Dracula Lives is a Spin-Off from Marvel comic book The Tomb of Dracula.
An Anthology Comic, it featured tales of Dracula's various misadventures before and after his resurrection in the seventies, alongside with reprinted material from older Marvel horror comics.
Dracula Lives provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Turac accidentally kills Maria Dracula when he hits her and she falls toward a wall head first.
- Blood Bath: Elizabeth Bathory finds out that her baths in the blood of virgins has made her immune to Dracula's control.
- The Cameo: Simon Garth, a.k.a Zombie, appears briefly in a story set in New Orleans so that a Clue from Ed. can promote his series Tales of the Zombie.
- Censor Shadow: Used when Dracula is standing naked by a riverside.
- Chekhov's Gun: The comic introduced the Montesi Formula to the Marvel Universe, a spell that when spoken aloud could permanently kill a vampire. The papers containing it would elude Dracula in a Sequel Hook, and it later became a major plot point in a story arc of Doctor Strange: Master of Mystic Arts.
- Comicbook Adaptation: An adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula ran alongside with the stories. The book was cancelled before the final chapter was released, and the story was finished in the pages of Legion of Monsters.
- Decapitation Required: Dracula is vanquished several times, but since his head is never removed afterwards to make his death permanent, he always manages to return.
- Duel to the Death: Dracula gains the title and power of the Lord of Vampires by defeating its current holder Nimrod in a duel.
- Genre Blindness: Since many think vampires as nothing but legends, especially in the past centuries, they are not aware of their basic weaknesses. One man exploits this after stealing Dracula's journal and learning about them firsthand by selling the information to the villages on his menu.
- Given Name Reveal: After Dracula kills the would-be vampire slayer Hans, his pregnant lover Rachel swears that her son or his children will one day destroy him.So I swear... Rachel van Helsing.
- Historical Domain Character: "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Bathory appears as competitor for Dracula's daily sustenance, and they briefly agree to form an alliance. When Bathory finally betrays Dracula, he ends up stealing her journals and turning them in to the authorities, which leads to her being sealed in a room in her castle as punishment. Dracula later confronts Bathory in her cell and drains her of all her blood; she ages to death in seconds.
- Honor Before Reason: As Solomon Kane has Dracula at his mercy, he reminds him that he owes him for saving his life earlier. Solomon grudgingly lets him go, but would later come to regret his decision, and returns to finish Dracula in the pages of The Savage Sword of Conan.
- Improvised Cross: In one issue, a character prevents Dracula from restoring his freshly staked brides by arranging their corpses on the floor to form a cross.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Dracula encounters various unpleasantly named fellows like Muerto, DeVill and Diablo.
- Pirate Girl: Captain Hellyn DeVill, who is not just a pirate, but also a witch.
- Power Of Hate: As Dracula recounts his imprisonment in Sultan Murad's dungeons, he notes while his more "feeble-minded" brother Radu couldn't survive in those conditions, his own hate kept him alive through the ordeal.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: After a long venture inland, Captain DeVill unleashes her pirates on the village next to Castle Dracula.
- Rise from Your Grave: At the end of the first part of the Pit of Death story, the main protaganist is dropped down into a waterway pit and finds himself in front of several coffins. They soon open to reveal several of Dracula's brides. Though the one that get his attention is his now vampirized blind wife, who smiles her newly formed fangs at him.
- Savage Wolves: Dracula rescues Solomon Kane from a pack wild wolves before inviting him into his castle.
- Sinister Minister: Dracula gets into a turf fight with a vampire who is posing as one village's priest (and is a worshipper of Satan too).
- Sword Fight: Kane challenges Dracula into a duel after finding about his villainy.
- Those Wacky Nazis: One story set in 1944 sees Nazis who have stationed in Castle Dracula dying from vampire-attacks.
- Tragic Keepsake: Dracula cherishes the pendant that belonged to his second wife Maria.
- Vampire's Harem: The Pit of Death two parter showcases that Dracula has built up a small army of vampire women. The most recent of which is the protagonist's blind wife.
- Villain Protagonist: Dracula, like in his main book.
