Friday, September 28, 2018

Dracula #2: The Newton Comics edition



The cover to Newton Comics' Dracula #2 is modified and recoloured from the US Tomb of Dracula #5:


The contents are as follows:

A Poison of the Blood, originally published in Dracula Lives #1, June 1973 
Morbius, originally published in Vampire Tales #1, August 1973
Revenge of the Unliving!, originally published in Vampire Tales #1, August 1973

Australian editions of both Dracula Lives #1 and Vampire Tales #1 would be published by Page Publications just a few years later.

This colour poster in this issue is a modified panel from Fantastic Four #139 featuring The Human Torch, Medusa, Wyatt Wingfoot and The Thing.

This issue advertises Fantastic Four #3 as being On Sale Now. The Win A Monster contest ends September 1975. At this stage my best guess is that this issue was published August 1975.

AusReprints names the second story in this issue The Creature from the Crystal. The GCD entry for Vampire Tales #1 refers to it as Morbius. The GCD entry also has a link to a recent reprint in which the story is referred to as [The Creature from the Crystal]. I'm not sure how this proxy title came about. It may be that the index to the original printing of Vampire Tales #1 carried this title. The Page Publications printing of the index to Vampire Tales #1 simply refers to "Morbius", and as you can see below, the title page of the story, as presented in both Dracula #2 and Vampire Tales #1 is unambiguous:


Clearly there's a story to this alternate title - if I come across any more info in this regard I'll update the post.

At any rate, Dracula #2 did not feature any Tomb of Dracula reprints despite the cover. Based on editorial comments in the letter columns of issues around this period, it would appear the proofs for  some of the Newton issues did not arrive, which is why some of the early Newton series had 'odd' 2nd issues. The scheduled  material for Dracula #2 - Death to a Vampire-Slayer - may not have arrived at all, as I'm unaware of a Newton printing of this story. 

 The cover did reappear in Newton Comics as a colour poster, and the issue came with a Mature Readers warning - or rather, an enticement!

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