Comic Info
Comic Name: Vampire Tales
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Don McGregor/Doug Moench/Tony Isabella/Roy Thomas/Chris Claremont/Steve Gerber
Artist: Tom Sutton/Paul Reinman/Lombardia/Tony DiPreta/Esteban Maroto/Ernie Chan/Win Mortimer/Peter Buckler/Gil Kane/Bob Brown/Pablo Marcos/Balcells/Alfredo Alcala/Vincente Alcazar/Billy Graham/Paul Gulacy/Howard Chaykin
# of Issues: 4
Release Date: 2011
Vampire Tales #5
Reprints Vampire Tales #4-7 (April 1974-October 1974). Morbius walks the line between hero and monster…a creature who must survive by blood, but as a living vampire, he has a moral code that he tries to hold on to. Morbius is joined by other monsters of the night like Lilith and Satana the Devil’s Daughter. Vampires are among us…and they are hungry!
Written by Don McGregor, Doug Moench, Tony Isabella, Roy Thomas, Chris Claremont, and Steve Gerber, Vampire Tales—Volume 2 is a Marvel Comics magazine collection. Following Vampire Tales—Volume 1, the collection features art by Tom Sutton, Paul Reinman, Lombardia, Tony DiPreta, Esteban Maroto, Ernie Chan, Win Mortimer, Peter Buckler, Gil Kane, Bob Brown, Pablo Marcos, Balcells, Alfredo Alcala, Vincente Alcazar, Billy Graham, Paul Gulacy, and Howard Chaykin and is reprinted in digest form. Issues in this collection were also reprinted in Morbius Epic Collection—Volume 1: The Living Vampire among others.
I have always had a soft spot for Marvel’s magazines. They generally had the same Marvel characters, but they were the harder and edgier stories…they didn’t really cross the language barrier, but they get close. Vampire Tales was an early interest as a fan of Marvel horror, and this collection is fun.
The stories generally break down into one of the main Marvel characters and a number of back-up stories. The back-up stories fall in the lines of EC Comics classic horror comics with last minute twists. The art and style if more modern, but they are generally rather predictable…but I am also a fan of this type of storytelling.
The “superhero” story of the comic mostly falls on Morbius in this collection. You have a story involving Lilith (who feels like an underdeveloped character in general), but Morbius holds his own. He has the tragic nature with him, but largely, he just ends up wandering into bigger conspiracies of dark magic and horror.
Vampire Tales #6
The third part of these magazines is articles which the collection thankfully reprints. A lot of the musings over things like Count Yorga, Vampire (1971) are skippable, but it is nice to see what was coming out and how people were hearing about in the 1970s. Pre-internet was always a struggle and word of mouth and TV were generally the only way to hear about something…here, you can see a review of The Exorcist while it was still new.
The magazines are both helped and hindered by the format. It is odd that Marvel decides to take the larger format magazine and shrink it down to a format smaller than comics. It leads to rather wordy and crowded pages. It is nice to see the general black-and-white newsprint of these magazines in high grade glossy pages, but that also kind of takes away from their gritty nature.
Vampire Tales—Volume 2 is a solid collection of stories and worth seeking out by fans of Morbius. It is an object of its time and modern readers might struggle a bit with it…or they might enjoy the throwback style. The short story format of the comics are also not common today, but I wish that the format could find a way to return and survive in the competitive market. Vampire Tales—Volume 2 is followed by the final collection Vampire Tales—Volume 3.
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