The Los Angeles Times has a great essay written by Christopher Farnsworth, author of The President’s Vampire. These days good vampires are not terribly uncommon, from Twilight to True Blood and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Blade have vampires who aren’t just flat out evil. Farnsworth looks back to when comic books first starting creating good vampires and what he thinks has driven our need to create some good out of all the bad. It used to be you’d never see a vampire as the good guy. After all, a vampire, by its nature, hunts and kills human beings. There are centuries of folklore detailing how mankind has been forced to defend itself against these lethal parasites. That’s not a reputation you lose overnight.
But today, vampires have moved into the light – metaphorically speaking, anyway. Edward Cullen and his family of vampire vegetarians – who only drink animal blood – are only the most famous examples. The ranks of on-screen vampire good guys includes Bill Compton from “True Blood,” Angel and Spike from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Nick Knight from “Forever Knight,” the title hero from the “Blade” films and comics, Mick Angel from the “Moonlight” series, Selene from “Underworld” and maybe a dozen more that even I’ve never heard of.
Like everything else, however, comics got there first. Comic books have been turning vampires into superheroes since at least 1966, when Dell Comics tried to turn three of the iconic Universal horror monsters into heroes. A direct descendant of Dracula put on a purple bodysuit and a bat-shaped belt-buckle and swore an oath to fight injustice. Was it a concept ahead of its time — or just a concept with bad timing? Either way, the series lasted all of three issues.
read more at the source La Times
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