Tracing the first vampire duck is troublesome, for its history, like many historical events, is shadowed in legend and myth. But the first and most well-known depiction of a vampire duck (in mortal history) can be traced to Scott Shaw!, who created “Duckula!” in 1976 for the first edition of the comic book Quack!
Quack! was a comic book anthology series created by writer and publisher Mike Friedrich after Frank Brunner (known for his work in Eerie, Creepy, and Marvel Comics) had a duck story he couldn’t place with Marvel’s Howard the Duck. So, Quack! was formed to host extra material from Friedrich and other writers. The first issue featured a one-page comic about a Dracula duck by Scott Shaw! Yes, Scott Shaw!’s moniker includes the exclamation mark after his name, which makes me wonder if the exclamation mark was an inside joke between artists because “Duckula!” and “Quack!” have an exclamation mark as well. Or is it a duck thing?
Shaw! got his start writing for Gory Stories Quarterly, a ’70s comedic, horror-suspense comic book (Robert Crumb is among its contributors) that published off-beat ideas, such as a story about a monster-turd. In the Quack! Anthology, Shaw!’s “Duckula!” featured a vampire duck with fangs, a little cape, and a bear friend, Bearzanboltz. No one on the internet knows how Shaw! came up with the idea for a vampire duck yet, but it’s fascinating to think that after reading Howard the Duck (it seems likely he was a fan), he said to himself: “Yes, an anthropomorphic duck is good, but the world needs a bloodthirsty duck, a duck who dreams of murder.”
And he was right. In 1977, Filmation, another production studio, created Quacula, a cartoon about a vampire duck who had a bear ‘friend’ the same way Duckula did. Shaw! felt that Quacula looked too much like Duckula as well. After obtaining model sheets of Quacula that showed similar features to Duckula (and Daffy Duck, too), he filed suit for plagiarism. The case was settled out of court, in his favor, in what should be called — “The Vampire Duck Wars.” In the aftermath, Quacula was canceled, and Shaw! went on to create and win Eisner Awards for his incredible work in the Simpsons Comics and later for Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #5.
Before Quacula was axed, it reigned for sixteen episodes in the fall of 1978. Quacula was a blue duck with fangs, a black cape with a high collar, and he spoke with a basic Transylvanian accent, like a prototypical vampire. He laughed like a classic villain too, but it was a weird mixture of a cackle and a quack, a quackle. He slept in an egg coffin in the basement of a haunted-looking house owned by a bear, Theodore, who hated him. Theodore was always trying to get rid of Quacula, who was essentially a squatter, but Quacula refused to leave, and in turn, tormented Theodore.
Unsurprisingly, Quacula’s favorite thing to do was scare people, but he wasn’t good at it. Quacula was a failure as a vampire; we never see him suck anyone’s blood! Mostly, he just annoyed people; he couldn’t even kill a spider. Fortunately, Quacula didn’t need to feed on blood alone; in “The Magic Lamp,” he swiped a bottle of tomato juice at a grocery store, squawking, “Tomato juice, my second favorite drink. Yummy, Yummy, Quack, Quack!”
Quacula had a lot of silly sayings and bits; one of his phrases was, “Bummer!” and, oddly enough, “Double Bummer!” (It’s weird that instead of coming up with a new funny expression for Quacula, they just have him say, “Bummer!” twice.) Quacula does a bullfighting bit in one episode, which implies that he might have spent time in Spain before settling down. He mentions a past love, “Sonia” in “Room for Rent,” so maybe he met her in Spain, but we never get to meet them because Quacula was terminated after Shaw! settled out of court. Bye-bye, duckie!
Years would go by until vampire ducks would live again, but in 1988, Count Duckula appeared (a spin-off of Danger Mouse) with a whole show of its own, although Shaw! had nothing to do with it, and it differs from the original “Duckula!” It also had a great theme song, reminiscent of Whodini’s “The Freaks Come Out At Night” and Michael Jackon’s “Thriller.”
In the heart of Transylvania,
In the vampire hall of fang, yeah!
There’s not a vampire zanier than
(Duckula!)
He won’t bite beast or man, ’cause he’s a vegetarian (Ah!)
And things never run to plan for
(Duckula!)
If you’re lookin’ for some fun, you can always count upon
The wild and wacky one they call
(Duckula!)
The animated horror-comedy about a Nosferatu duck ran from September 1988 to February 1993 for 65 episodes. Each one featured a Vincent Price parody voice-over, which apparently, infuriated the horror legend. He didn’t like being made fun of by a duck, a vampire duck, no less. Nobody would dare make fun of Klaus Kinski; why should they mock him? Most likely, he was rightfully annoyed they didn’t ask him to do the voice-over. Instead, Barry Clayton performed the excellent Price imitation, which nailed the whole spooky vibe of the cartoon.
Maybe the producers didn’t ask him because they assumed that Price wouldn’t want anything to do with waterfowl (but he did The Muppet Show), or they didn’t have the money to pay him. Still, the image of Vincent Price, sitting in a velvet chair, ruminating over, “that vampire duck out there, making fun of me, of all people,” is priceless.
Count Duckula’s backstory is told in the theme song: Duckula was ‘birthed’ in a secret ceremony performed once every hundred years by his servants, Nanny and Igor. Nanny is a giant goose who cares for him, and Igor is a duck, serving as his butler and confidant. But the ceremony was ruined when Nanny brought a bottle of ketchup instead of blood, which destroyed the magical birth. The result was a rather gentle Count Duckula instead of a terrifying vampire duck.
The rebirthed Count Duckula is a vegetarian, and his favorite food is broccoli. He’s green, with black hair parted in the middle, seemingly greased to each side, and a tuxedo top with a red bowtie and a black cape. He didn’t have fangs (unlike Quacula) because he didn’t need them. He had no interest in evil; he’d rather play his harmonica and eat asparagus than suck blood. Igor kept trying to turn him into a brute, but Duckula resisted, which disgusted Igor, who thought Duckula was “dreadfully sentimental” and the family’s shame instead of its pride.
Count Duckula had an American accent, voiced by David Jason, although the British Cosgrove Hall Films studio created the show at Nickelodeon’s request. Everyone else had a British accent, except for his nemesis, Dr. Von Goosewing (a parody of the vampire-hunter Abraham Van Helsing), who had a German accent. Dr. Von Goosewing dressed like Sherlock Holmes, but he’s more like Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau, for his character is a buffoon. He repeatedly tries to kill Count Duckula, even following him to space.
Interestingly, Quacula and Count Duckula had an episode set in space, similar to horror franchises like Leprechaun and Friday the 13th. Of course, as we all know, there is a tendency to send horror icons to space in sequels, but maybe they were influenced by Howard the Duck, who was from outer space. And who doesn’t want to see a vampire duck in space?
Count Duckula wrapped after six seasons, but its end wasn’t the final chapter on vampire ducks in the nineties because one popped up in 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. But this time, it was a toy, a live toy: A wooden yellow duckie created by a brood of vampires during the “Making Christmas” song. In the montage, an artisan vampire-daddy paints blood dripping out of holes on a toy duckie (voiced by comedian Greg Proops), who sings while revealing fangs. The duckie later becomes ‘alive’ and chases children on Christmas eve. Scary!
After the success of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Count Duckula, vampire duck toys became popular. Soon after that came…the rubber vampire duckie. No, not a condom, the bath toy. It’s just as you might imagine: a rubber duckie, but with extra-pointed canines. Sometimes they drip blood. Many variations are sold, particularly around Halloween, though vampire ducks pop up everywhere now; even Donald Duck has gotten into the act, though he’s limited to a special edition button.
Count Duckula reappeared in the 2016 reboot of Danger Mouse, in the episode “From Duck to Dawn” and in Season Two’s “The Duckula Show.” Unfortunately, his character had changed into a media hound who kidnaps the show’s writers because he wants to be famous, which suggests that the new Duckula had turned to the dark side.
It’s 2021, and things are going to plan because vampire ducks are all over the place: pins, stickers, videogames, earrings, origami, cake toppers — you can’t escape them, and why would you want to? Perhaps there’s more to come. Maybe someone will create vampire duck cookies, vampire duck socks, a vampire duck vegan cheeseburger, or we’ll see an Interview with a Duck Vampire parody with that bloodsucker Louis de Pointe du Lac as a goose or a loon. Or Count Duckula will return to reign in a version of Count Duckula: The Movie, as some fans have wished. After all, Igor taught us, anything is possible.
