AMBER

Real Name: Amber Drey

Identity/Class: Human vampire

Occupation: Artist (painter)

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Carl (former agent)
    pawn of Dracula

Enemies: Dracula

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: a mansion on Lovely Hollow Lane, West Chester, New York;
    possibly in the pre-modern era (see comments)

First Appearance: Tomb of Dracula II#3/5 (February 1980)

Powers/Abilities: Amber was a talented painter, specializing in beautiful life-like portraits and images. After becoming a vampire, her artwork turned into monstrous and horrific images.
    As a vampire, she gained the standard powers and weaknesses, including superhuman strength and durability, physical transformation, the need to consume human blood, weakness to religious icons, etc.

History:
(Tomb of Dracula II#3/5 (fb)) - Amber was a talented painter who achieved much critical approval in a short time with the help of her agent Carl, who also wished to become her lover. At one of her exhibits, she met a tall European stranger--actually Dracula--whom she was enchanted with, though he quickly vanished. Carl took her on a months long tour of Paris, Rome, and Vienna, which she gained international renown. Carl proposed to Amber, but she declined, telling him that her paintings possess her soul and that she could not give it to anyone else. At the last show in Vienna, Amber vanished with the European stranger, and she disappeared for several months.

(Tomb of Dracula II#3/5 (fb) - BTS) - Dracula entranced Amber, had his way with her, and then drank of her blood.

(Tomb of Dracula II#3/5 (fb)) - Carl received a new shipment of paintings from Amber after months without contact, but found them to be ghastly, grisly horrific images of monsters and slaughters. Amber then appeared and insisted he show her new works. Carl tried to discourage her, but she told him that she would find someone else to do it if he refused. Carl put her paintings in an exhibit, which met with disgust and disapproval from her former fans. Amber screamed that her critics did not deserve her works and then fled in her car. Carl followed Amber and looked through a window in her mansion only to see the European stranger ravishing the naked Amber and then bite her throat and drink her blood. Carl initially fled in panic, but returned.

(Tomb of Dracula II#3/5) - Carl entered Amber's mansion, forced his way into her room, and found her reclining in a coffin. Amber showed Carl her fangs, told him what had happened, and commanded him to leave or she would do the same to him. When he refused, she physically hurled him from the room and locked the door. Amber told him that she was entering the final stages of her transformation into a vampire, and she wouldn't be able to control herself after its completion.

    Unwilling to lose herself completely, Amber began painting a picture of a nude woman on a crucifix, surrounded by cherubs (She was not so much being crucified, but rather seemed to be held up by the cross in exaltation). Carl broke down the door and saw that Amber was bursting into flames as she painted the image of the crucifix. She told him there was nothing he could do for her, as the flames consumed her body. When the painting was completed, only her skeleton remained.

    Carl took his favorite painting by Amber, a beautiful portrait from before her transformation. and burned the mansion and the rest of her newer paintings to the ground, so that she would only be remembered for her older work.

Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan.

Stories such as this, which use no other characters locked into the modern era, can be easily fit into the real time in which they were published. I'd like to place this story as having occurred in 1980, to fill in Dracula's adventures in the pre-modern era.

In Blade III#12 a prophecy was fulfilled that brought back all vampires that ever died. This most likely included Amber as well. We'll have to wait if she resurfaces.
--Markus Raymond

Her last name was revealed in the Vampires profile in OHOTMU A-Z HC#12.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:

Carl

Amber's agent. He fell in love with her and even proposed, but she was dedicated only to her work. After her transformation, he tried in vain to help her and could only watch as she ended her existence. However, he made sure to destroy her horrific, post-transformation paintings, so that she would only be remembered for her earlier, beautiful works.

--Tomb of Dracula II#3/5 (Tomb of Dracula II#3/5 (fb)), 3/5

 

 

 

 

 

Appearances:
Tomb of Dracula II#3/5 (February 1980) - Marv Wolfman (writer/editor), Gene Colan (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Lynn Graeme (editor)

Last updated: 07/13/03

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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