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Featured Characters:

• Frank Drake
• Rachel van Helsing (First appearance)

Supporting Characters:

• Taj Nitall (First appearance)

Villains:

• Dracula
• Clifton Graves
• Ilsa Strangway (First appearance)

Other Characters:

• Inspector Chelm (First appearance)

Locations:

• England

• London

Synopsis

Horrified by his encounters with his immortal vampire ancestor,
the legendary Count Dracula, and witnessing the transformation of his
lover Jean into a vampire and her subsequent destruction has driven
Frank Drake to the point of suicide. Before Frank can throw himself off a
bridge into the Thames river, he is stopped by Rachel Van Helsing and
her assistant Taj Natal. Rachel introduces herself as the great
granddaughter of Abraham Van Helsing, the man who slew Dracula centuries
ago. Van Helsing explains that she has sought out Drake after hearing
of his inheriting and subsequently selling Castle Dracula. Taking Drake
into her car, Drake explains that he and his former friend Clifton
Graves are responsible for unleashing Dracula upon the city of London.

Elsewhere in London, Clifton has spent his night drinking himself
stupid, when closing time finally comes around he is thrown out of the
pub he is staying in. He is confronted by Dracula, who in “thanks” to
Clifton resurrecting him, uses his hypnotic powers to put Graves under
his thrall. While Dracula stalks another would be victim, Clifton is
dispatched to recover Dracula’s coffin from the hotel he was staying at
with Frank.

Meanwhile, learning that Drake had taken Dracula’s coffin, Van
Helsing decides that this would be an ample time to attempt to destroy
Dracula once and for all. Arming themselves with a crucifix and wooden
stakes they go back to the hotel to try and use the coffin as bait to
lure Dracula. While in the storage area, the hired help aiding Clifton
in removing the coffin accidentally drops it on the ground causing it to
break open and all the gold coins stored inside to come rolling out.
The greedy helper attempts to collect the coins, however Dracula
interrupts and feeds upon the man.

When Drake, Van Helsing, and Taj Natal enter the room shortly
after they find only the coffin, however when they open it up they only
find the deceased porter inside. They are then ambushed by Dracula and
Clifton Graves. During the fight, Graves aids Dracula in knocking the
crucifix away, however Dracula is forced to retreat when Rachel pulls
out a crossbow that fires wooden stakes. Transforming into his bat form,
Dracula makes an escape, with Clifton following far behind. In order to
stop the heroes from following them, Graves bolts the door trapping
them inside.

When Taj Natal finally breaks through the door he finds Scotland
Yard (led by Inspector Chlem) waiting for them. Van Helsing and the
others try to explain the situation, however they the Yard are not
willing to believe in their tale of vampires and takes them into
headquarters for questioning.

While they are detained, Dracula is sleeping in his coffin which
is being transported by Clifton Graves to the location of the person who
purchased Castle Dracula from Frank Drake. Meanwhile, in the morgue of
the Scotland Yard the porter suddenly rises from the slab as a vampire.
However before he can go out and get his first meal he is attacked and
staked by Rachel Van Helsing. Witnessing the entire spectacle Inspector
Chlem is more inclined to believe their story and asks what the Scotland
Yard might do to help.

Finally, Dracula arrives at the home of the one who purchased his
home: Ilsa Strangeway, an aged model. Spying through the window,
Dracula listens as Ilsa tells her lawyer that she had purchased the
castle hoping to learn the secrets to eternal life she she believes she
can get from the Castle so that she can restore herself to a more
youthful age. When her lawyer dismisses the legend of Dracula as
fiction, Ilsa angrily dismisses him.

After the lawyer is gone, Dracula makes his presence known,
realizing who Dracula is, Ilsa invites him in, hoping that the vampire
lord can give her what she truly desires.

Note

• First appearance of Rachel van Helsing, Taj Nitall and Ilsa Strangway. Rachel and Taj become recurring supporting characters for the series. All three appear next in issue #4.

• Another bit of vampire lore is revealed in this issue: A
  vampire cannot enter a persons home unless they are invited in by the
  owner of that home. This is a bit of lore that is not always followed in
  the Tomb of Dracula series, and is eventually abandoned all together.
  Like the dirt filled coffins, it’s presumable that they ceased using
  this bit of Bram Stoker’s mythos as it limited the story telling
  potential of the character.

Editor-in-Chief

Roy Thomas

Cover Artists

Neal Adams

“Through A Mirror Darkly!” / OSCURAMENTE ATTRAVERSO LO SPECCHIO !
Writers Archie Goodwin Pencilers Gene Colan Inkers Tom Palmer

Featured Characters:

• Frank Drake
• Rachel van Helsing

Supporting Characters:

• Taj Nitall

Villains:

• Dracula
• Ilsa Strangeway (Apparent Death)
• Clifton Graves

Locations:

• England
• London

Synopsis

Dracula has come to the home of Ilsa Strangeway who has purchased
Castle Dracula from Frank Drake in the hopes that she can find the
secret to restoring her youth. Dracula has come to take his property
back by force however Ilsa manages to hold him back with a crucifix. She
then asks to make him a deal. She confirms that the words in Bram
Stoker’s Dracula were true, that being turned into a vampire would make
her immortal. Dracula confirms this, and Ilsa asks Dracula to turn her
into a vampire, and in exchange she will give him a dark mirror, the
only occult artifact she had purchased that was not a fraud. She
suggests to Dracula that the mirror could bring him salvation.

Dracula accepts the bargain, and Ilsa tosses the crucifix away,
allowing Dracula to feed on her. Hearing his mistresses screams, Ilsa’s
butler goes to investigate the noise and comes upon Dracula with Ilsa’s
lifeless body. He tries to attack Dracula and is easily knocked back.
The butler comes around later in a hospital where he tells his story to
Frank Drake and Rachel Van Helsing, who have come to aid the Scotland
Yard in the investigation. After hearing the story, the trio go to
Ilsa’s home and find that she had been moved out of the location and
they begin to track her.

While not far away in an abandoned bunker, Clifton Graves had
moved Dracula and Ilsa’s bodies here to sleep away the day. As night
falls, Dracula rises and finds that Ilsa has been resurrected as a
vampire as well. With the hunger full upon her, she attempts to feed on
Clifton, however Dracula stops her as he has claim over Clifton’s life.
He then demands that she tell him the secret of the mirror. She explains
that she purchased the mirror in an auction and that she had researched
on it, learning that the mirror has the occult power to transport
people through time. Not wishing to use it to escape to the 19th Century
as Ilsa had reasoned would be his use for it, Dracula is however
satisfied with their bargain and they go out to feast leaving Clifton
Graves to return to the mansion to wait for them.

Along the way he is ambushed by Frank Drake, Rachel Van Helsing
and Taj who easily knock him. While Rachel has Taj deal with Clifton,
she and Frank enter the bunker. There, Rachel places crucifix’s in the
two vampires coffins and then sends Frank and Taj to wait for Dracula at
the mansion while she waits in the bunker for Ilsa’s return.

In the village, Ilsa goes on a hunt for humans, believing that
drinking their blood will restore her youth. As Dracula makes his way
back to the mansion, he spots Frank Drake and attacks him. The king of
the vampires is however forced away when Taj shines a flashlight with
the shape of the cross on Dracula. Hiding in the mansion, Dracula
attempts to escape once more but is once more blasted by a crucifix
shaped flashlight. With nowhere to flee, Dracula decides to make his
retreat through the dark mirror and heads to the mansions upper level.

Meanwhile, Ilsa has returned to the bunker unaware that Van
Helsing is waiting for her with a bound up Clifton Graves. When she
finds that her coffin has a crucifix put in it, she realizes that her
hands are still aged and withered and realized that becoming a vampire
had not restored her youth and that when one becomes a vampire they
become immortal they do not gain their youth. When Clifton mocks Ilsa
about how Dracula fooled her, she also reveals that she had tricked
Dracula as well: That the mirror would only travel one back to a time
where the mirror already existed, any attempt to travel to a time prior
to the mirrors existence in the earthly world would send the traveller
to a world of demon creatures.

She furiously attempts to slay Clifton, however she stops herself
realizing what she gave up for the cost of immortality. Noticing Rachel
Van Helsing, Ilsa asks the vampire hunter to kill her out of mercy, and
Van Helsing complies by firing her cross bow and impaling her with a
wooden stake.

Rachel rushes back to the mansion to rendezvous with Frank and
Taj and finds Frank and learns that Taj went inside after Dracula.
Rushing in after him, Rachel and Frank are horrified to arrive just in
time to see a struggle between Taj and Dracula take a turn for the worse
when the fight sends them through the mirror. 

Synopsis

An ugly king threatens a sorcerer with death unless he makes the king
“the most handsome male” so the sorcerer turns him into a swan.