‘The Return of Captain Vampire’

When most of us think of vampires, we think of undead being who must sustain on blood, with such characters as Dracula, Countess Bathory, Lord Ruthven, Varney the Vampire,and many others.

But there is a lesser-known type of vampire called an “energy vampire” who sustains themselves by taking the life energy of others. One such early (maybe first) version of this is Cossack Capt. Boris Liatoukine, who is sometimes called “Captain Vampire.” He appeared in Marie Nizet‘s Captain Vampire (1879), adapted and republished in 2007 by Black Coat Press. Some speculate it may have influenced Bram Stoker, but I have to wonder.

Since then, Brian Gallagher continues Captain Vampire’s adventures from 1830 to the near future in a series of stories that appeared in Tales of the Shadowmen #10 through #16, and recently collected as The Return of Captain Vampire. I had wondered if this would be collected. Guess I have my answer.

In these stories, he also ties in the vampire concepts of Paul Feval, such as the Vampire City, as well as other vampiric characters.

This volume consists of:

“The City of the Nosferatu,” from Tales #10, starts our storyline, re-introduces Captain Vampire and shows his connection to other vampires like Dracula and Orlok, as well as Paul Feval’s Vampire City.

“The Trial of Van Helsing,” from Tales #11, is set on the eve of WWI, and has the vampires of Vampire City bringing in Van Helsing for the murder of Count Dracula. This includes various other literary vampires.

“The Stake and the Sickle,” from Tales 12, is set during the Russian Civil War, and the Captain is working for the Whites against the Reds. But he finds other vampires working for the Reds under Von Bork, the former German spymaster defeated by Sherlock Holmes in his last recorded case.

“The Vampire of Berlin,” from Tales 13, is set in the 1950s, Captain Vampire now works for the KGB under the direction of Von Bork, who is now also a vampire. Here he deals with “The Berlin Vampire” in occupied Berlin.

“The Death of Von Bork,” from Tales 14, now bringing the sequence up to 1979. I guess I’m not giving anything away, but the Captain’s KGB master, the former German spy Von Bork, is finally killed.

“The Skull of Boris Liatoukine,” from Tales 15, has us in the period when the Soviet Union has collapsed, and so the Captain is no longer working for the KGB, and is one of the few vampires still in existence (as shown in the prior stories). This one brings the Captain into conflict with a large vampire hunting organization, as well as a “copy” of himself he thought was gone.

“President Vampire,” from Tales #16, brings us up to 2014, we have our “hero” running for the office of president of Russia! Though he is expected to lose, with the reward that he will get more influence and power behind the scenes. But he still has to deal with the network of people trying to kill him.

When this ran in Tales I really found the series pretty interesting, and at some point I need to get and read Nizet’s original novel. If you haven’t read the Tales series, this is a great way to get this storyline all in one volume.