DEBRA CHOMENDEBRA CHOMEN
Real Name: Debra Chomen
Identity/Class: Human vampire;
pre-modern era
Occupation: Predator;
former zoologist
Group Membership: Vampires of Earth;
Affiliations: None known
Enemies: Volan Gaul
Known Relatives: George Chomen (husband)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: A cavern in an unidentified mountainous US region (presumably the southwest; see comments);
formerly a cabin in that region
First Appearance: Vampire Tales#7/5: "BATS" (October, 1974)
Powers/Abilities: 
As a vampire, Debra presumably would have had
superhuman strength
(typically enhanced human) and required regular blood meals to survive.
Further,
feeding on a human victim would typically turn that victim into a
vampire, depending on the extent of the feeding and other
circumstances.
Those she vampirized may or may not have been subservient to her.
When fully fed, she could likely
heal rapidly from non-fatal wounds.
She presumably had the standard
vampire vulnerabilities, including religious icons, sunlight, garlic,
silver, and wooden stakes through the heart. She may or may not have
been susceptible to conventional poisons (at least those affecting
blood properties, such as vitamin K inhibitors)
She could transform into a normal-sized bat and fly; in bat-form, she slept in a cave during the day; perhaps, like her vampiric progenitor, Volan Gaul, while somewhat dormant in bat-form, she could survive extended periods of sun exposure without harm.
She may have been able to mesmerize others with a gaze; however, not every vampire possesses such abilities.Height: Unrevealed (perhaps 5'3")
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 120 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (possibly red; original eye color unrevealed; apparently dark, perhaps brown)
Hair: Unrevealed (dark, possibly black, possibly with lighter streaks...or light with darker streaks...who knows, it was a black and white story)
History:
(Vampire
Tales#7/5 (fb) - BTS) - While her husband, George, worked out of a cabin
in the American southwest, seeking to obtain bat specimens, Debra
planned to join him later.
Debra mailed George a letter, telling him she would be at his comfy little shack about 9 AM on April 18.
(Vampire Tales#7/5) <April
17, 1974> - As
Debra drove her jeep in the evening, she was spotted by the vampire
Volan Gaul, who descended upon her, landing on the jeep's hood and
windshield.
Gaul swiftly grabbed Debra by the neck and bit down into her jugular vein.
As Debra lost control, her jeep ran off the road and over a cliff; Gaul continued to drink as the car fell, flying away just before it crashed
to the ground.
(Vampire Tales#7/5 (fb) - BTS) - Debra's body was found by police officers (presumably highway patrolmen)
(Vampire Tales#7/5) <April 18, 1974> - Late afternoon, the policemen knocked at George's cabin door, showing him Debra's apparently dead body and then leaving the body with him.
George
despondently drank rat poison and waited to die.
Meanwhile, as the sun set, the bat
George had captured (coincidentally Gaul in bat form) returned to
humanoid form, broke out of the cage and fed on George's blood.
However, the poison in George's blood agonized Gaul, who apparently perished (see comments).
(Vampire Tales#7/5) -
Debra revived as a vampire, and George did as well soon after. The pair
took up residence in Gaul's former cavern.
Comments: Created by Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy, and Duffy Vohland.
Interesting that the police
brought Debra's body to George and just left it there with him. Maybe
he asked for some time alone, and they agreed to give him an hour, or
something like that.
It is presumed from the story that Gaul perished from drinking George Chomen's poisoned blood. It is interesting that George revived as a vampire after dying following his own poisoning, but the situations are somewhat different.
The Chomen's adventures took place at the time they were published and they are not associated with the sliding timescale, so the dates are not topical.
George Chomen was seeking to bag a specimen of
noctilio leporinus, which is native to Latin America (with a range
stretching from Mexico to Northern Argentina), but perhaps the Chomens
traveled to this location to investigate reports of noctilio leporinus existing in this part of the USA.
Courtesy
of Wikipedia:
The greater bulldog bat or fisherman bat (Noctilio
leporinus) is a type of fishing bat native to Latin America (Spanish:
Murciélago pescador). The bat uses echolocation to detect water ripples
made by the fish upon which it preys, then uses the pouch between its
legs to scoop the fish up and its sharp claws to catch and cling to it.
The greater bulldog bats range stretches from Mexico to Northern Argentina and also includes most Caribbean islands.
This was an early prototype of
Marvel's 'Nuff Said stories, as there was no speech in this story, no
was there narration.
The only text
was in Debra's letter to George, in George' journal, and the "NOK NOK"
sound affect when the highway patrolman brought Debra's body to his
cabin.
Volan Gaul's name, as well the
surnames of Debra and George, were revealed in Vampires: The Marvel
Undead. The date was confirmed as 1974, and the location was confirmed
as being in the USA.
Volan Gaul's name is an homage to the artists who created him, deriving the letters of his first name from inker Duffy Vohland's surname and the letters of his surname from the surname of Paul Gulacy.
Debra and George's first names were given in story in Debra's letter to George, while the surname is an anagram of the surname of writer Doug Moench.
Debra was noted to be a zoologist in the unabridged appendix to Vampires: The Marvel Undead as well.
Another image of Debra's confrontation with Gaul is shown in Gaul's profile.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Debra Chomen should be distinguished from:
images: (without ads)
Vampire Tales#7/5: "BATS"; story pg. 2, panel 3 (human face);
pg. 3, panel 4 (vampirized);
panel 7 (drives off cliff);
pg. 6, panel 2 (police with corpse);
pg. 7, panel 8 (reviving as vampire);
panel 9 (Debra and George, fanged);
panel 10 (leaving shack as bats);
panel 12 (bats in Gaul's former cave)
Appearances:
Vampire Tales#7/5: "BATS" (October, 1974) - Doug Moench (writer), Paul Gulacy (penciler), Duffy Vohland (inker), Tony Isabella (consulting editor), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Vampires: The Marvel Undead (December, 2011) - Jeff
Christiansen, Mike O'Sullivan, and Stuart Vandal (head
writers/coordinators); Markus Raymond & Mike Fichera (assistant
coordinators)
First posted: 04/27/2020
Last updated: 05/03/2020
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
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