My Rating
“Blood Red Tear”
Margot Hammer stepped through the doorway and into the quaint little shop marked Madame Xanadu — Advisor. The jingling of silver bells attached to the inside frame went unnoticed as the roar of the downpour outside masked their announcement. There was a new customer looking for answers, but somehow Madame Xanadu already knew this before the rain started falling earlier that day.
The sultry brunette seer beckons the troubled young woman inside and immediately asks about Victor Christianson. Margot is stunned into cold silence. She almost turns and flees, but what is her alternative? The pouring rain? The bone-chilling wind? No. A sudden calmness overtakes Margot, and her fight-or-flight response slowly melts away. With her curiosity piqued, she needs to know how this mysterious tarot reader already knows the key player in her story. After a brief introduction, Margot decides to sit for a reading.
Victor Christianson is already familiar to Madame Xanadu, but she says nothing of this to the troubled Margot. The man represents more than a mortal threat. His life force is tied to something very ancient and sinister indeed. Margot watches as the cards are pulled from the deck and placed face-up in a cross pattern. One by one, Madame Xanadu explains the meaning behind each mysterious image.
The Reading
The final card revealed to Margot is the Hanged Man, a tarot card warning of sacrifice, uncertainty, and a situation that may not be what it appears. Madame Xanadu listens intently as the young woman finally begins to open up. Margot tells Xanadu everything about her financial troubles, her recent job hunt, and the strange new employer who has entered her life. After nearly an hour, the cards are collected and removed from the table. Now it’s time for the post-reading analysis.
Madame Xanadu insists that Margot arrange a face-to-face meeting with her new employer. Only then can the seer truly understand Victor’s motives and the dark forces surrounding him. Margot is reluctant to agree, but what choice does she have? The two women walk toward the front door of the shop, continuing their discussion along the way. After a few more questions, they finally reach an agreement. Victor Christianson will be confronted at a socialite party the following night.
Why won’t the temp agency manager disclose how many women have worked for Victor Christianson in the past? Has Madame Xanadu crossed paths with this eccentric group of party guests before? How can the Death card appear more than once during a single sitting? Collect the series to find out!
Review
Strigoi alert! Strigoi alert!
It’s the era of post-Hammer Films Dracula and the dawn of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. Oh, the times they are a-changin’. I absolutely love seeing the early stages of these newer vampire ideas creeping into DC Comics’ classic monster mythology. The old cape-and-castle bloodsucker was slowly evolving into something more seductive, sophisticated, and dangerous.
Writers Bill Kunkel and Roger McKenzie do an excellent job crafting a story that carries some of that Anne Rice atmosphere while still playing by many of the rules established in DC’s earlier horror titles. This evolution would continue through books such as House of Mystery and eventually the “I…Vampire” storyline. Let’s not forget Nina Skorzeny and the role she would later play in 1997’s Scare Tactics. The children of the night are out there, folks. You just have to believe.
What really works for me is the way “Blood Red Tear” mixes the supernatural mystery surrounding Madame Xanadu with the emerging image of the modern vampire. Victor Christianson doesn’t need to crawl out of a Transylvanian crypt wearing a cape to feel dangerous. There is something wrong with this man from the moment his name enters the conversation. That slow buildup makes the eventual revelation all the more entertaining.
Final Note
On a final note, writer Bill Kunkel gives us a full interview at the back of the book with one Dr. James Paulos. Material was needed for the mandatory fluff pages, so what better way to fill the space than with answers from a vampire “expert”? For a throwaway feature designed to pad out the issue, I actually found it fascinating.
One detail especially caught my attention: the interview references Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, which had been released two years earlier in 1976. I was a huge fan of the original trilogy—and Lestat in particular—so I really appreciated seeing the novel mentioned in a DC horror comic from this period. It’s a small snapshot of just how rapidly vampire fiction was changing during the late 1970s.
I’m giving Doorway to Nightmare #3 a full five out of five stars, based not only on “Blood Red Tear,” but also on that wonderfully strange post-story interview. The entire package was extremely entertaining and serves as a great little time capsule of late-1970s vampire culture.
Now to go find me a Fleur to play with.
