Tomb of Dracula #9
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeTomb of Dracula #9 (June 1973) carries the first appearance — albeit unnamed and seen only in flashback — of Lucas Brand, the biker-gang leader who would become one of the series' more sinister mortal antagonists before being turned into a vampire and weaponized by the villain Doctor Sun across issues #11–21. Beyond that debut, the issue represents Marv Wolfman's third month steering the title he had just inherited with #7, a creative stabilization period during which the book was building the serialized ensemble momentum that would eventually make it, in the words of comics historian Les Daniels, the most successful comic series to feature a villain as its title character. The 'Death From the Sea!' storyline also showcases Wolfman's early interest in grounding Dracula in grubby, working-class British locales — a contrast to the Gothic-castle formula that had dominated horror comics — pushing the Count into unglamorous situations (beaten by bikers, fished out of the sea, sheltered in a coastal village) that deepened his menace by stripping away the grandeur. Structurally, the issue foreshadows the tightly woven subplot architecture that would define the Wolfman–Colan run, with the hunters' framing scenes in London and the Littlepool main plot seeding characters and grudges that would pay off over the next dozen issues.
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By the time issue #9 went to press, Marv Wolfman had written only two previous issues of the series; the title had cycled through three other writers across its first six numbers before editor-in-chief Roy Thomas brought Wolfman aboard with #7. Wolfman later recalled in his 2021 Marvel Masterworks introduction that he had no prior interest in Dracula and had never seen a Dracula film, forcing him to build the character from his own instincts. Issue #9 falls in the brief window — issues #8 through #11 — when inker Vince Colletta replaced Tom Palmer, who handled all other issues of the run; this makes it part of a small, visually distinct subset of Gene Colan pages in the series. Wolfman himself acknowledged in interviews that he felt he was still finding the book's true identity during this stretch, crediting the #12–14 story arc as the point where he finally understood what Tomb of Dracula was about.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Story title: 'Death From the Sea!' — published with a June 1973 cover date, on sale March 1973 per The Comic Reader #94.
- Written by Marv Wolfman (his third issue on the series, following his debut at #7); penciled by Gene Colan; inked by Vince Colletta (one of only four issues in the run not inked by Tom Palmer); colored by Glynis Oliver; lettered by Art Simek.
- First appearance of Lucas Brand — unnamed, seen only in flashback as the leader of the motorcycle gang that beats and dumps Dracula into the sea. His name is revealed in issue #11, and he goes on to become a vampire agent of Doctor Sun before dying in issue #21.
- Plot: Dracula is hauled out of the ocean by fishermen near the village of Littlepool, carried into a church (causing him agony via its crucifixes), and adopts the alias 'Mr. Drake' while recovering among the locals — a rare extended sequence of the Count in a position of genuine vulnerability.
- Two minor characters, Gladys Fulton and Corker Waller, are turned into vampires and staked dead within the same issue, making them single-appearance characters. Later Marvel handbooks retroactively listed Corker's surname as 'Haller,' contradicting the in-issue spelling 'Waller.'
- The issue's flashback structure bridges directly from the events of #8 (the death of Dr. Heinrich Mortte, whose corpse appears in recap), demonstrating Wolfman's early move toward continuity-driven serialization rather than standalone horror vignettes.
- The supporting cast of hunters — Frank Drake, Rachel Van Helsing, Quincy Harker, Taj Nital, Edith Harker, and Saint the dog — appear in the London framing sequences, establishing the ensemble format that distinguished the book from other Bronze Age horror titles.
- Reprinted in: Dracula Lives (Marvel UK) #18–19 (1975, partial, recolored/B&W); Essential Tomb of Dracula Vol. 1 (2004, B&W); The Tomb of Dracula Omnibus Vol. 1 (2008); Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (2017); Marvel Masterworks: The Tomb of Dracula Vol. 1 (2021). Also saw numerous international editions in German, French, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Italian, and Spanish markets in 1973–1982.
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Reprinted in Dracula #9 (1973), Dracula #9/[1973] (1973), Le Tombeau de Dracula #9 (1974), Dracula #6 (1975), Dracula Lives #18 (1975), Dracula Lives #19 (1975), Gli Albi dei Super-Eroi #49 (1975), Dracula #4/1982 (1982), Dracula #4 (1982), Eks almanah #428 (1984), Horror #20 (1988), Biblioteca Grandes del Cómic: Drácula #2 (2003), Marvel Horror #[2] (2003), Essential Tomb of Dracula #1 (2004), The Tomb of Dracula Omnibus #1 (2008), The Tomb of Dracula #1 (2010), Marvel Limited Edition. La Tumba de Drácula #[1] (2015), Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection #1 (2017), Marvel Masterworks: Tomb of Dracula #1 (2021), Chiller Pocket Book #20, Die Gruft von Graf Dracula #9, Drácula / Clásicos del Terror #8, Marvel Horror #[2]
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