The last time Supernatural Sherlock showed up it was The House of Secrets #112 (October 1973). DC double-dipped with The House of Mystery #271 (August 1979) and “The Hell-Hound of Brackenmoor”. Written by Cary Burkett and drawn by the master, Tom Sutton, it is a familiar trip six years later.
Our Sherlock figure this time is Sir Morgan Parks. Watson is Professor John Evans. Sir Morgan tells his friend to get ready for the opera as they are on a new case.
A man enters the rooms (ala any Sherlock client) and Sir Morgan instantly knows why the man has come. If you are expecting brilliant deduction, you will be disappointed. He is the fifth man to show up with tales of a wolf creature at Brackenmoor that day. Sir Morgan dismisses him and the men go out. On the way to the opera, Sir Morgan tells Evans of one interesting clue: a set of tracks in the snow that changed from wolf to man.
At the opera, Sir Morgan watches Miss Richards sing but he seems more interested in a strange looking man, who stares back at him. This is Prince Dvorkak from the Balkans. Sir Morgan says in reality he is — but doesn’t finish the sentence. Dvorkak’s first words (if said with a Bela Lugosi accent) say it all: “Good evening…”
Prince Dvorkak and Sir Morgan meet. The Prince is taking Miss Richards to dinner then must hurry back to Brackenmoor. The two men spar with looks and words.
After leaving Sir Mogan finishes that sentence. Prince Dvorkak is a vampire. And as such he has the power to turn into a bat…or a wolf. The real Prince Dvorkak died 400 years ago.
The two men pursue Dvorkak. He flees Miss Richards in the form of a bat. Taking human form, Sir Morgan pursues but gets taken out by the Prince.
Later Miss Richards ends up at Morgan and Evans’ flat. She is in shock from the bat attack. A wire shows up from Dvorkak, inviting them all to Brackenmoor Manor. Evans wisely says they won’t go but Sir Morgan sees it as a challenge so they do. They dine with the Prince, and the two men do more verbal sparring.
Evans goes to bed but Sir Morgan is busy. First, he searches the house and finds a secret door to a basement lair. Then he follows Miss Richards out onto the moors.
There a wolf attacks Sir Morgan, turns into a vampire but doesn’t kill him. The detective figures he was spared because Dvorkak wanted to finish off Miss Richards more.
Sir Morgan and Evans go to the basement lair to destroy the vampire. Only they find he is not what he seems. The man claims he is an imposter, taking the vampire’s name to lure him out. The man reveals that someone last night was turned into a vampire. Sir Morgan immediately thinks it is Miss Richards.
It isn’t. It’s Evans. (He killed the poor woman in wolf form last night.) The Professor wants revenge for all the years of being talked down to, for being Sir Morgan’s dupe.
That Joe Orlando cover is a bit of fib. Miss Richards never chases anyone with a hound. In fact, the “hound” image is quickly discarded for “werewolf”. Despite that, the obvious inspiration is Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902). beyond the title, the story has as much of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) in it than Holmes.
The ending is a reverse of 1973, with Watson being the vampire, not Sherlock. Burkett does a great job of working in a latter-day Sherlock trope, the buffoonish Watson. The original A. Conan Doyle Watson isn’t so maligned but Nigel Bruce’s film version was often used that way by filmmakers. As with that actor, Evans/Watson is an older man than Sherlock. Despite the similarities, this comic doesn’t feel like a repeat, more of an improvement.
Until next time, when the game is afoot…an actual monstrous foot…
