Tomb of Dracula #26
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTomb of Dracula #26 opens 'Where Lurks the Chimera!', a multi-part story arc that marks one of writer Marv Wolfman's most ambitious narrative experiments on the series — introducing a devout Jewish protagonist at a time when Jewish characters had almost no literal representation in mainstream superhero comics, deliberately shifting the vampire genre's usual Christian symbolic framework. The issue also deepens the Doctor Sun subplot and sets in motion a sprawling, four-part thriller that critics such as those at Black Gate have called some of the most dramatically powerful storytelling of the entire 70-issue run. As the opening chapter of what was the mid-run creative highpoint for the Wolfman/Colan partnership, it exemplifies how Tomb of Dracula consistently pushed the Bronze Age horror comic into territory that was more serialized, thematically layered, and adult-oriented than virtually anything else Marvel was publishing in 1974.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
By issue #26, the Wolfman/Colan creative partnership was operating at full confidence: Marv Wolfman scripted, Gene Colan penciled, Tom Palmer inked and colored, John Costanza lettered, and Roy Thomas edited — a largely stable team that had been in place since Wolfman took over as regular writer with issue #7. Gil Kane provided the cover, as he did for many Marvel titles during this era. The issue was on sale July 30, 1974 with a November 1974 cover date, placing it squarely in the mid-Bronze Age horror boom that Marvel had been riding since the 1971 relaxation of the Comics Code Authority's restrictions on vampires.
Trivia · 10 facts
- Issue title: 'Where Lurks the Chimera!' — Part 1 of a story arc spanning issues #26–28 (with a follow-up epilogue in #29).
- First appearance of David Eshcol, a yeshiva student and the arc's new protagonist — one of the earliest Jewish characters given a substantial, faith-centered role in a Marvel comic.
- First appearance of Chastity Jones, an associate of Frank Drake who accompanies him toward a new adventure in Brazil.
- First (and only) appearance of Joshua Eshcol, David's father and a London pawnbroker, who dies in this issue when thugs steal the Chimera statue.
- King Kull appears only in flashback, woven into the ancient history of the Chimera statue, which is presented as having been created some 30,000 years ago in Atlantis.
- The issue's cliffhanger reveals the unseen mastermind trapping Dracula in a room flooding with holy water to be Doctor Sun, a recurring villain last seen in issue #21.
- The letter column for this issue contains a letter by Ralph Macchio, who would later become a prominent Marvel editor.
- The issue has been reprinted in Essential Tomb of Dracula Vol. 2 (2004, black-and-white), The Tomb of Dracula Omnibus Vol. 1 (2008), and Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection Vol. 3 (2019, recolored).
- Creators: script by Marv Wolfman, pencils by Gene Colan, inks and colors by Tom Palmer, letters by John Costanza, cover by Gil Kane, edited by Roy Thomas.
- On-sale date: July 30, 1974; cover date: November 1974.
Cast · 8 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Le Tombeau de Dracula #26 (1975), Dracula #18 (1978), Dracula #9/1982 (1982), Dracula #9 (1982), Dracula #9/1982 (1982), Essential Tomb of Dracula #2 (2004), The Tomb of Dracula Omnibus #1 (2008), The Tomb of Dracula #3 (2010), Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection #3 (2019), Marvel Masterworks: Tomb of Dracula #3 (2023), Die Gruft von Graf Dracula #26, Dracula #7/1975, Het graf van Dracula #4, Κόμης Δράκουλας [Komis Drakulas] #8
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