Siskoid and Chris Franklin's coverage of The Brave and the Bold continues with issue #195 (February 1983) by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo, and starring Batman and Andrew Bennett - I... Vampire!
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Great show, Uncle Siskoid and Uncle Chris. And a very cool story. I’ll have to dig this one out of my Dad’s shortboxes to read when I get back home.
I believe the “vampire mosquito” from Africa Uncle Siskoid had mentioned is called the adze, which takes the form of a quasi firefly. I could not find an image on Google that matched the illustration you described from your book, but maybe this Inktober drawing by Jurij Mikuletič is close?
There’s also an even chance that it’s a false memory combining a bunch of monsters in that book or others.
Maybe page 20 should have been another splitscreen…
K . Here’s my team up it’s. A else world tell
Andrew Bennett is still a vampire but he’s adventurer along with young ward Allen Walker (in the regular world he’s from the manga series D.gray man .) here Allen walker is young teenager with white hair and cursed eye that lets see supernatural beings true forms and break any curse they may have retuning them to human . This curse breaking ability for some reason does not work on Andrew or his former bride . It’s thought that same vampire that gave Allen this power maybe the one that turned Andrew .
So for the long explanation of this Allen .
But any ways Andrew who works as pro wrestler count slam . With Allen being his manger the young knight . Are heading to Colin’s port where there wresting company the H.W.F aka Haunted .wrestling federation. Located in Salem . Is staging a live event . But something strange is going on many of locals are being kid napped now it’s up to are hero’s and Barnabas and Quinton to solve the mystery and save the day before it’s too late .
Can our heroes solve the case of missing port ?
I read I… Vampire from the start so it was a treat to see him honoured with a side trip to Brave and Bold. I found your dissection and discussion thoroughly engaging, Siskoid and Chris. It was a fun issue, even if the doctor did look too much like Jim Gordon
Siskoid, a fair few of the House Of Mystery stories are on DC Infinite, right into the Bruce Jones era. They’re worth a read, even for a non-vampire fan
By the way, Mary wasn’t Andrew’s wife, she was his lover. It doesn’t make a huge difference, but there you go!
That Mark Waid letter was such fun, yes, wonder if that ever came up when he later worked with Barr and Giordano. I never tried the ‘exaggerate your feelings’ bit to get letters printed, I had loads in UK books over the years, and a few in US comics, and I just said what I thought, at tedious length (no change there). I disliked it when regulars had a schtick, eg the chap who always began by telling us he’d just got back from his local comic shop with his latest stack, naming the shop. Bet he got a few freebies. (I’m not naming names as today he’s a Twitter pal.)
The clothing Andrew puts on for Club Dracula is the stuff that the young vampire man was wearing, presumably Andy thought passing as him might be useful. Me, I say keep the tight white trousers. Definitely a Hot.
The Next Issue Easter egg gags started, if memory serves, when Paul Levitz was editor. You were invited to guess the next guest star – there was no end box or lettercol plug. There wasn’t at the end of this story, or last issue’s Flash team-up in which a newspaper in Barry’s super-speed trail splashed ‘Vampire attacks’. Hopefully they’d not started giving things away on the letters page! I haven’t my books to hand so can’t check.
Siskoid, your ‘I vampire, You Jane’ crossover sounds amazing.
As I have said on other shows and in other message boards, DCCP and B&B were my sort of ‘Who’s Who’ before that book existed. These books were where I learned about the corners of the DCU. I definitely had this book from off the rack back in the day but it has been lost to the limbo of lost books.
Really glad you both mentioned the coloring of the book and how important it was to the storytelling here. Kudos to Roy for getting it right.
I am also not a huge fan of vampires (werewolves are my jam) so this book didn’t entice me to head to the House of Mystery to read more adventures.
Was hoping you’d be covering the Ragman issue as it has a line of dialogue in it which has become part of my personal lexicon! But that Mister Miracle story is great.
I’d love to do Ragman, we just need to “connect” it in our issue chain somehow.
Well, that creative team looks familiar somehow. (Says the guy covering Batman and the Outsiders)
Yes, Adrienne is a treasure. I fully admit, I often don’t give the coloring enough attention, because part of its job is not to draw attention away from the story. But learning to pay attention has elevated my appreciation of stories. And Adrienne does some amazing things in her comics. Plus, she was a machine! I count 8 comics colored in the same month as this issue, but also routinely coloring 10 per month in this same era. Phenomenal output! I’m glad to hear more appreciation of her!
My only exposure to I.. Vampire was the Dr Fate series, but this issue was great! Sure, the story with the girl didn’t quite work, but I enjoyed the action, the partnering of Batman and Bennett, the ending battle, and Batman saving a vampire’s life, even smiling and offering to help. Just a fun romp.
I do agree that Barr’s take on Batman is harsher that others at this time. I haven’t done enough research yet to see if this was always how Barr wrote him, or if he was ahead of the trend that would become the norm following Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. But also, Barr would show Batman’s softer side too, with smiles, jokes, and affection. His Batman wasn’t a one-note character, IMHO. But again, I’m far from an expert.
Also, with my love of DeMatteis as a creator, I guess I’ll be adding I… Vampire to my reading list if it’s available on the digitals.
Thanks for sharing a great issue, guys!
it would be really strange if Andrew Bennet were not inspired by Dark Shadows. I dont remember many other vampires having such detailed back stories as Andrew bennet/Banabis Collins . Even if im wrong about that (ive not read Anne Rice) Both have evil magic wives)
A fun episode and loved hearing you both discuss this issue. I am pretty sure I owned this book. The cover is very familiar. Maybe I just recognize it from the shelves, but I know I’ve seen it a lot, and it might be one of the earliest comics I collected. But if I do have it, I don’t remember it at all.
I like that Vampires run undercover sting operations for victims. I also enjoyed how this issue avoided the typical Marvel fight before the team-up. Bennett basically says, “yo, I’m cool” and Batman takes a second and replies. “We should work together because i am also cool.” I’m just saying, that’s a lot of trust being extended to a vampire from the 1500s.
Issues like this are fun, wirh the endless chapters, and Aparo’s Batman never looks like he wants to fight. He always looked more like a detective or a cop that just happened to be wearing a Batman costume.
Lastly, when it comes to the cancellation of House of Mystery, much like in Good Will Hunting, Chris, it’s not your fault.