Discover the Surprising Way That Gene Colan Got His Gig on Tomb of Dracula – CBR – Comic Book Resources

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Gene Colan received the gig on Tomb of Dracula after doing some unusual campaigning for the job.

True

One of the all-time great comic book runs is Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan and Tom Palmer on Tomb of Dracula. I recently wrote about how good the series was. The title launched during Marvel's early 1970s horror boom and was the only one of the books launched then to make it to the end of the decade.

Despite their iconic run together, neither Marv Wolfman nor Tom Palmer started on the series from the start. Only Gene Colan was there from the beginning and the remarkable thing of it all is that Colan was originally turned down for the series by Stan Lee!

You see, Colan learned that Marvel would be doing a Dracula series in 1971 and he felt that the book was perfectly suited to his talents. He explained to Tom Field in TwoMorrows' Comic Book Artist #13 that the idea of a moody, atmospheric horror book really appealed to him, especially after years of doing almost exclusively superhero titles for Marvel.

He begged Stan Lee for the job and eventually, Lee told him he could have it. Then the book was announced and instead, it was Bill Everett who was going to draw it! When Colan went to Lee, Lee explained that he had promised it to Everett before he had promised it to Colan.

A dejected Colan was going to give up when his wife reminded him of a then-recent story about Marlon Brando going out of his way to prove to the studio executives that he was the right choice for Vito Corleone in The Godfather and so she suggested that Colan do a sample montage of Dracula, to show that Lee couldn't possibly turn him down.

Colan was a bit wary, as this would essentially be free work. He wouldn't be getting paid for this montage. His wife thought that he was into the project enough that he should still go for it and he ultimately did it and sure enough, Lee was so impressed that the gig was Colan's!

And right from the start, he proved it was a wise decision...

Thanks to Tom Field and the late Gene and Adrienne Colan for the information!

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Discover the Surprising Way That Gene Colan Got His Gig on Tomb of Dracula - CBR - Comic Book Resources

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