Halloween Countdown: October 23 - pale shadow of the bat

Longtime AT readers may remember last year's Halloween Countdown post on the subject of Dell's superheroic take on Frankenstein. As I mentioned back then, Frankie wasn't the only public-domain horror icon to be dusted off and repackaged by the publisher to cash in on a hot trend. Dracula, too, got a chance to strut around in spandex and fight the neverending battle for truth, justice, and the Transylvanian way...

I shall become...a bat. Kinda... Sorta...
Putting aside the whole parasitic embodiment of evil issue associated with the brand, the idea of Dracula as superhero isn't that unworkable a concept. After all, one of the most iconic and popular superheroes of all time owes more than a little to the Dracula mythos. Despite being done to undeath, the "benevolent vampire with a tortured soul" trope has proven popular (and profitable) enough to support a whole host of works dealing with the subject.

Not that this has any bearing on the Dell's Dracula comic book series, however, which is by-the-numbers drek of the most shameless variety.

The Dracula in question is not the infamous Count Dracula of novel and film, but rather a modern-day human descendant of Vlad Tepes who has fled the communist oppression in his homeland. As the blurb at the beginning of Dracula #4 (March 1967) puts it: "His family name he wishes to clear from the false legend which surrounds it is little know (sic) here."

While some might see little moral difference between an immortal bloodsucker and ruthless monarch who liked to impale his enemies on sharpened spikes, it is a matter of great import to Drac Junior...and what better way to set the ignorant masses straight about the false rumors of vampirism than to dress up in a vaguely bat-like costume and call yourself "Dracula?"

Upon arriving in the States, Drac Junior assumes the identity of "Al U. Card," a rather obvious pseudonym for someone who is obsessed about keeping a secret identity despite the clever touch of telling folks that the "U" stands for "Ulysses." Most of his time is spent working his comic book science mojo in perfecting the magic formula which allows him to turn into a bat (again, way to buck the stereotype, Al), but his off hours are spent fending off the advances and inquiries of B.B. Beebe (no shame in groaning, dear readers), a jet-setting Nellie Bly of the swingin' sixties...

There's a little bit of Dracula in all of us, my Sterno-eating friend.
After a couple close calls, Al is forced to reveal his true identity to B.B. when he saves her from a skydiving mishap. B.B. turns out to be steadfastly supportive of Al's ambitions, and even helps him set up his "Secret Cave" headquaters/squat in an abandoned military bunker that fortuitously comes pre-loaded with a room full of bat cages.

Al wastes no time getting back to his primate-to-chiroptera transformation studies, which rankles the increasingly clingy B.B., who demands that Al help her drive a minibus full of children to the beach. Al wisely begs off, not realizing that the chagrined B.B. and gaggle of snotnoses are headed right into the clutches of The Evil Piper (as opposed to The Awesome Piper), an evil genius with dastardly ambitions...

When Nickelodeon advertising executives go bad...
B.B. roughs up the Piper with some Judo moves, but is quickly overpowered by the hypnotised kids, who take great pleasure in tossing her into the minibus and rolling it off an oceanside cliff. (Kids. God love 'em.)

A guilty Dracula arrives just in time to save Ms. Beebe from her own personal Chappaquiddick before rushing off to put a stop to the Evil Piper's reign of terror...which largely consists of stealing a red convertible from a nearby gas station. ("Today, a sweet ride. Tomorrow, the world!") It all comes to a head on the cliffside, where Drac finds himself stalemated by the Piper's threat to harm the children.

With neither side able to break the deadlock, it is left to B.B. to resolve the Kobayashi Maru scenario with some out-of-the-box strategic thinking....

The sad answer to "If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you?"
As the little bodies rain from the skies like sacks of wet sand, the Piper gets a taste of the fist (and angst) of Dracula...

A precision fighter, Drac ain't.
...and it turns out that the kids are fine, as B.B. somehow managed to set up a safety net below the cliff's edge. She explains her the reasoning behind her cunning plan thusly...

"I studied child psychology under John Wayne Gacy!"
The exercise in child endangerment leaves B.B. with an unshakable conviction that she is destined for a life of superheroics. Over Dracula's half-hearted protests, she takes a swig of the magic bat transformation potion and is reborn as "Fledermaus," or "Fleeta" for short.

Stepping out for a key party at the Langstroms' place...
EVILDOERS BEWARE!

(Or not, as it was the last issue of the series, not counting some early 1970's reprints of the run.)

Christine Pilzer - Dracula (from a 1966 EP; collected on Femmes de Paris, Vol. 1, 2002) - Les enfants de la nuit...quelle belle musique go-go ils font.

Halloween Countdown: October 8 - never can resist him

Behold, the TERRIFYING VISAGE of COUNT DRACULA!

There are several reasons why the early 1950's are considered to be the golden age of horror comics, but Eerie Comics #12 (August 1953) isn't one of them.

....and since I've already dirtied my hands rummaging through the pauper's grave of popcult obscurities in search of suitable material, I might as well toss this curious specimen in your general direction:

Toto Coelo - Dracula's Tango (from a 1982 single; collected on I Eat Cannibals & Other Tasty Trax, 1996) - Moving from flesh-eating to blood-drinking over the course of a few months -- you don't see that kind of creative growth in today's musical acts.

(In case you were wondering, "Toto Coelo" is the original name of the new wave girl group. They were rechristened "Total Coelo" for American releases, lest the unwashed masses confuse them with the "Rosanna" guys. Give me dance pop goofiness over soporific soft rock any day.)

(Note: In today's installment of pronounced WOO-BIN, I beat on a countercultural legend.)

Halloween Countdown: October 14 – polyphonic monstrosities and other nonsense

How far the old archetypes of fear have fallen. Once able to induce nightmares in generations of impressionable children, they’re been reduced to mere shadows of their former selves, acting as spokescreatures for sugary cereals and having their cartoon likenesses used to decorate the walls of grammar school classrooms. (Until some fundamentalist Christian parental unit inevitably complains about satanic intent and spoils everyone’s fun, that is.)

In “The Story of the Black Seal”, a chapter of his 1895 patchwork novel The Three Impostors, Arthur Machen mentions the transformation of the faerie folk in popular culture over time. Depicted as horrific and malevolent in many of the early legends, over time the “fair folk” came to be portrayed as benign, if mischievous, entities. For the purposes of Machen’s story, this evolution was depicted as a necessary psychological hedge enveloping truths too horrible for the public to acknowledge. (Machen was a major influence on Lovecraft.) In reality, it’s a case of knowledge outstripping ignorance. It’s a natural birth defect, not an otherworldly abduction. Feargus got shitfaced and drowned in the bog; he wasn't led “astray” by supernatural powers. The romantic yearning for a magical past did the rest. Nothing cleans the puke stains out of our collective memory like nostalgia can.

And thus it went for poor Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster; although anxieties about a corrupt parasitic ruling class or the consequences of science run amok seem as valid today as they were in the 19th Century. Vampires remain as popular as ever, even if promising attempts to bring relevance back to the mythos by incorporating issues of blood-borne contagion and sexual identity have mostly given way to a misunderstood otherness used as a pretext for elitist decadence (or really awful erotic fiction of the sub-slashfic variety). Frankenstein’s monster has a lower popcult profile these days, although he did recently star in the best of Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers minseries, and that’s better than what the Wolf Man got.

Keeping with the wonderful-but-dated theme, here are two monstrous tracks culled from my extensive archive of lost and forgotten synthpop music:

Dilemma – Dracula (from a 1983 German compliation cassette) – The Germans call this “minimal electronik”, which I believe translates into “one or two guys with synthesizers in a basement recording studio”. The bleep effects towards the beginning of the track happen to be identical to those used in the opening theme of The Giant Spider Invasion. That’s a “plus” in my book.

Human Backs – Frankenstein – What I know about this band: They were based in Melbourne, Australia. They were active in the early 1980’s. They recorded this rather nifty track, which appeared on one of the unofficial Flexipop compilations.