I Vant Kirby Vampires, Blah

By | Thursday, October 23, 2008 2 comments
So this discovery the other day, along with reading through Essential Tomb of Dracula volume 2 recently, coupled with needing a new subject for my "Incidental Iconography" column in Jack Kirby Collector #52 -- not to be confused with JKC #51, due out next week -- got me to thinking about Kirby vampires. The theme of the JKC #52 is "Kirby Obscura" and, since I haven't really seen Kirby do many vampire stories, I figured that'd be a good subject.

I was actually thinking I'd look at Kirby's Dracula specifically. But that one Topps card image is the only instance I can seem to find. Broadening out to vampires doesn't provide much either. All I can see there is Captain Marvel Adventures #1 and Jimmy Olsen #142. This, despite Jack coming up with the idea for a whole Dracula-themed comic series!

I thought there was an issue of Captain America Comics which featured vampires, but that story was drawn by Al Avison. Fantastic Four #30 references Transylvania, but there aren't any vampires actually in the book.

For as many monster stories as Jack drew over the years, you'd think he would've hit on the "classics" more often. I've never seen Kirby draw a werewolf or Frankenstein's monster, and his vampires and mummies are pretty rare as well.

I've got enough for my article already, but I do like to be as comprehensive as possible. So, any Kirby-philes out there who might be able to point out any other instances of Kirby-drawn vampires?
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2 comments:

John said...

Sean,

Simon and Kirby did a story titled "Captain Marvel Battles the Vampire" in Captain Marvel Adventures #1 in 1941. It's reprinted in DC's Shazam Archives Vol. 2.

jfire
Pop Culture Safari
http://popculturesafari.blogspot.com/

bob said...

One of the stories in the S&K produced CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #1 featured vampire villains.

If THE DEMON had lasted one more issue, it would have featured a vampire, according to the pencilled version of the last page of #16 as it appears in a TJKC a few issues back.

Baron Blood appears on a few of Kirby's covers to THE INVADERS.

The villain in CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL #3 is clearly an alien energy vampire, although I don't remember off-hand if Kirby used the actual term. The "energy vampire" thing is pretty common in Kirby's work, actually.

Not really vampires, but Kamandi fought giant bats over South America.

The Topps card thing, by the way, isn't really Dracula, it's Doctor Mortalis, a film proposal that never got made.