Random Happenstance

When the Paramount deal for the Atlas-Seaboard properties was announced, I had never picked up a single issue of that company's all-too-brief line, but I did pick up this final issue recently: from 1975, Planet of Vampires #3, "The Blood Plague!" Written by John Albano, art by Russ Heath.

In the far-flung future of...2010, a band of astronauts returns from space to find earth decimated by atomic and biological warfare, and New York City ruled by a vampire elite that prey on humans like cattle. By this point, Elissa and Brenda, the wives of our heroes Craig and Chris, have been captured by the vampires; so the guys raid an abandoned Air Force base for weapons and storm the dome. (Since these aren't traditional, Dracula-style vampires; they don't need the wooden stakes and whatnot; shooting them works just fine. Still, despite being 'science' vampires, on the cover of #2 one of them is wearing a Dracula cape, because...um...) Elissa is found dead, but while Chris puts a bullet in the head of the head vampire (or middle-management vampire, I'd guess) Craig finds Brenda, alive. Still, Craig was done, unwilling to go on.

Chris and Brenda take one of the vampires' "floater" crafts, and fly all the way to "Los Angles" (sp) in search of humans, and find nothing. Running out of gas, they set down near an abandoned zoo, with the cages torn open. Instead of lions, tigers, or bears, though; they're set upon by a pair of giant spiders! Chris rallies to knife them both to death, but Brenda is injured, and dies at the end of the issue. Does Chris have anything left either, to press on? The "Next Issue" teaser seems to team-up Craig and Chris again, in a very Kirby/Kamandi looking spread against the "Revenge of the Vampires!" But I don't think Atlas-Seaboard had a single title get a fourth issue; this one doesn't either. (That spread is signed Lieber and Milgrom.)

I read the first two issues online. The cover of #1 proclaims "A world gone mad! Six astronauts return to earth and find it ruled by vampires!" There were only five; and they lose one maybe three pages in. Their return to earth is reminiscent of Planet of the Apes, of course the Omega Man was a remake but it was from 1971 and was probably an influence. I thought the scene on the dome rooftop where Craig stays was based on Dawn of the Dead, but that was from three years later.

So in blogging random horror comics for Halloween, tons of them have been from anthology books: short stories, no continuity. Planet of Vampires feels like it was trying to start a long-form horror story; something I don't think would really catch until the Walking Dead. (I suspect there may have been other attempts!) (EDIT: Of course, there was Tomb of Dracula and some of the other Marvel horror books, but even that leaned more towards superhero style.) I read, and watched, TWD for a while, but eventually it just became a grind. To keep the stakes high and build drama, nothing ever gets better; eventually, why even go on? I could see Chris and Craig going on just long enough for revenge or a blaze of glory, but that's about it.