HORROR COMICS 297
Holland is then caught in an explosion set by people who are after the secrets of his
formula, and his body is thrown into the swamp, where it mutates. Th e series lasted
for a respectable 24 issues, until 1976.
In 1971, the Comics Code Authority began to relax some of its rules in relation to
horror in comics, such as the depiction of vampires, and this led to the publication of
the Tomb of Dracula in 1972, which ran for 70 issues until 1979. Marvel took advan-
tage of the fact that Bram Stoker’s creation was in the public domain and featured him
as the title character. Th e title was scripted by Marv Wolfman from issue #7 onwards
(the earlier issues being written by Gerry Conway, Archie Goodwin, and Gardner
Fox) and penciled by Gene Colan for the whole run. Dracula would sometimes work
with others to vanquish threats, but in the main he took on the role of villain in the
stories. Supernatural stories were balanced with appearances by Spider-Man and the
X-Men , which located the title fi rmly within the mainstream Marvel universe.
Th e Tomb of Dracula issue #10 saw the fi rst appearance of Blade as a supporting
character. He is a vampire hunter with the ability to sense supernatural creatures and
an immunity to vampirism. He would go on to appear intermittently in other titles
during the 1970s, but gained a more signifi cant following in the 1990s, starring in his
own series. He appeared in three fi lms and a TV series that were only loosely based on
the comics incarnation. His most recent appearance at the time of this writing has been
in Captain Britain and MI:13 , written by Paul Cornell with art by Leonard Kirk.
Th e fi rst signifi cant horror comic series produced by DC Comics in the 1980s
involved the Alan Moore scripted issues of Saga of the Swamp Th ing , which became
Swamp Th ing from issue #31 onwards. His run covered issues #20–64 and annual #2
(1984–87). Th e title was facing cancellation due to poor sales (it had been revived in
1982 in an attempt to capitalize on a feature fi lm version). Len Wein, Swamp Th ing’s
editor and co-creator, had seen some of Moore’s U.K. work and was impressed, which
led to him off ering Moore his fi rst regular work in U.S. comics. Moore approached
issue #20 as an opportunity to resolve previous plot threads and clear the way for his
new version of the series. In this version, Swamp Th ing is shot and killed by the agents
of the Sunderland corporation who had pursued him in previous issues.
Issue #21, entitled “Th e Anatomy Lesson,” is set within the Sunderland Corporation
building. Jason Woodrue, the Floronic Man, has been hired to perform an autopsy on
Swamp Th ing, and his conclusion completely redefi nes the nature of the character: he
had never been Alec Holland, as the bio-restorative formula Holland had worked on
somehow allowed the plant-life to absorb characteristics of Holland’s consciousness.
Moore felt that the character was restricted by a premise that could never be fulfi lled: if
he became human again, it would be the end of the series. By taking away the possibility
of reverting to Holland he reset the rules for the character in this issue and went on to
redefi ne the American horror comic in subsequent issues.
Swamp Th ing remained fi rmly rooted in the DC universe, with appearances by char-
acters including Batman and the Justice League of America. Moore also explored the
paranormal side of the DC universe, with appearances by the Demon and Deadman.
