Happy World Dracula Day 2022!
What is World Dracula Day, you ask? Established in 2012 by the Whitby Dracula Society 1897, it’s the annual celebration of the first publication of Bram Stoker’s seminal novel, Dracula, on May 26, 1897—which would make today its 125th anniversary!
To celebrate, you could, of course, read the novel, or perhaps watch the 1931 film adaptation starring Bela Lugosi (or its Spanish-language version, starring Carlos Villarias) or the Frank Langella adaptation from 1979; maybe have a marathon of the Hammer Films’ Dracula series starring Christopher Lee as the count and Peter Cushing (who would have turned 108 today!) as his nemesis, Van Helsing; or perhaps even watch the unauthorized 1922 movie adaptation Nosferatu—which celebrated its 100th anniversary back in March—starring the unforgettable Max Schreck as the rat-faced Count Graf Orlok.
Right now, though, let’s take a trip through the Horror Comics Archives for an appropriate spooky story! Here we have “True Vampires of History!,” a one-page terror tale that first appeared in Adventures into the Unknown! #54, published in April 1954 by ACG (American Comics Group).
Although the writer is unknown—1950s comics rarely carried creative team credit—the art is by Bob Forgione (1929–1994), who started out as an assistant to Jerry Robinson, the legendary co-creator (with writer Bill Finger) of Robin the Boy Wonder and Batman’s archnemesis, the Joker. On his own, in addition to his work for ACG, Forgione provided art for such titles as Atlas/Marvel’s Strange Tales and Tales to Astonish, DC’s Our Army at War and G.I. Combat, and Charlton Comics’ The Thing, and as an uncredited artist on the pulp-hero newspaper comic strip The Phantom.
So, Happy World Dracula Day to one and all! However you celebrate the occasion, make it a fangtastic one!
