Dracula rested in his tomb through most of the '80s. Other than the
Monster Squad movie (which I
talked about a little last year), there really wasn't a major Dracula appearance that decade. The next time he shows up is in Doug Moench and Kelley Jones' graphic novel,
Red Rain, in which he fights Batman. This was the year before Dracula mania really picked up again (thanks to tomorrow's Dracula), but I wonder how much of that was just really great timing and how much of it came from knowing what was coming the following year.
Red Rain was part of DC's Elseworlds line in which popular superheroes were placed in alternate realities where they could be explored from new perspectives. In
Red Rain, Batman fights Dracula, the original bat-man. It's kind of a genius idea and Kelley Jones' creepily exaggerated artwork really sells it. The book was popular enough to spawn two sequels by the same creators:
Bloodstorm (1994) and
Crimson Mist (1999).
