The Vampyre in Comic Books

Comic books emerged as a distinct form of popular literature in the 1930s, arising from the comic strips that had become a standard item in newspapers. The first vampyre seems to have appeared in an early comic book title, More Fun. Each issue of More Fun carried the continuing stories of Dr. Occult, a ghost detective who fought various supernatural villains. In issue No. 6, Dr. Occult's first major case pitted him against a creature called the "Vampire Master." His undead evil was stopped by a knife plunged into his heart. Before the end of the decade, in the fall of 1939, Batman would encounter a vampyre in issues 31 and 32 of Detective Comics. As more horror stories appeared in the 1940s aadventure and crime comics, response suggested that there was an audience for an all horror comic book. In 1948 the American Comics Group issued the first and ome of the most successful horror comics, Adventures into the Unknown. Very quickly vampyres found their way onto it's pages, and through the early 1950s each issue commonly had at least one vampyre story. Adventures into the Unknown soon spawned imitators. In 1950 William Frimes and artisit Al Feldman of EC Comics began Crypt of Terror (later Tales from the Crypt) which was quickly joined by Vault of Horror and Haunt of Fear. During the next four years, over 100 horror comic book titles joined the pioneering efforts.

Among the horror comics of the 1950s were a variety of titles by Atlas Comics (later Marvel Comics) such as Suspense Comics (1950-53), Mystic (1951-57), and Journey in the Unknown (1951-57), each of which carried vampyre stories. Avon's Eerie No. 8 (August 1953) became the first of many to adapt Bram Stoker's novel Dracula to comic book format.

The boom in horror comics did not go unnoticed by the larger society, and attacks upon them began to mount. Psychology spokepersons such as Frederic Wertham decried the violence and sex he found in some comic books as a direct source of the growing phenomenon of juvenile delinquency and began to demand their supression. Feeling the intensity of the attack, a number of the comic book publishing firms found it in their best interest to create the Comic Magazine Association of America (CMAA). The CMAA quickly concluded that some form of self regulation was necassary to prevent government intervention in it's business. In 1954 the CMAA issued a Comics Code, which went into effect in October of that year. The code dealt with some broad issues such as glamorizing crime and the graphic portrayal of death and responded to the criticisms of horror comics directly. At the same time that controversy raged in America, a similar controversy developed in England. In 1955 the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act was passed, which led to the disappearance of horror comics from the stores. The bill was renewed in 1965 and is still on the books, one reason that so few horror/vampyre comics have originated in the United Kingdom.

The Comics Code called for the discontinuance of the words "horror" or "terror" in the title of comic books and forbad the picturing of, among other things, scenes of depravity, sadism, or excessive gruesomeness. One paragraph dealt forcefully with the major characters associated with the horror story:

Scenes dealing with, or intruments associated with the walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism and werewolves are prohibited.

Thus, in October1954, Dracula and his kin were banished form the pages of the comic book. The only major appearance of a vampyre following the implementation of the code was by Dell Comics, a company that did not formally subscribe to the code, though in large part tried to adhere to it. A single October/December issue of a new title, Dracula, appeared in 1962. The story, set in the present time, centered upon an encounter between several Americans and Count Dracula in Transylvania. However promising the first issue might have been, the second never appeared. Meanwhile, Dracula and his cohorts were discovering a new format by which they could sneak back into the comic book world.

In 1958, four years after the implementaton of the Comics Code, a new type of magazine, the horror movie fan magazine, arrived on the newsstands. The first, Famous Monsters of Filmland was developed by James Warren and Forrest J. Ackerman and published by the Warren Publishing Company. Projected as a movies fanzine, it was not subject to regulations of the Comics Code, even though it began to include black and white horror comics interspersed with movie stills and feature stories. In 1964 Warren risked the publication of a black and white horror comic, featuring the very characters and scenes specifically banned by the Comics Code, in a new full size (8 1/2" x 11") magazine format. Technically, Creepy was not a comic book, but it reached the same youthful audience. It was so successful that in 1965 it was joined by Eerie, which followed a similar format. That same year, vampyres crept back into comic books through The Munsters, a comic book based upon the popular television series which featured two vampyres, Lily and Grandpa (really Count Dracula), in a comedy format with no visible bloodsucking.

Finally in 1966, Dell decided to release a second issue of Dracula. While continuing the numbering of the orginal issue of 1962, the new issue carried a completly new story line and an entirely new "Dracula" recast in the image of a superhero. The new Dracula character, according to the plot a descendent of the originall Count, had been experimenting with a new serum made from the brains of bats. After he accidently consumed some of the potion, he discovered that he had the ability to transform into a bat. In two subsequent issues he moved to the United States, donned a superhero costume, and launched a war on the forces of evil.

In 1969, with rising pressure to revamp the Comics Code and provide some liberalization enforcement, Gold Key issued the first new comic books to feature a vampyre as the leading figure. Like The Munsters, also by Gold Key, Dark Shadows was based on a popular television series. It featured the adventures of vampyre Barnabas Collins. Dark Shadows was joined in September by Warren Publishing Company's Vampirella. The latter, featuring a sexy female vampyre from outer space in stories combining humor, horror, and romance, became the most popular and long lived vampire comic book in the history of the medium.

Finally, bowing to the needs of companies eager to compete with the black and white comic books, CMAA formally revised the Comics Code, effective January 1, 1971. The changes also reflected both an awareness of changing times and the inability of the critics of comic book art to produce the evidence to back up the charges leveled at them in the 1950s. The code still discouraged the portrayal of situations that involved, for example, excessive gore, torture, or sadism. However, the important sentence concerning vampyres was rewritten to read:

Vampires, ghouls, and werewolves shall be permitted to be used when handled in the classic tradition such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other high calibre literary works written by Edgar Allan Poe, Saki (H. H. Munro), Conan Doyle, and other respected authors whose works are read in schools throughout the world.

Marvel Comics responded immediately to the new situation. It launched a line of new horror titles and in 1972 led in the return of the vampyre. Joining Warren's Vampirella was The Tomb of Dracula, which provided a new set of imaginative adventures for Dracula in the modern world. It lasted for 70 issues, had two revivals, and undergirded the 1990s adventures of the Midnight Sons, who united a variety of forces to fight malevolent occultism. That same year, Marvel introduced a new vampyre, Morbius. After several appearances as a guest villain in other Marvel magazines, Morbius became part of the regular cast appearing in Vampire Tales (beginning in 1973), was the leading figure in Fear (beginning in February 1974), and more recently was an integral part of the Midnight Sons.

The rapidly rising sales in horror comics during the early 1970s slowly leveled off and during the later part of the decade began to decline. While Vampirella survived the decade, few others did. The enthusiasm for horror comics had been overwhelmed by the proliferating number of super heroes. As horror comics in general slumped, the vampyre comics all but died. The Tomb of Dracula was discontinued in 1979, to be followed by

Much of the above source information (with ammendments) was taken from J. Gordon Melton's "The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead" Copyright © 1994
The above mentioned book was also used as a source for much of the information in this section.

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