Supernatural/Horror Icons lacking fame in Comic Books?

Well I am writing this as its getting close to Hallows Eve, and the Horror Movies are picking up as well the new season of Walking Dead! Hell yeah! However I notice something which I found strange. Why do Horror Icons that existed before Comics or before being made into comics, do not do well as Ancient Mythology, Product of Radiation, or Alien concepts? Horror Icons that are world famous, popular, and Iconic NEVER seem to do well or last in Comics? It seems strange.

Look at Thor, based on the mythology, and he is a famous comic line since ever. Even Hercules gets his do in his own titles, or as a main member of many Marvel teams. Wonder Woman is a Amazon who is next to Superman in popularity. Then you have Aliens that made into Comics like the one and only Superman, popular beyond belief, even though I have no idea why lol. Even Invincible, I love the book, but is a Alien. How about all the heros based on the Atomic Age which made them popular since way back like Hulk, X-Men, Spider Man, or Fantastic Four? All high selling top comics.

Examples I like to bring up of Supernatural Icons in comics, yet never seem to last, list.

Lets start with the Big Companies who have Villain/Heroes of a Super Natural/Horror Theme.

Dracula

Dracula is one of the most popular Horror characters of all time. Yet this Vampire who had a solid run in Marvel Comics under the title of Tomb of Dracula has faded from existence.

Most people do not even realize that the Block Buster Blade movies were all due to the Dracula Comic which Blade first appeared in. Dracula of Marvel had many appearances at times against Werewolf By Night, X-Men, Thor, Hulk, Apocalypse, ect, he is mostly a Uknown and viewed as a weak being whose comic battles go nowhere. Now Dracula is not the only Vampire type in comics. There is a host of Vampires who made the Comic Scene and did ok, but never lasting.

Like Angel and Spike, or the Vampire killers Buffy and Faith. All had hit shows and continued on in comics. However when on the forums it is clear many people have no scans, issues, or knowledge (besides shows) on these characters. They are popular, but not lasting in Comics like they were on the long ago canceled show. There is many more Vampire/Dracula comics out there from little companies.

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But they all are very much not popular or lasting.

We also have Morbius, who is a Marvel Vampire, but not a Vampire. Kinda hard to explain.

Point is he is not widely known and is very often used in terrible Comics that have no point in being made.

Same with Blade the Half Vampire. His Comics never lasted or reach the fame of the Movies. Fact is none of these characters have ongoing or treated with any respect in their companies.

Crying Shame.

We have Werewolf By Night. The most printed Comic featuring a Werewolf that I know of. WBN was a pretty ok comic way back when, but was never really that good till his transformation into a more powerful Werewolf for guys like Ghost Rider, Strange, or Moon Knight to team up with. His Comics really do leave much to be desired now and days. The Max Title was really sweet.

But was only a 4 Issue Short Story more than a comprehensive comic. Its funny as there is ton of Werewolf Comics out there.

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Other than Ferals, many any are one shot stories, and leave the question of "Why Bother?" There was one VERY good Werewolf Comic by Robert Kirkman (Walking Dead, Invincible) called Astounding Wolf Man.

Yet for all its good qualities, it was only 25 issues long and hardly makes any appearance in the Invincible Comics. Big shame.

Another great horror character in the world is the Zombie. We all know Zombies, and at the moment are more popular than Vampires in pop culture today. There has been many Zombie characters and comics in the world. However non have gained the fame of Robert Kirkman's Walking Dead comics.

However this too falls victim to popularity within comics as Walking Dead comics are mostly known and sought after because of the hit AMC show rather than its own merits. Is it a bad Comic line? No, absolutely not. Is it famous because it is so good? I think the show was the best Ad Campaign for the Comic ever. Without the show, I would never heard of the Comic myself, and I love Image. Also we have no clue how long this Comic will last. The Show is more popular than the Comic, and the Comic is not really past Issue 200 yet and retain its momentum unlike Spider Man, Batman, Thor, ect.... Here to high hopes.This is not the only Zombie comic book/character. You have DC's Solomon Grundy.

Grundy is a cool character. He is a Super Zombie who can battle with the likes of Superman at times, and get beaten by Batman level at others. He makes great villain, but suffers from inconsistency as a character. One moment he is a dumb as rock brawler and others a smart swavy Justice League threat. He is also not a constant character in much anything other than the occasional threat to a hero character. Marvel Zombies are also a great Zombie title.

Not a long lasting series, but fun to read as they are made up of the Iconic Comic characters. Other Zombiesh titles that are Comics include things like Living Mummy, Garth Zombie, or both Marvel/DC Frankenstein books.

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All these are fun, but not well known nor ground breaking comics. Like Zombies, Ghost Comics fall in this hole. There is like really no real good Ghost Comics out there.

You have titles like Ghost Busters, but thats not hardly well known or read series.

Now I went through timeless horror Icons, but what about Movie and Popular Today Icons? Guys like Jason?

Friday the 13th movies like Halloween, Nightmare on elm Street, or Chucky have spawned countless popular movies, books, ect. However I only seen the Jason X vs Jason in comic form. I never read it, but from the scans I seen, it looks neat. Will it spawn more? Does not seem so at the moment. What a waste that popular concepts like these never have spin off titles.

This also applies to movie classics of the Alien and Predator Franchise. While seen as some as not Horror, but more action, they were originally and still hold Horror themes.

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They spawned many titles by Dark Horse, and still do well to this day. Probably IMO the most successful of the Horrorish Icons in Comics. They have many cross overs and their solo titles are still printed every now and then. However they are Aliens regardless, and not Supernatural which I am getting at more so, but Horror Icons none the less. Another big Original Horror movie turn action star with a Comic Line was Godzilla.

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Starring in many Marvel, IDW, and Dark Horse Comics has made Godzilla successful in a way. However he started as a movie, and Kaiju are more or less seen as Action rather than Horror character these days as well. Like Alien and Predators, not Supernatural in nature, but does fall in the Radiation Hero area as well. But felt the need to list as a Horror Icon.

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There is also many Horror like Comics made popular like Ghost Rider, Hellboy, Lady Death, Man Thing, Haunt, Spawn, Swamp Thing, Witchblade, Darkness, and many more. However the point of my post is for Comics based on Iconic Horror rather than Comic Horror Character made popular.

Another character I like to mention is Shadow. He is not Horror, but was very much Supernatural and existed way before Superman or Comics. He can be seen as one of the first super heroes ever.

Both Dynamite and Dark Horse have made some nice Shadow comics from what I heard. I plan on collecting a few down the road soon. However, true to form it is not widely known nor popular through the test of time.

Anyway, at the end of the day, Iconic characters through time have left little impact as Ancient Mythology (Wonder Woman, Hercules, Thor, ect) or Aliens from another Planet (Superman, Martian Manhunter, Invincible) like comics.

Anyway my thoughts. Just wanted to share how I see it.

Interesting blog, lots of research, i like it. I think maybe some of the answer is exposure....(this only explains some) ancient mythology is something everyone is familiar with...you learn about zeus and odin, hera and Ra, even jupiter any of these, can be learned in schoolm, even before college level courses. in much the same light we learn about vampires and werewolves while we are still in school too. but its a very different way we learn about it... Its cheese...we see references to the Three Stooges vs the mummy...we see Daughter of Frankenstein advertised as an epic bad movie... we see Teenwolf... and in every cartoon show we see horrible knockoff hilarity.... they are jokes on Television and sometimes on the silver screen...so its hard to take them seriously

the other major argument on this is the fear factor.....when we watch a movie, we turn out the lights, put the animals in another room and turn up the volume until the story is through.... this helps us immerse in the film... and become scared more easily...with comics.... its harder to scare yourself.. the lights are on...in order to read the whole scary story, you have to wait a month for the next issue, and the next, and the next. its much harder to keep your level of fear up for this extended length of time.

it might be cool to see this more often....but in the end, it just doesn't seem viable....

but I got your back if we see another good horror comic (not quite there, but i LOVE animal man and Swamp Thing, two good examples of successful horror comics that are also ongoings)

@indiecomicsftw: Dark Horse is very good for horror and has a few horror series as well as a horror anthology every so often. It treats it equally to other genres and in fact has probably the famous horror comic which you forgot:

Hellboy

@bierschneeman: Thanks. Its not just the Scare Factor I mean either though. Its like Wolf Man. Based on Werewolves and filled with pure Comic Action rather than Horror. Then you have great ones like Man Thing, which too me was like a never ending Tales from the Crypt comic, which immerse youin that horror in a classy way.

The point of exposure would seem a big factor.

I put Hellboy in there lol. My point of Hellboy was it is a Comic Base Character that spawned successful comics. Hellboy character and powers never existed in any classy non comic form which is why I never included Hellboy, Spawn, Darkness, ect in the categories.

The lack of Etrigan is disturbing.

True, I never read his comics but at the same time, what Iconic character or creature does he represent that existed before comics? He and Creeper (I should give respects to both) are Demons, but demons with quirky powers that existed as Comics first and only. Part of the and many more statement when mentioning Super Natural Characters made just for comics rather than Horror(ish) characters that were made before Comics.

Jason has had quite a few comics, though they are short like 1-5 issues. That are actually done well, the art is great. I mean...of course there aren't a lot of them, but still, Avatar Press and Wildstorm did a nice job. Continuing them though?...Would be interesting.

@indiecomicsftw: Yes but Superman was a new comic concept and doesn't represent any classic aliens/sci-fi such as Martians, Morlocks or Barsoons. You could argue his similarity to John Carter I suppose but the differences outweigh the similarities.

Can I get a link to the others please? I am interested in them but only seen the Jason X vs Jason.

http://fridaythe13th.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Comics

There is the list of em.

I actually never saw John Carter. He has Super Human powers way back when in the novels like Superman?

Thanks.

@indiecomicsftw: Not exactly. He is an outsider who goes to Mars. He gets super strength and and jump great distances while on Mars due to the low gravity. This may seem different when you think of the modern superman but the similarities between John Carter and the early/golden age Superman are uncanny.

I can't think of supernatural/horror without bringing up the modern age's arguably greatest writer. H.P. Lovecraft. We see little homages and cameos every now and then but no one seems to want to take on a full blown Lovecraftian story. Heck I'd settle for Derleth or the other little prodigies as well but just imagine something like "Whisperer in the Dark" or literally almost any of his short stories adapted to comic form

legacy of kain had 2 issues. one was a prequel to soul reaver the other to defiance. very good and insightful. the best vampire ever created and the best wraith also. and the best story in gaming.

I see, makes sense and I can see where the Inspiration may have started from.

Im down with that. The Stories of the games were top notch. Too bad it never really finish.

@indiecomicsftw: debatable. defiance gave us an ending that, to me, was perfect. spoiler: old kain is in the period where he refused as his younger self the sacrifice at the pillars. he has seen the elder god, the reaver is perfect with raziel's willingness to enhabit it, he is cured of his weakness to moebius' staff. what more is there to tell? oh type nosgoth on youtube. you'll see.

@kthanid: Was actually going to ask that. Lovecraft is a very popular inspiration in gaming and I wondered the same about comics.

I wanted to see the stry of angels and Vampires a bit more, they showed it in Defiance, but sort of left it in vague detail. Also I thought Kain accomplish nothing at the end really other than slaying the Elder God. I will look it up.

@maccyd:

Even in gaming though the only decent one I've played that was a true Lovecraft story and not just a throwback was Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. It was a decent semi stealth FPS that followed very closely to Shadow over Innsmouth. Then again a huge part of the Lovecraft's charm was in conjuring terrifying indescribable cosmic horrors that will always either kill you or drive you mad. There is no dichotomy of hero and villain. I imagine that would make designing a game with a clear objective rather difficult. However in comics it would work just great, I mean look at how awesome the Black Freighter story was in Watchmen

@indiecomicsftw: there are no angels in LoK. you're think of the hylden, a race as old as the vampires. and kain didnt slay the elder god. he just defeated him. for now.

That was it, the Hylden. I wanted to see more of their story and events. also Nosgoth looks pretty cool, I like to see how the missions are handled and how the story unfolds. Is it going to be like DC Online? Pick a class and level up fulfilling missions on a never ending battlefield? See what it yields. I do believe in LoK 2 the Humans were pretty much in control too thanks to Khain's absence in that game.

YES! Tomb of Dracula is awesome, and needs to be revived.

Nice job man. Was a good read.