Supernatural Sherlock Holmes is not much of a deal in 2020. Ever since the character entered the public domain, all manner of novels have appeared. But back in October 1973, this was a much harder deal. Fred Saberhagen’s The Holmes-Dracula File wouldn’t appear until 1978. This was probably the first big deal with Holmes and a vampire appearing together. Fred would continue the series without Holmes and Watson. The same year Loren D. Estleman published Sherlock Holmes Vs. Dracula, then Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes (1979) and finally, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes (2006).
Yes, I am aware of Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” (The Strand, January 1924), which was written as a kind of joke for Bram Stoker. The two had a history back then, but Holmes was usually a creature of logic with his “No Ghosts Need Apply! policy. Even August Derleth’s pseudonymous Solar Pons had unusual affairs like “The Adventure of the Tottenham Werewolf” (1951) but again, merely the appearance of the supernatural.
I mention October 1973 because that is when Gerry Conway and Luis Domingeuz’s “The Case of the Demon Spawn” appeared in The House of Secrets #112. Conway avoids legal problems with the August Derleth method, changing the names but not much else. We have Roderick Doyle and his sidekick, Professor John Winston in Burrow Street.
Doyle recounts for Winston his visit from a Lady Christine McBain. Lady McBain lives in a castle on the Irish coast, where one stormy night she saw her uncle and his hunchback gamekeeper, Tom, doing a terrible thing.
She fainted and the next morning it was treated like a bad dream.
When she goes riding, she falls from her horse, The straps on her saddle have been cut deliberately. Later he horse behaves strangely and dies.
A last attempt is made on her life when her room is set ablaze. Only her uncle’s quick action saved her life.
After this she came to London to seek help. Doyle and Winston accompany the lady back to County McBain.
Upon approaching the castle, Doyle notices there is no evidence of her story. That night, in the library after Winston has gone to bed, Doyle discovers copies of all of Winston’s casebooks of Doyle adventures.
He also finds newspaper clippings.(These are quite fun all on their own.) The villains reveal themselves. There has been no crime. It is all a trap to lure Doyle there. The entire family is made of vampires. They found his comments on “No Ghost Need Apply” too egotistical and they will prove him wrong.
Lady McBain bites Doyle on the neck but he escapes.
He and Winston flee back to London. The case over, Doyle finishes his account but Winston notices Doyle casts no reflection in the mirror! Doyle has become a vampire and Winston soon follows…
This comic brings up so many things. First off, I don’t think anyone has done a novel where Sherlock is a vampire. (Let me know, please.) Mark Frost famous wrote novels about A. Conan Doyle with The List of Seven (1993) and The Six Messiahs (1995). These are historical and Gothic but not really supernatural.
In the comics, Sherlock has become the ghostbreaker he never really wanted to be. Sylvain Cordurie and Laci produced Sherlock Holmes and the Necronomicon (2011), bringing in H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos. I am not sure how Doyle would feel about a truly supernatural Sherlock Holmes. He was a firm spokesman for Spiritualism, but liked to keep his beliefs and Sherlock separate. While he was willing to believe in the Cottingley fairies, he might not want to give the impression that the supernatural was a fiction (especially anything as cheap as a Sherlock Holmes story). His love-hate relationship with his character muddies the waters. Does the fact he wrote “The Sussex Vampire”tell us something else?
