Lawrence Blasco; Marquis Blasco; vampire

LAWRENCE BLASCO

Real Name: Lawrence Blasco; Marquis Blasco

Identity/Class: Human vampire;
pre-modern era (circa 1975);
English citizen

Occupation: Predator

Group Membership: Vampires of Earth;

Affiliations: Lily Marlowe; numerous unidentified victims (see comments)

Enemies: Burt Johnson;
formerly Lily Marlowe

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "Master" (from Lily);
"Fang-mouth" (insult from Burt Johnson)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly Chicago, Illinois;
formerly England

First Appearance: Vampire Tales I#9/4 (February, 1975)

Powers/Abilities: As a vampire, Lawrence presumably had superhuman strength (typically enhanced human) and required regular blood meals to survive.

When fully fed, he could likely heal rapidly from non-fatal wounds.

Further, feeding on a human victim would turn that victim into a vampire, depending on the extent of the feeding and other circumstances.

Those he vampirized were commonly subserviant to him.

He could mesmerize others with his gaze, and he could transform from human to bat form (in which he could fly) at will.

He demonstrated vulnerability to religious icons (exposure to a cross immobilized and weakened him to the point of unconsciousness) and a wooden stake through the heart.

He presumably had the standard vampire vulnerabilties, including sunlight and garlic.

Height: Unrevealed (perhaps 5'11")
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 180 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (they looked to be dark, at least)
Hair: Brown of Black

History:
(Vampire Tales I#9/4 (fb) - BTS) - Born in England "a very long time ago," Lawrence Blasco was eventually vampirized under unspecified circumstances.

(Vampire Tales I#9/4 (fb) - BTS) - Now in America, Lawrence conceived of a plan to vampirize a prostitute, so he could feed on her customers in private.

(Vampire Tales I#9/4) <1975> - Observing the prostitute Lily Marlowe for some time in bat-form, Lawrence decided it was time to act.

He met with Lily, who was intrigued with finally meeting a Limey, and he agreed to meet with her in private. However, back in her room, he instead entranced her with gaze, ignoring her pleas to release her, and then he drank her blood via biting her jugular vein. His thirst quenched, he returned to bat-form and flew away.

(Vampire Tales I#9/4 (fb) - BTS) - Initially weakened, three days later, Lily revived and was reinvigorated as a vampire.

(Vampire Tales I#9/4) - After Lily fed on her first customer since her transformation, Lawrence -- who had watched and followed her in bat form -- entered the room via the window. He instructed Lily to go far away so she avoid suspicion, after which he fatally drained the man and then fled again in bat-form.

In the ensuing days, the pattern repeated itself, with Lily departing after subduing her customer and having an alibi as being out on the street when he died from blood loss at the fangs of Blasco.

(Vampire Tales I#9/4 - BTS) - Mystified and frustrated, the police futilely sought the "psycho runnin' loose in the city."

Lily's pimp, Burt Johnson, was suspicious of her "tricks" dying, but as she had alibies, he sent her back to work, but he began following her.

(Vampire Tales I#9/4) - Johnson watched as the bat-form of Lawrence flew into the room in which Lily had taken her customer. Lawrence was aware of Johnson witnessing his arrival; aware of Johnson's suspicions, Lawrence plotted to lead Johnson into a trap.

(Vampire Tales I#9/4 - BTS) - When a bat (Lily) flew out of the room minutes later, Johnson assumed it was the same one as before and figured it might be a vampire bat; though he had no idea how Lily was fitting into this, he followed the bat to kill it to prevent his customers being killed.
    Meanwhile, Lawrence followed Burt after finishing off his victim.

    When Burt followed the bat to find a recently disturbed coffin in the basement of an abandoned theater, he realized the bat was actually a vampire. Sharpening a stake, Burt opened the coffin but was shocked to find Lily within.

(Vampire Tales I#9/4) - Lawrence then made his presence known and explained his actions. Johnson rushed him with his stake, but Lawrence easily swatted him away. Throwing some baskets to between himself and Lawrence, Johnson fled, with Lawrence close behind, promising to catch and destroy him.

    However, in a dark room, Johnson found a stage lamp on which he tied some strips of cloth in the form on a cross. Johnson turned on the lamp and held the cross-shadow on Lawrence, trapping and weakening him. Lawrence futiley instructed Johnson to turn off the lamp, but eventually he collapsed from weakness, after which Johnson dragged him back to the basement, where he stake both Lawrence and Lily and left them in the coffin.

Comments: Created by Larry Leiber and Jesus Blasco.

Marquis is title for nobleman ranking below a duke and above an earl or a count. I don't think you're supposed to use both first and last name with the title, and I'd guess you're supposed to say Marquis Blasco, but I'm not certain. I'm also told that Marquis is specifically a French term, as the British term would be Marquess.
But Blasco does note himself to be from England, a very long time ago. Perhaps he had dual citizenship or something?

This story was published in 1975 and has absolutely nothing to tie it to the modern era/sliding timescale...it fits nicely at the time of publication, and Dracula's OHotMU entry confirms the story to have occurred in the second half of the 20th century. The story specifically notes it to have been like 30 years after World War II.

All of the victims Lawrence fatally drained should also have revived as vampires...

The title of the story was "Blood Stalker!" That's not an alias used in the story, just most likely a descriptive title for the story.

Lawrence (and Lily) would presumably have been restored via the prophecy spell in Blade III#12 (see the profile on Lucas Cross).

Lily tells Lawrence that she never met a "Limey" before. I believe Limey originated as a shortened-term for the derogatory Lime-juicers, a term for British sailor who drank lemon juice (apparently lime and lemon were used interchangeably for citrus fruits in the 19th century) to get sufficient Vitamin C to avoid scurvy.
Further, from Wikipedia:

Initially, lemon juice (from lemons imported from Europe) was used as the additive to grog on the Royal Navy ships, but was later switched to limes (grown in British colonies), not realizing that limes did not contain sufficient Vitamin C to prevent the disease.

In time, the term lost its naval connotation and was used to refer to British people in general, and in the 1880s, British immigrants in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Although the term may have been used earlier in the U.S. Navy as slang for a British sailor or a British warship, such usage was not documented until 1918. By 1925, the usage of limey in American English had been extended to mean any British person, and the term was so commonly known that it was featured in American newspaper headlines.

Lawrence Blasco received his name in Vampires: The Marvel Undead. The name was an homage to the creators: Larry Lieber-->Lawrence and Jesus Blasco.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Marquis (Lawrence) Blasco should be distinguished from:

Comte St. Germain, aka Marquis d'Aymar, an immortal-ish mystic--Mighty World of Marvel II17/3
Marquis (Louis Le Blanc) - nobleman and torturer with Nubian guard Molki; encountered Namor the Sub-Mariner--Marvel Mystery Comics#64 (June, 1945)
Marquis of Death (Clyde Wincham, Jr.) - divergent future self of Clyde Wincham-1219; transported to Earth-616, which then diverged from Earth-807128 when Earth's villains organized and slaughtered the heroes--(Wyncham) Marvel 1985#2; (Marquis) Fantastic Four#562
Marquis of Crawlinsdale - enemy of Ennis Tremellyn--Marvel Two-in-One#49
Marquis Chang Hu - alias of Fu Manchu (who also used Comte St. Germain as an alias)--Trail of Fu Manchu
Marquis Radu - Microverse, sought to use symbiotes to destroy the Enigma Force and recreate the Microverse under his control--(I think he first appeared in) Scarlet Spider II#11Marquis Radu - Microverse, sought to use symbiotes to destroy the Enigma Force and recreate the Microverse under his control--(I think he first appeared in) Scarlet Spider II#11
Marquise de Montespan - mistress to Louis XV and an associate of the 18th century Lavoisin--Hellstorm#20
Szilard Blasko - last survivor of Conclave of Hungarian Vampires until destroyed by Magdolna Molnar--Uncanny Tales#18
other "Marquis," "Blasco-esque, or "Lawrence" characters

images: (without ads)
Vampire Tales I#9/4, pg. 1, panel 1 (bat form);
        pg. 2, panel 5 (face);
        pg. 7, panel 5 (full)
        pg. 9, panel 2 (face, fangs);
            panel 6 (staked)

Appearances:
Vampire Tales I#9/4 (February, 1975) - Larry Leiber (writer), Jesus Blasco (artist), David Kraft (assistant editor), Marv Wolfman (editor)

First Posted: 01/10/2018
Last updated: 01/10/2018

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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