Summary

• Marvel's weirdest vampire story involved alien criminals resembling giant bats facing the android Human Torch.
• The Comics Code Authority banned vampires in comics for nearly 20 years after the story's publication.
• "Vampire Tale" was a unique and science fiction-oriented vampire story that Marvel has chosen to ignore and forget.

70 years ago, presence felt in Blood Hunt. Yet in 1954’s The Human Torch #37, Marvel told a much different kind of vampire story with a weird, science fiction-oriented premise.

“Vampire Tale,” drawn by Dick Ayers, appeared in The Human Torch #37. It opens with the original, android Human Torch and his sidekick Toro investigating vampire attacks.

Meanwhile, a mysterious object is approaching Earth and will land at the exact spot where the vampire attacks are happening. Traveling to the landing spot, Torch and Toro are shocked to learn these vampires are actually the descendants of alien criminals. These aliens resemble giant, anthropomorphic bats, and use Earth as a penal colony.

Seeing what their prisoners had done, they had returned to take them to a new world.

The Comics Code Authority Put An End to Vampires in Comics For Almost 20 Years

When Vampires Returned to Marvel, They Were Very Different

The six-page story was something of a milestone for Marvel, as it would be the last time the creatures would appear for nearly two decades. Shortly after the issue’s publication, the Comics Code Authority was implemented. The outgrowth of a moral panic over comic books, the CCA forced publishers to dial back the horror elements of their stories by banning vampires, werewolves, zombies and other similar creatures. It would take a loosening of the Code in the early 1970s before the undead would return to Marvel.

Tomb of Dracula inaugurated a new era for horror in the Marvel Universe, introducing vampires to its mix. When the undead made their Marvel debut, their origin was decidedly different from the one depicted in The Human Torch #37. Instead of being of extraterrestrial origin, vampires are the product of the Darkhold. This ancient tome of evil is responsible not only for vampires, but werewolves and other monsters as well. The first vampires in the Marvel Universe lived in Atlantis during the Hyborian Age, and their evil would spread from there.

Marvel Will Never Acknowledge "Vampire Tale"

Ignoring "Vampire Tale" Is Probably For the Best

70 years later, Marvel has never given a proper follow-up to “Vampire Tale,” and most likely never will. “Vampire Tale” does not gel with any of the vampire lore Marvel has established over the past 50 years. The story is science-fiction oriented, perhaps as a response to the virulent attacks on horror comics occurring in the real world. Dick Ayers may have felt making the vampires into aliens would detract from any potential criticism. Unfortunately, Marvel’s weirdest vampire story was one of its most unique, but has since slipped into obscurity.