Hey, how about some vampire comics? After our five-part series of ACG werewolves, it only made sense to do vampires comics next. The pre-Code horror comics of ACG Group were wonderfully creepy. The later Comics Code issues lost a lot of their fun so we will be staying pre-1955.
“The Vampire Prowls” (Adventures Into the Unknown #3, February-March 1949) was written by Frank Belknap Long. This was the last of the Long stories that set the formula for horror comics everywhere. All the comics after this one are written by unknown authors. All these comics are available for free at DCM.
Ruth Morton, comedy star, has a vampire stalking her. First at the theater then at her apartment. Her fiancee, Bill, shoots the vampire in bat form causing it to change back to human shape. He falls and the body is taken to Mercy Hospital. Ruth has been bitten so Dr. Jethro (our narrator) is called in. He sends Ruth to the same hospital. The vampire wakes up in the morgue and goes after Ruth again. The cops fill him with bullets to no effect. Only Dr. Jethro’s juniper twig drives the vampire back to its crypt. The doctor ends its existence with a stake. Long has the unusual idea of the juniper twig, which comes from old vampire lore.
“Bat by Night” (Adventures Into the Unknown #6, August-September 1949)
George Tellier is studying at the Sorbonne in Paris when he inherits the Chateau of Byrn, a castle in a haunted part of the Alps. His professor, Gollet, comes with him. They find nothing strange but try to rescue a girl who is mountain-climbing. She falls from a height but lives. George falls for the beautiful red-head named Jeanne. Gollet notices Jeanne’s very long nails. When Jeanne goes riding with a servant, the man ends up dead, his throat torn out by wild animals. Later George and his valet, Briot, argue over Jeanne but Briot also ends up dead. George sees the giant bat that did it and shoots at it with his pistol. He manages to clip off one of its talons. Gollot notices Jeanne has lost a nail but says nothing. When George asks her about the nail, Jeanne turns into a giant bat and tries to kill the two men. Gollet leads the vampire into the Hall of Mirrors, which kills the monster. This writer makes the mirror lethal rather than revealing the absence of a reflection.
“Vampire’s Castle” (Adventures Into the Unknown #10, April-May 1950)
Bill and Trudy discover a design by Dr. Manusala for a winged man. They go to his ancient castle in Transylvania to look for more designs. Bill reads some of the Latin writings of Manusala and finds references to vampires. In a pit, they find a skeleton wearing the wing design. This body revives after four hundred years. Manusala’s back and he is a vampire. Bill escapes him by jumping out of the window into the moat. Manusala leaves him to drown because the walls are steep and unscalable. Bill finds a halberd on the bottom of the moat. He uses this to climb out. Meanwhile Manusala goes after Trudy. Bill shows up in the nick of time and throws silver chloride from his photographic supplies at him. Manusala falls back into his pit to stay forever.
“Vampire Vision” (Adventures Into the Unknown #12, August-September 1950)
Gail Foster’s lover, Bill Campbell, bailed out during the war and landed in Transylvania, never to be seen again. Gail has a dream vision of Bill being surrounded and tortured by vampires. The doctor says it is just a dream but Gail remembers a coat of arms in the vision. It is from the House of Zara. She tries to contact Bill again. Dr. Ravpemi (Vampire jumbled), one of the vampires, visits her. He plans to kill her to drive Bill insane. He is part of the vampires’ plan to take over the world. Gail stabs him with some Air Force wings made of silver, driving him away. Gail takes a plane from the air strip and flies to Transylvania. Bill talks to her through his dream connection, directing her to him. The vampires try to stop him, knocking him over the head then throwing him into the moat. Gail has to parachute from the plane, finding Bill by the water. Her plane has landed on the vampires, destroying them.
“The Vampire Swoops” (Adventures Into the Unknown #13, October-November 1950)
Dr. Howard Thornton has been studying bats and a 19th Century scientist named Henri Charron. Thornton must protect his girlfriend, the nurse Sylvia, from the green bat fiend, Charron, a vampire. The two follow the monster that plans to take over the world, into the swamps to a town called Charville. Charron meets them, taking them to the village. The villagers are all pale and weak from the vampires’ feeding on them. That night the green vampires come from the swamp. Sylvia gets bitten but Howard has a plan. The next day a device comes from his laboratory, delivered by parachute. He zaps the undead with his device. The vampires become blind and fall into the river and drowned. Charron is last but he, too, dies in the water. Howard explains that he used Science not magic. The device scrambles the vampires’ sonic signals.
“Vigil Among the Vampires” (Adventures Into the Unknown #16, February 1951)
Pat Bancroft is a volcanologist studying a volcano for effects on earthquakes. In his plane, he discovers a strange clan of weird-looking creatures near the volcano. While he is working, he meets Sangra, a beautiful brunette who talks like Tarzan. Sangra gets him to plug the volcano with a big rock. The weirdos attack him but he punches his way free. Later, he frightens Sangra away when he drops a bottle of volcanic gas. He follows her to a cave in the Gulf of Bats. There he finds her and the rest of the creepy bunch sleeping on the ceiling. Pat knows he has to destroy the monsters so he tips a big rock into the lava below and splashes Sangra and the rest with death. Later he learns “Sangra” is Spanish for blood. (Not much of a scientist.)
“Case of the Ghost Bat” (Adventures Into the Unknown #18, April 1951) Based on a “True Ghost Tale”, this one-pager tells of Ruby Moxey who sees a bat in her London home. No one can find it but it appears again that night. The brother and father chase it, finally catching it in a pillow case. They drowned it in a bucket of water. When they open the sheet, there is nothing. It was a ghost bat, an evil omen. A week later, Ruby dies of unknown causes.
“The Vampire’s Bane” (Adventures Into the Unknown #19, May 1951)
During the Korean War, Bob Crane thinks he is shooting an enemy soldier but it proves to be a bat monster. The thing stabs him in the heart but he doesn’t die. Instead, he follows the creature to its lair and its master, Volara. She cheers because the vampire’s bane has been destroyed. The vampires see Bob spying and attack him. Bob wakes in a hospital. Volara is sitting beside him. An officer explains she is only Miss Aralov (clever name disguise!) and Bob has been in the hospital for a month getting over his heart wound. The officer tells Bob he has suffered from delirium. Bob goes home, but a bat spies on him on the ship back. Once home, he finds his girl, Trudy Williams. Volara appears to Trudy and sets her minions on her. Bob appears in the nick of time and stabs Volara with steel, the Vampire’s Bane. The steel is the bayonet that had stabbed Bob, sent to him as a souvenir.
“The Vampire’s Victim” (Adventures Into the Unknown #20, June 1951)
Sheila Duncan has a dream of a man being killed by a vampire. She goes to her psychic, Madame Sykie. The medium tells her that dreams about bats means a relative is thinking of her. Sheila tells her she is an orphan. The fortune-teller gazes deep into her crystal and sees a vampire. She falls dead as a white hand menaces Sheila unknowingly. She is saved when special investigator, Dennis Colby, barges in. Once home, the old man appears, warning her before he turns into a giant bat. The vampire snatches Sheila but Dennis figures out he has headed to Vampire Brook. He follows in a plane. He takes out the vampire with silver dispersed in the clouds, a substance used for rainmaking.
“Love of a Vampire” (Forbidden Worlds #1, July-August 1951)
Ken and Beth Cummings stop for the night at a creepy hotel. Beth is taken by a giant bat. Ken gets the cops looking for her. Ken finds a talon from a bat then does some research at the local library on vampires. He confronts Brunt, the hotel keeper. That night a bat comes for Ken. He throws an ink bottle at it. Later he sees Brunt has ink on his collar. He also notices he doesn’t show up in a mirror. Brunt is really Count Van Brunt, a vampire. Ken tracks Brunt to his lair, where Beth has been turned into a vampire. Ken attacks Brunt, taking him out with a silver chain. Ken dies. Beth turns herself into a bat and commits suicide. Beth and Ken’s ghosts are together forever. (Wow! That happy ending is worthy of Seabury Quinn!)
“Vampire Valley” (Adventures Into the Unknown #22, July 1951)
You may have heard of a Werewolf Western. Well, here is Vampire Western. Three Commies operating in the US bring bats from overseas to further their evil plans. Too bad, they’re really vampires. The Pinkos get eaten when Ginger comes by and cuts her hand on a sharp cactus. She is attacked by bats but is rescued by her beau, Sheriff Slim. Slim shoots at the bats and they go home. Ginger has a terrible nightmare that night, recalling her father who died at Lost Creek Mine. The power of the vampires take her over because of her injury and make her come to the mine cave. Slim saves her from being turned into a vampire. He’s packin’ silver bullets (Lone Ranger style!) He runs out of ammo and has to take out the last one with a piece of ore. Ginger’s father’s ghost is happy to see her with such a good man.
More vicious vampires comics next time…
