tanto nella ricerca di storie originali quanto nella loro efficacia. Ho trovato un poco noiosa la presenza di Silver Surfer nel n. 50 della serie, e la lotta contro Lupescu ha un che di troppo prevedibile. Anche l'evoluzione della situazione con il figlio ottenuto tramite magia dalla sua consorte, Domini, non è una gran trovata, ma qui ho paura che i tabù religiosi abbiano frenato il buon Marv.
Certo, nei numeri finali della serie si recupera, specialmente nella lotta tra Dracula e Satana, e negli ultimi due numeri col ritorno in Transilvania e la chiusura della serie, col fato di Dracula e di Quincy Harker.
Poi abbiamo i primi 4 numeri del magazine Tomb of Dracula: storie autoconclusive e lunghe.
Nel primo numero alle chine abbiamo Bob McLeod, ottimo sostituto di Tom Palmer per una gran bella storia in cui Dracula viene fatto risorgere.
Nel secondo numero una chicca: Steve Ditko ai disegni. Il suo tratto naif ed essenziale non rende bene come quello di Colan, ma ne esce comunque una buona storia.
Il terzo ed il quarto numero presentano altre storie di Dracula ben riuscite, in particolare la quarta è un vero gioiello e certi panorami del faro, della nave naufragata sugli scogli e delle tempeste sono davvero inquietanti e l'atmosfera da brividi è raggiunta.

Nel complesso le 4 stelle le merita tutte.

[Richard Pulfer]

This is another stellar collection.

Once again I repeat my claim: I actually don't think you need the color. I'm sure the lurid coloring probably adds something to the final product, but if you're cheap, or this is the only copy you have available, the black and white definitely adds to the moody, Gothic feel of the book.

I found the Dracula stories to be fairly entertaining, once again offering an intriguing character who can oscillate between hero, villain and monster from issue to issue seamless.y

I will note that about halfway through the book starts collecting "A Tomb of Dracula Magazine", which feature standalone stories of the famous bloodsucker. While they are almost exclusively written by Marv "I'm Not a Werewolf" Wolfman, I found them a bit touch-and-go. I don't think this was the fault of the creators - having read Tomb of Dracula's mix of action and pulp opera for so long, going to standalone stories just felt a bit like a step down, despite some entertaining entries.

Still highly recommended.

[Brent]

Tomb of Dracula is a popular series and considered a classic by many. I have not enjoyed it. But, then I hit the last 10 or so issues, and suddenly it got pretty good. It makes me think that I might have been too hard on it. I really don't know, but I would be willing to try it again. Someday.