TOMB OF DRACULA ISSUE NUMBER TWENTY
FOUR
"A NIGHT FOR THE LIVING ..A MORNING FOR THE DEAD!"
Cover Date: September1974
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils::
Gene Colan
Inker: Tom Palmer
Colorist: Tom Palmer
Letterer: C. Jetter
Editor: Roy Thomas
.
Main Characters: Dracula, Frank
Drake, Rachel Van Helsing, Taj,
& Blade
Synopsis: In London, Frank Drake and
Rachel Van Helsing reflect on the time they have
shared together battling Dracula. Three years earlier on the same bridge
where they stand now, Drake was about to commit suicide when he was rescued by Taj and Rachel. Now, with Dracula dead, Drake ponders
his future.
In nearby Castle Dunwick,
Dracula's new ally Shiela Whittier ponders Dracula's
whereabouts. She does not believe the stories about him that he is a
vampire or a killer. She is wrong for elsewhere, Dracula kills his latest
victim.
London is full of intrigue this
night as Blade rescues his girlfriend Saffron from a vampire. He takes her
back to her London apartment where their romantic interlude is interrupted by
Saffron's co-worker Trudy, an exotic dancer. She tells Blade of a woman
who approached her in her dressing room and entranced him with just a stare.
She took the stranger to her apartment and when she caught a good look at
him, realized that he had fangs. Momentarily shocked back to reality, she
somehow grabbed a cross and drove it into the stranger's forehead, temporarily
driving him off. She ran to the safety of Saffron's home, repelling the
stranger with the cross.
Blade wonders if the stranger is
Dracula. Quincy Harker has reported Dracula as
dead but Blade has his doubts. In any event, he will find the vampire and
destroy it.
In Jajpur,
India, Taj returns to his wife's home where she waits
for him in a wheelchair. She welcomes back and tells Taj
that their son is dying. Taj slaps her and
leaves as she pleads with him not to abandon them again.
Back in London, Blade tracks the
vampire that attacked Trudy and battles it throughout a London department
store. The battle ends in a stalemate with both Blade and the vampire
wounded. Blade is unaware of the vampire's true identity as Dracula remains in
giant bat form throughout the battle. A battered Blade returns to Saffron,
seeking comfort while Dracula seeks rest back at Castle Dunwick.
Elsewhere, Frank Drake kisses Rachel
Van Helsing goodbye. He promises to return but
tells her that he must first find out who he is.
NOTES: After two TOD tales without the Drac
Pack, issue 24 provides both a good interlude and an update on everyone's
favorite vampire slayers. Taj returns to his homeland
while Frank Drake decides he must discover who he is before he can return to
Rachel. For the past three years he has been consumed with destroying
Dracula. Now that Dracula is dead (or so he mistakenly believes), he must
make a life for himself. Before he met Dracula.
Drake was an aimless loser who squandered his family fortune. His battle with
Dracula has made him realize his potential. Now he wants to fullfill it.
Blade's battle with Dracula is
nothing out of the ordinary save for the fact that Dracula battles Blade as a
giant bat in order to conceal his identity. This issue's brief look at Taj' domestic life reveals an unattractive side of the
silent giant.
Shiela Whittier continues to blind herself to Dracula's true
nature as her attraction to him continues to grow.