This post was supposed to drop sometime around Halloween, but due to technical problems with the site I had to keep it in a draft folder until I managed to air out my IOS issues. Still, I hope you all enjoyed your Octobers, and that Halloween was delightfully terrifying for you all this year.
As we are known to do Billy and I returned to the well of horror with Marvel’s VAMPIRE TALES for our 2021 Halloween episode. In it we talked Morbius The Living Vampire, but also offered up a list of 5 TOP 5s. The topic? Why, VAMPIRES, of course!
If you haven’t listened in yet, our latest Vampire Tales episode can be found on iTunes here, on Spotify here, or on the podcatcher of your choice.
Below are some choice topics and images we discussed on the show, most of it gleaned from VAMPIRE TALES #7. Also included is a gallery of our personal favorite VAMPIRE TALES covers. Now read on… IF you dare!
I think we can all agree that this is a disturbing cover*. A hunchbacked vampire about to snack on a pale and fragile maiden recently abducted from her boudoir = Yikes!
* Cover by Jose Antonio Domingo.
I always love reading the teasers in the Table of Contents. Looks like they’ve prepared a bloody feast for us yet again. Read on!STORY: Don McGregor PICTURES: Tom Sutton Morbius finds himself once again tangled up in the complicated weave of Amanda Saint’s search for her missing father. The Cult of Demon-Fire is at it again, throwing everything in their horror repertoire at Morby, including a barbed wire neck-rope!A sinister mix of ne’er-do-wells indeed. Meet Apocalypse, Reaper, Phineas T. Coroner, Death-Flame, and Rigor. The nastiest and smelliest of Demon-Fire’s stable of assassins.Weakened in his battle against Death-Flame, Morbius drinks from Amanda, something he swore he would never do! An emotional scene, but filled with horror when one takes into account The Living Vampire’s total lack of self-control.Our story ends with Death-Flame and Reaper vanquished by Morbius, but Amanda’s quest lies in ruins as her father dangles from a bloody yardarm, and she herself suffers from horrible injuries. Is there no respite for these two weary travelers of the horror dimensions? Apparently not.STORY: Doug Moench PICTURES: Billy Graham A quirky tale of Horace Grimstone, a night watchman at a hospital who fancies himself a vampire. Typically, he drinks from the blood storage jars under his care until being told of an investigation into the blood-shortage at the hospital.He fills the empty jars he so recently guzzled from with water and iodine to escape prosecution, only to fall victim to a vampiric visitor to the blood bank. A dream come true for old Horace, I guess.A predictable ending? Maybe… but as they say, it’s the journey, not always the destination, that truly counts. Have a nice UNlife, Horace. STORY: Doug MoenchPICTURES: Paul Gulacy BATS, a silent tale of love… and of course DEATH. Hey, this IS a horror comic after all.A chiroptologist (Bat-specialist) gets revenge for the death of his lovely wife at the fangs of a vampire by imbibing large quantities of rat-poison, which must have been blessed by a priest to be fatal to a vampire. Holy Rat poison, Batman!This story definitively answers the question – WHAT IF Shakespeare wrote Vampires?STORY: Doug Moench PICTURES: Howard Chaykin Our final tale, which sees some Dick Turpin wannabes holding up a carriage, murdering a whole bunch of folks, and setting off to the docks to seek further fortune.Don’t go creeping around ships that give off that Bram Stoker Dracula DEMETER vibe, buddy.Of course, those who deserve it come a cropper in this bloody Howard Chaykin tale of terror.
And now… a gallery of our favorite VT covers!
The Best of the Bloody Best!
Covers by Luis Dominguez (#3,) Boris Vallejo (#4, #6,) Esteban Maroto (#5,) Jose Antonio Domingo (#8,) Richard Hescox (#10,) Bob Larkin and Archie Goodwin (Annual #1)
That’s it for our INTO THE WEIRD Horror Special, Weirdos. Until next Halloween, keep it creepy!
INTO THE WEIRD 