1975's Vampire Tales Annual #1 proved to be the final magazine with that title that Marvel published and the over-sized magazine reprinted some of the better stories from the series, most of them to be honest from the first year of the run. To see the specific contents go here.
But the annual is mostly remembered (by yours truly at least) for the awesome Bob Larkin cover image of a close up of the face of the savage and bloodthirsty Morbius, his next victim reflected in his terrible magenta eyes. It's a keeper for certain.
And that my friends concludes the Dojo's look at the series Vampire Tales. It was a magazine which was certainly a product of its times, full of vigor and potential in its earliest days and some really outstanding storytelling. I personally liked the overstuffed early issues with articles and reprints and such, despite their questionable quality at times. The magazine had a zest and vigor which unfortunately the more organized final issues lacked somehow, thought the artwork and storytelling remained pretty much at an above average level throughout. Certainly the Morbius saga detailed in these black and white pages was superior to the exceedingly bland color comic he simultaneously occupied. For the Morbius stuff alone, these are worthy magazines to spend some time with.
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Superb job Dojo Master! I’ve sincerely enjoyed all your fine work this month – but the Vampire Tales summaries really were a treat unto themselves. I ordered and got the Vampires Tales Volume 1 collection – which I plan on cracking for the first time tomorrow – for my own purely pagan perusal (I took the day off work even.)
ReplyDeleteThanks. I hope you enjoy these reprints, I know I did. They are hard on old eyes, but I was able to hang in there. Now we need Monsters Unleashed!
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