Halloween in '16: I...Vampire!

For this year's special run of Halloween posts, Shangrila Towers is spotlighting those infamous creatures of the night - vampires. Keep your crucifix handy, and pray for dawn...

"I...Vampire!" (1981-1983) was a serialized story that capped off "House of Mystery," DC Comics' long-running horror anthology series. The tale follows Lord Andrew Bennett, who is bitten by a vampire in 1591, but manages to retain his morality. However, when Bennett turns his fiancée at her request, she becomes Mary, Queen of Blood, a malevolent being bent on taking over the world. Bennett follows Mary for hundreds of years, and into the modern day, in a guilt-ridden effort to stop the evil he created:



If you like the "vampire with a soul" trope, "I...Vampire!" is required reading. While Andrew Bennett's ultimate mission is to prevent Mary's undead apocalypse, he often cannot stop himself from helping some random person in each issue - basically, he's a blood-sucking Dudley Do-Right. It's a fun character trait that presages more developed vampire heroes like Joss Whedon's Angel.

The series was popular enough to get a relaunch in The New 52, and the revival is good, but I'll always have a soft spot for the classic run.