MINA ARUCA
Real Name: Mina Aruca
Identity/Class: Human vampire
Occupation: Surviving
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: George Crandall
Enemies: None
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: New York, Greenwich Village, 305 Bleecker Street, Apartment 6-C
First Appearance: Vampire Tales#6/3 (August, 1974)
Powers/Abilities: As a vampiress Mina could live forever without aging as long as she avoided some weaknesses to her kind. Some substances were deadly to her: sunrays, fire, garlic and objects that could kill her included the cross or a wooden stake. She fed off human blood, had pointed canines and her image was not reflected by mirrors.
History:
(Vampire Tales#6/3 (fb) - BTS) - Mina, a vampiress, lived in Greenwich Village.
She hid in plain sight, placing an advertisement on the Village
Voice, a local newspaper, declaring that she was a vampiress and
proposing a mutual benefit to men interested in what she could give and take from them.
(Vampire Tales#6/3) - One of her clients was George Crandall,
who wanted to become a vampire, because he was afraid of becoming old and dying. Mina
welcomed him to her apartment, and after explaining him the advantages
and disadvantages of the vampire status, she bit and slew him by draining his blood.
As their pact stated, she didn't kill him
permanently and she left Crandall's body in an alley near Bleecker
Street.
Comments: Created by Doug Moench (writer), Alfredo Alcala (pencils and inks).
Mina "lived" less than 150 street numbers away from Dr.
Stephen Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. How could the Sorcerer Supreme never pass under
Mina's hideout, without sensing her evil presence?
It is also possible that other men had appointments with her for other
purposes like the thrill of meeting a real vampire, the perversion of
being enslaved, sex and so on.
She left a corpse near her home and an ad on a newspaper. She probably didn't stay
at this address for long.
This story was first reprinted in Vampire Tales Annual#1 (1975). The scans were taken from this issue. Mina received her last name in the Appendix in Vampires: The Marvel Undead#1 (2011).
I believe "Mina" is a nickname for "Wilhemina". BTW her namesake Mina Murray Harker appeared in Dracula Lives#9-10, as well as Stoker's novel.
--Darci
Thanks to David A. Zuckerman for a small correction.
Profile by Spidermay.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Mina Aruca has no known connections to:
George Crandall has no known connections to:
George Crandall was a normal human for the most part of his life.
George was in his fifties, boringly married with a son and yet,
he was worried about his future as an old man. He found a solution:
becoming a vampire he could be declared legally dead and continue to
live.
So George went to Mina, a real vampiress, who bit and killed him.
As promised George awakened after three days, fully transformed into a vampire. He was in his coffin and sensed that outside was morning, so he didn't move. But his wife, his "widow", had arranged his cremation, and a few moments later George burnt "alive" and died for real.
--Vampire Tales#6/3
images:
(without ads)
Vampire Tales Annual#1/2, p6, pan2 (Mina, full body)
Vampire Tales Annual#1/2, p7, pan2 (Mina, head shot)
Vampire Tales Annual#1/2, p8, pan6 (George Crandall, head shot)
Appearances:
Vampire Tales#6/3 (August, 1974) - Doug Moench (writer), Alfredo Alcala (artist), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Last updated: 05/09/15
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
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