The Vampyre in Comic Books

[Sabertooth]

I came across this while doing a little research related to the threads about the beginning of Comics' Bronze Age. While I'm an advocate of Conan #1 as the demarcation, the Bronze Age couldn't have occured as it did without the revision of the Comics Code on January 1, 1971. This article gives some detail and analysis, and I recommend clicking the link at the bottom for more depth on the subject.

 

Excerpted from an excerpt of J. Gordon Melton's "The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead"

 

The boom in horror comics did not go unnoticed by the larger society, and attacks upon them began to mount. Psychology spokepersons such as Frederic Wertham decried the violence and sex he found in some comic books as a direct source of the growing phenomenon of juvenile delinquency and began to demand their supression. Feeling the intensity of the attack, a number of the comic book publishing firms found it in their best interest to create the Comic Magazine Association of America (CMAA). The CMAA quickly concluded that some form of self regulation was necassary to prevent government intervention in it's business. In 1954 the CMAA issued a Comics Code, which went into effect in October of that year. The code dealt with some broad issues such as glamorizing crime and the graphic portrayal of death and responded to the criticisms of horror comics directly. At the same time that controversy raged in America, a similar controversy developed in England. In 1955 the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act was passed, which led to the disappearance of horror comics from the stores. The bill was renewed in 1965 and is still on the books, one reason that so few horror/vampyre comics have originated in the United Kingdom.

 

The Comics Code called for the discontinuance of the words "horror" or "terror" in the title of comic books and forbad the picturing of, among other things, scenes of depravity, sadism, or excessive gruesomeness. One paragraph dealt forcefully with the major characters associated with the horror story:

 

Scenes dealing with, or intruments associated with the walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism and werewolves are prohibited.

 

Thus, in October1954, Dracula and his kin were banished form the pages of the comic book....

 

-snip-

 

In 1969, with rising pressure to revamp the Comics Code and provide some liberalization enforcement, Gold Key issued the first new comic books to feature a vampyre as the leading figure. Like The Munsters, also by Gold Key, Dark Shadows was based on a popular television series. It featured the adventures of vampyre Barnabas Collins. Dark Shadows was joined in September by Warren Publishing Company's Vampirella. The latter, featuring a sexy female vampyre from outer space in stories combining humor, horror, and romance, became the most popular and long lived vampire comic book in the history of the medium.

 

Finally, bowing to the needs of companies eager to compete with the black and white comic books, CMAA formally revised the Comics Code, effective January 1, 1971. The changes also reflected both an awareness of changing times and the inability of the critics of comic book art to produce the evidence to back up the charges leveled at them in the 1950s. The code still discouraged the portrayal of situations that involved, for example, excessive gore, torture, or sadism. However, the important sentence concerning vampyres was rewritten to read:

 

Vampires, ghouls, and werewolves shall be permitted to be used when handled in the classic tradition such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other high calibre literary works written by Edgar Allan Poe, Saki (H. H. Munro), Conan Doyle, and other respected authors whose works are read in schools throughout the world.

 

Marvel Comics responded immediately to the new situation. It launched a line of new horror titles and in 1972 led in the return of the vampyre. Joining Warren's Vampirella was The Tomb of Dracula, which provided a new set of imaginative adventures for Dracula in the modern world. It lasted for 70 issues, had two revivals, and undergirded the 1990s adventures of the Midnight Sons, who united a variety of forces to fight malevolent occultism. That same year, Marvel introduced a new vampyre, Morbius. After several appearances as a guest villain in other Marvel magazines, Morbius became part of the regular cast appearing in Vampire Tales (beginning in 1973), was the leading figure in Fear (beginning in February 1974), and more recently was an integral part of the Midnight Sons.

 

 

Excerpt: http://netvampyric.8m.com/new/comichistory.html

[Sabertooth]

This is the first thread I've posted here, so I hope I did everything right.

[shiverbones]

hmmmm... Morbius pre dates TOD #1 though, ASM101 is the 1st marvel Vampire. True That TOD is a leading character, but it seems morbius was used to test the waters. I think that book is also inportant since its the 1st code approved vampire since Gold Key & Warren are not subject to that. Cool article though, thanks for showing it!

[Sabertooth]

hmmmm... Morbius pre dates TOD #1 though, ASM101 is the 1st marvel Vampire. True That TOD is a leading character, but it seems morbius was used to test the waters. I think that book is also inportant since its the 1st code approved vampire since Gold Key & Warren are not subject to that. Cool article though, thanks for showing it!

 

Glad you liked it. You're right about the Morbius/ToD chronology, and also that Morbius was used to test the waters. I recall reading somewhere, and it's been so long I don't remember if it was an observation by a fan or a comment from someone in the Bullpen, that Morbius was a baby step in that the origins of his vampirism was scientific, making him a "living vampire." In fact his origins were so deliberately made similar to those of the Lizard (and Spidey, for that matter) that it's hardly surprising that he first appeared in conjunction with both of those two Silver Age characters. Marvel wasn't yet ready to take the plunge into the the pool of the undead, but soon would be.