Newton Comics' Dracula #NN [#15]

The final Dracula issue from Newton Comics was published c.March 1977. It is unnumbered, and it may be considered #15 in the ongoing series.

It is a rather crudely redrawn and recoloured version of the cover of Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula #16:

The Back from the Grave! blurb is replaced by Night of the Blood Stalker, the opening story of the issue.

The stories:

Night of the Blood Stalker!, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #25, October 1974

[Blood Moon Part 2], originally published in Dracula Lives! #7

Let It Bleed!, originally published in Giant-Size Dracula #4, March 1975

The Lady Who Collected Dracula, originally published in Dracula Lives #9, November 1974

Scarlet in Glory!, originally published in Dracula Lives #9, November 1974

A Night in the Unlife!, originally published in Dracula Lives #9, November 1974

Twice Dies the Vampire!, originally published in Dracula Lives #9, November 1974

Night of the Blood Stalker! is reprinted complete and intact - however, unlike the original printing, it is introduced with a frontispiece, a reprint of the cover without the trade dress:

The only other difference is that the last page omits the next issue blurb for a generic The End!: 

Interestingly this amendment to the original printing is also in the UK's Dracula Lives Special Edition:

[Blood Moon Part 2] is untitled and mangled in this issue. This is how the opening double page spread appears in Dracula Lives! #7:

And this is how Newton reproduced the double page spread:

This is not a comics story - it's prose with illustrations.

Let It Bleed! is reprinted complete and intact, however it begins with a single page prelude:

This page does not appear in the interior pages of Giant-Size Dracula #4. It is an amended version of the cover art, which acts as an introduction to the story and also appears in the aforementioned Dracula Lives Special Edition:

Clearly there is a link between the Newton comic and the UK edition - presumably the same artwork was sent by Marvel for international printings, so the amendments to Night of the Blood Stalker and Let it Bleed! appear to be by Marvel, not by Newton (apart from the frontispiece to Night of the Blood Stalker! which seems to be Newtonese).

The stories from Dracula Lives! #9 - The Lady Who Collected Dracula, Scarlet in Glory!, A Night in the Unlife! and Twice Dies the Vampire! - are all reprinted complete and intact. These four stories were previously published by Newton in Dracula #12.

This issue was advertised with a preproduction cover in Newton Four-in-One #1:

Newton Four-In_One #1 is cover-dated August 1976 - and was likely published 24 July 1976 - so this issue is one of many which was significantly delayed. Note the cover in the advertisement carries the Back From The Grave! blurb before it was replaced by Night of the Blood Stalker, and the Newton trade dress is missing. And the title of the issue is Of Dracula (sic).

This issue was advertised as Out Now in the Sunday Observer 27 March 1977:

Thanks to Mark Cannon for providing scans of the pages from Dracula Lives Special Edition.

Update 27 March 2024: Thanks to Marcus Brazil and Robert Thomas for comments re: the redrawn cover and the previous publication of the Dracula Lives! #9 stories in Dracula #12. The updates appear in the body of the post.

Dracula #10: The Newton edition

Newton Comics' Dracula #10 was published 13 December 1975:

The front cover is from Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula #14:

The stories:

Dracula is Dead!, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #14, November 1973 

Somewhere Waits The Vampire, originally published in Journey Into Unknown Worlds #27, May 1954. 

Dracula is Dead is reprinted complete and intact.

Somewhere Waits The Vampire is complete however pages 3 and 4 are reversed, as per the reprint in Vampire Tales #4, which is the source of this reprint. The same reprint appears in Yaffa's Vampire Tales #4.

This is the poster in this issue:

This was originally published as the cover to The Amazing Spider-Man #135:

Note as per the GCD entry, the Return of the Punisher cover blurb was altered in subsequent reprints to Origin of the Punisher or Power of the Punisher. Origin of the Punisher appears to be from an original stat before it was altered, and it is this version which appears on the Newton poster. I note it is this version which appears in Essential Spider-Man Vol. 6, First Printing 2004.

This issue contains the following inhouse advertisements:

Bulletin

The Amazing Spider-Man #15

The X-Men with The Avengers #3 

Captain America #1 

Conan the Barbarian #9 

This issue also includes two Marvel Mailbag pages; and airplane kit contest with an expiry date 26 January 1976;  and a Black Panther t-shirt offer.

This issue was advertised Now out Fortnightly in The Incredible Hulk #13 and The Silver Surfer #4:

It was also advertised in the Sunday Observer 30 November 1975:

And again in the Sunday Observer 28 December 1975:

Thanks to Mark Cannon for providing reference scans for a couple of relevant issues.

The Tomb of Dracula #4: The Yaffa edition

Page Publications' The Tomb of Dracula #4 was published July 1979:

The cover is from Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula #12:

This cover was previously printed in Australia on Newton Comics' Dracula #9:

The contents:

His Name Is… Blade!, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #10, July 1973

The Voodoo-Man!, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #11, August 1973

Night of the Screaming House!, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #12, September 1973

These stories are reprinted complete and intact. Indeed, the cover to Tomb of Dracula #10 is also reprinted on the inner front cover:

The Voodoo-Man was previously published in Australia in Newton Comics' Dracula #8, and Night of the Screaming House was published in Dracula #9.

Dracula #9: The Newton edition

Newton Comics' Dracula #9 was published 29 November 1975:

The cover is a recoloured version of the cover of Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula #12:

This cover was also published in Australia a few years later on Yaffa's The Tomb of Dracula #4:

Clearly the Australian printers had trouble accurately reproducing the ghostly figures behind Dracula. This may be due to interpreting black and white line art and the associated colour guide. I'll let one of the printing experts advise me on this in the comments.

The stories:

Night of the Screaming House!, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #12, September 1973 

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble, originally published in Dracula Lives #3, October 1973

Night of the Screaming House! is reprinted complete, but not quite intact. Inexplicably, the 13th page of the story is out of sequence, appearing on the 18th page.

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble is complete and intact, including the grayscale printing.

Both of these stories were published a few years later in Yaffa comics. Night of the Screaming House! appeared in The Tomb of Dracula #4, and Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble appeared in Dracula Lives! #3.

This issue has the following centrespread poster:

This image originally appeared on the cover of Marvel Comics' Thor #129. A black and white printing of this poster appeared as a single-page pinup Monsters Unleashed [#4]. The Verdict of Zeus! was published by Newton in Newton Team-Up #2.

This issue includes the following inhouse advertisements:

Fantastic Four Annual #1

The Silver Surfer #3

Doctor Strange #7

This issue also contains the following: Tarzan of the Apes Book offer on the inside cover; three Marvel Mailbag pages; a TOLTOYS Daredevil jump set contest on the inside rear cover; and a Hulk t-shirt offer on the rear cover.

The publication date is confirmed in Newton Comics Corner from The Sunday Observer, 30 November 1975:

The TOLTOYS contest expiry date is 12 January 1975 - of course, it should read 1976.

Dracula #5: The Newton edition

Newton Comics' Dracula #5 was published 4 October 1975:

The cover is a Newtonese-coloured version of the cover on Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula #6:

It was subjected to another variation of Newtonese colouring when it was issued as a poster:

Note this poster has the Tales of Horror banner which is absent on the cover. This poster appeared a few months before Dracula #5 in The Amazing Spider-Man #6. 

It also appeared in black and white as a single-page ad/filler in Daredevil Special:

The stories:

The Moorlands Monster!, originally published in Tomb of Dracula #6, January 1973

When Calls The Vampire!, previously published in Dracula Lives #4, January 1974

The Moorlands Monster is reprinted complete and intact. It was reprinted in Australia a few years later in Yaffa's The Tomb of Dracula #2 and Evil Dracula.

When Calls the Vampire! is also reprinted complete and intact, including the original grayscale production. It was reprinted a few years later in Australia in Yaffa's Dracula Lives! #4.

The poster in this issue features the cover image from Ka-Zar #1:

 

The swap card in my copy is Fantastic Four Series A (1 of 15) No. 4.

As previously documented, Dracula #5 was advertised with the cover to Dracula #6 in The Silver Surfer #2, 25 October 1975:

Dracula #5 was advertised with the correct cover and issue number in The Incredible Hulk #8, 11 October 1975:

This issue includes the following in-house advertisements:

Hulk King Size Annual #1

The Silver Surfer #1

The advisory Out Next Week was out of date by the time this issue was published.

This issue includes an ad for Origins of Marvel Comics on the inner front cover; two Marvel Mailbag pages on the reverse side of the poster; a Reeves art and craft set contest on the inner rear cover, expiry date 17 November 1975; and a Hulk t-shirt offer on the rear cover.

Strange and Terrific! Ditko stories

Some of my favourite Steve Ditko stories are the shorts which appeared in comics such as Amazing Fantasy and Journey Into Mystery and, generally speaking, the more existentially karmic the better. 

For example, here's the first page of The Man on the Endless Stairway!, scanned from Journey Into Mystery #87:

And you just know this won't end well for the hapless Carl Cragg!

This scan is sourced from the Atomic Kommie Comics blog, which suggests with a query that it might be a never-reprinted story as of 2016. Well, it was reprinted shortly afterwards in Marvel Masters of Suspense: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko Omnibus #2 in 2019. 

However, it was reprinted at least five times in the previous century, according to the GCD: by Alan Class in Astounding Stories #44 and Weird Planets #4; in IPCs Terrific! #41; in Aredit -Artima's Eclipso #19; and in Yaffa's The Mighty Thor #2, from which the scan below is sourced:

The black and white printing is attractive, however it is rather lightly reproduced. 

A bolder printing can be found in Terrific! #41, however something decidedly Strange occurs in that reprinting:

That's right - Dr. Strange is enlisted as the host of the tale ala the Mysterious Traveller and other such hosts familiar to comics readers. He also appears on the final page of the story, in which Cragg meets his fate:

I can confirm Dr. Strange hosted other such stories in the pages of Terrific!, for example, in the following issue for the story Long Live The Queen!;

And on the final page of the story:

Long Live The Queen! was originally published in Journey Into Mystery #88, and also happens to appear unadulterated in Yaffa's The Mighty Thor #2.

I haven't sourced the Dr. Strange images -  a task for another day!

Update: The Dr. Strange figure in The Man on the Endless Stairway! splash page appeared on the cover of Strange Tales #146 and in the interior art:

And the Dr. Strange figure at the end of the story hails from the cover of Strange Tales #148: