Flying a Kite at Night?

I was flipping through an old comic when I came across this advertisement which made me think of the truly terrible 1979 version of Dracula starring Frank Langella as the count and Laurence Olivier recycling his awful accent from A Little Romance as Van Helsing. What reminds me of this ad is during the film’s climax, Dracula appears to be destroyed by being hoisted from the hold of a ship into the purifying rays of the sun. As he melts there is a cut away and then there is a cut back where the count is replaced by what is obviously a kite. The kite flies off into the sky. It looks as if they wanted to leave a window open in case the box office returns warranted a sequel, but it did not. It felt like the film’s crew just wanted to get it over with so they shot a kite. They didn’t know how to end the movie. It may have worked in a small, fleeting glimpse, but the camera held onto an unmistakable kite flapping in the wind. Awful. Honestly, this doesn’t look too bad as a still, but it’s much worse in motion. It’s not a bat. It’s not a man. It’s a kite. The cartoony flying count would have been a preferable substitute.

Eerie No. 66The Dracula kite ad appeared in Eerie No. 66 published in 1975. I used to turn my nose up at these black and white comics preferring the Marvel super-hero comics. The Marvel comics were shorter but cheaper; had characters I knew and Mom wouldn’t flip out if she found them in my room. The Warren comics were in a magazine format and did not have to conform to the Comics Code Authority that governed the content of most comics published at the time. The stories had a lot of blood and boobs all printed in glorious black and white. They were great and typically featured terrific artists, but parents certainly would not approve.

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2 Responses to Flying a Kite at Night?

  1. Old NFO says:

    LOL, and people bought them!

  2. Joe says:

    It seemed like kites were a big deal at that time especially down at the Jersey shore.

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