Monday, December 11, 2023

Dracula #4: The Newton edition

 Newton Comics' Dracula #4 was published 20 September 1975:


The cover originally appeared on Marvel Comics' Dracula Lives #10:


This cover also appeared as a black and white pinup in the second issue of Newton Triple Action:


The stories:

The Fear Within!, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #2, May 1972
Bats, originally published in Vampire Tales #7, October 1974

The Fear Within! was previously published in Australia in KG Murray's Super Giant #7, and subsequently by Yaffa in The Tomb of Dracula #1 and #11.

This issue includes a Silver Surfer poster:


My copy does not have the poster, however I've seen a partial pic of this poster on an eBay listing for this issue. The pic above is from my copy of The Fantastic Four #4. By my reckoning Newton's Silver Surfer series began 27 September 1975, so it is possible the blurb at the bottom advertising the forthcoming series is present in the poster native to Dracula #4. TBC. Note this poster was also in Dracula #8 with minor variations, including a partial text omission in the blurb.

This image eventually appeared on the cover of Newton's The Silver Surfer #6.

This issue also had a Swap Card. AusReprints records a copy with the cover to The Amazing Spider-Man #2. Spiderman (sic) Series A (1 of 15) No. 2 looks like this:


This issue has the bulletin for The Swap Cards Cometh on the inner front cover; the Toltoys Construction Kit contest on the inner rear cover, expiry date 3 November 1975; and the Black Panther t-shirt offer on the rear cover.

Presumably the outer pages of the poster contained in-house advertisements and/or Marvel Mailbag pages.

That's as much as I can muster for a profile of this issue considering my copy is battered and incomplete. I'll update the post when I secure a complete copy of this issue.

1 comment:

Mark Muller said...

Nice write-up. I didn’t notice until seeing both original and reprint covers that good ol’ Newton managed to swap the Magenta plate for the Cyan plate when they reprinted the cover. It’s most evident in the girl’s negligee, the shadows on the roofs, and the police car.

Here I was thinking Drac was appearing a tad sea-sick because he was about to bite into an unappetising, green (mouldy), decaying corpse!