Dracula & Fu Manchu
Two of literature's' most sinister villains have been amazingly durable as comic book characters: Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and Sax Rohmer's "Fu Manchu."
Rohmer's writing seems weak to modern readers, yet he held his original audience spellbound. Racism abounds in his stories, yet he understood the tragic implications of cultures unable to understand each other. The shadowy outlines of modern turmoil in the Middle East and Asia can be detected in Rohmer's novels.
Marvel Comics had a long, successful run of stories based on Fu Manchu. Such artists as Jim Starlin and Paul Gulacy captured the essence of Rohmer's claustrophobic atmosphere in the "Son of Fu Manchu" stories which first appeared in Marvel Super Heroes.
Even though this series was an attempt to cash in on the Kung Fu craze of the 1970's, it frequently transcended faddish elements and holds up better than the Christopher Lee movies about Fu Manchu.
Even more successful was Marvel's Tomb of Dracula. Bram Stoker's vampire has rarely been in better form. Many of Marv Wolfman's stories for this series are masterpieces of Gothic horror, but considerable credit has to go to Gene Colan and Tom Palmer for art.
Novelists such as Kim Newman have done credible sequels to Stoker's unsettling masterpiece, but Wolfman, Colan, and Palmer have to be ranked among the best modern adapters. The atmosphere evoked by Colon and Palmer often surpassed the work of the creators of the famed EC horror comics of the 1950s such as artist Graham Ingels.
Although some of Stoker's lore was modified, this series was reasonably faithful to the original.
For years, collectors have overlooked the quality of these series; prices have remained low but are now beginning to rise. Those jaded with super heroes might investigate early issues of Tomb of Dracula, Marvel Super Heroes (later known as Master of Kung Fu) and their black-and-white counterparts, Dracula Lives and Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. These titles contained considerable dross from other writers and artists, but some outstanding stories can be found.
Dr. John Suter
Miniview: Godzilla #1 [Dark Horse]. A timely and marvelous reprinting of magnificent fun, this is not an adaptation of the current creature feature.
Buy it.
Michael Vance
Renee French's Corny's Fetish/$4.95, 60 pgs, Dark Horse/words and art: Renee French/sold in comics shops and by mail.
Admittedly, opinion and art are subjective. In my opinion, don't subject yourself to Corny's Fetish.
That it is almost entirely drawn in pantomime diminishes any plot or characterization subtleties.
Basically, a lonely old man witness an accidental death and becomes fixated on a young girl. He builds a fantasy family around her with figures possibly carved out of chocolate.
That the art is one step above juvenile scribble is not helpful.
The cover is nice.
Alone, none of its weaknesses (or my subjective preferences) condemn this work. But, together and at almost five dollars a copy, Corny's Fetish may be the greatest current waste of sixty seconds of 'entertainment' time on the comics market.
Michael Vance
