I find myself sometimes skipping the first book in these types of series because they can get bogged down in the world building and they usually re-cap the first book in the each following volume. This might be the most 70's books series published.Īll good 'packaged' book series have to start somewhere and 'Dracula Returns' acts very much like the set-up to the punch line. Then they are off to the races over 9 books, finding lost civilizations to fighting voodoo zombies, Dracula kept busy for a few years.Dracula, Atlantis, psychic powers, sexy witches, numbers on the covers, thrills, chills and gore. The trigger to fire the stake? Harmon's psychic powers. The Solution? A tiny stake that is implanted by Dracula's heart. But Dracula needs to be a fly on a string, controlled to be useful to the mysterious Harmon. So, along with his strong-man also ex-cop assistant Sanchez they go off and resurrect Dracula with their own reasons. Professor Harmon is a wheel-chair bound former cop who gets an offer he can't refuse from Ktara a shape-shifting witch who like this Dracula actually comes from Atlantis. 'Ol Drac had some bad luck and ended up with a stake in the heart and a nap in his tomb. The first of the series is simple titled 'Dracula Returns' and it's a corker. Anyway Engel turned to Lory who jumped at the chance. Even Frankenstein had 'The Frankenstein Horror Series' which is sadly a Hodge-podge series of non-connected books, not the continuing adventures of Frankie. Smith's Sabat books, Michael Avallone's Satan Sleuth, Jory Sherman's Chill and 'The Night Stalker' had invaded the television. Plus horror/occult-themed paperback were on the rise, Guy N. It makes sense Old Dracula really got around in the 70's in comics, TV, and films so it only seemed fitting for his adventures to continue only this time as a roguish evil-doer anti-hero. Lory's entries are particularly strong, but stalwart pulp writer Manning Lee Stokes and Paul Eiden do great work with it as well.Īlong the way Engel decided he wanted a Dracula series. It's a very strong violent take on the 'Doc Savage school of pulp.

The Eagle books read like a grown up 'Jonny Quest' globe-trotting, gadgets, over-the-top villains, super-suits, cyborg yetis's you know the good stuff. Robert Lory was a fine writer working on John Eagle books. It was a good deal and produced some of the most fun and varied lines of paperback pulp of the 60's and 70's. He was a paperback salesman who 'packaged' ideas for (hopefully) long running series's of books written primarily by ghost-writers. Without him we wouldn't have Nick Carter, the Killmaster version anyway, nor would we have John Eagle: Expediator, Don Miles, The Baroness, John Jake's bloated Kent Family Chronicles, Chopper Cop, the list goes on.

Dracula Returns by Robert Lory