Monday, May 21, 2012  Number 1161: Joe Certa's vampire and
werewolf  Joe Certa, another journeyman comic book artist who
began his career in the 1940s, was the longtime artist on "J'onn
J'onzz, Manhunter From Mars" for DC, and was also drawing for
Gold Key in the '60s. The fine work he'd done for Harvey's
horror comics in the '50s put him in good stead with GK titles
like Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery and Ripley's Believe It Or
Not.  These two shorts, "The Vampires" and "The Monster of
Auvergne," are both from Ripley's #4 (1967). Since Gold Key
wasn't covered by the Comics Code Authority they could show
vampires and werewolves, which were prohibited at the time by
the CCA. (The Code restrictions were lifted eventually, when the
little kids who were being "protected" from such mythical
creatures in the late '50s and '60s were either going to
college, or even if still young, had seen much worse on
television.) Certa's "Vampire" came out just about the time the
story of the "original" Dracula, Vlad the Impaler—