640 TOMB OF DRACULA
Although Tintin’s appearance and behavior undergo changes over the years, he
remains at all times a seeker after truth. Hergé, in much the same fashion, continuously
aimed at artistic perfection. Th e original inked sheets bear witness to his refi nement and
attention to detail, while extensive prepublication materials allow us to reconstruct his
working procedures. Large-format preparatory pencil drawings for the last seven books,
for example, provide much evidence of the developing work, from the elaboration of
alternatives and the working out of compositional problems to last-minute changes of
mind (and it is often particularly interesting to discover what Hergé chose not to do).
Notwithstanding the impressive body of secondary literature devoted to Tintin,
many documents have yet to be studied in detail, most notably Hergé’s working papers
and a voluminous correspondence (including letters exchanged between Hergé and
his publisher). Around 90 percent of Hergé’s original artwork is held by the “Studios
Hergé.” A wide-ranging selection is on display at the Musée Hergé in Belgium, opened
in 2009.
Selected Bibliography: Farr, Michael. Tintin: Th e Complete Companion. London: John
Murray, 2001; Goddin, Philippe. Hergé: Chronologie d’une œuvre. 6 vols. Brussels: Moulin-
sart, 2000–9.
Raphaël Taylor
TOMB OF DRACULA. Th e most successful product of Marvel’s horror revival of the early
1970s, Tomb of Dracula was a landmark in the evolution of long-form comic book nar-
ratives and is also remembered for introducing the character Blade. From its inception,
the Comics Code prohibited vampire stories, but the controversy over the publication
of Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (1971) without the code seal led to a liberalization of
the code, one of the results of which was to permit the portrayal of vampires. Marvel
was quick to get into this newly available genre: a vampire villain, Morbius, was intro-
duced in Amazing Spider-Man #101 (1971), and in 1972 Marvel added an ongoing
series, Tomb of Dracula, starring literature’s most famous vampire. Th e art assignment
for the series was off ered to Bill Everett, but Gene Colan, a lifelong Dracula fan, con-
vinced Stan Lee to give him the job. Th e series got off to an inauspicious start: by
issue #7 it was on its fourth writer, Marv Wolfman, and seemed doomed to cancella-
tion. Wolfman thus felt he had a certain degree of creative freedom and chose to write
the series in a personal and experimental vein. Unexpectedly, the series became a high
seller and lasted 70 issues, ending only when Colan quit due to alleged creative interfer-
ence by new editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. Following Tomb of Dracula’s cancellation, it
was briefl y restarted as a black-and-white magazine, and Wolfman and Colan revived
Tomb of Dracula in 1991 as a four-issue miniseries.
Wolfman’s only knowledge of Dracula came from Bram Stoker’s novel; he was not a
fan of horror movies, and his Tomb of Dracula bears little resemblance to conventional
works in that genre. It is closer to a superhero comic in that it focuses on a cast of heroes
with unique abilities who struggle against a supervillain. Th e villain, of course, is Dracula,
