Countess R.H. von Bludd

Real Name: Countess Rosa H. von Bludd

Identity/Class: Vampire

Occupation: Horror host

Affiliations: Olga (her former maid), Colonel Whiteshroud

Enemies: Count Gregor von Bludd

Known Relatives: Count Gregor von Bludd (husband, deceased, undead, destroyed), unidentified father (deceased)

Aliases: None (see comments)

Base of Operations: Unidentified U.S. city, formerly Castle on the Crags, "dark valley," somewhere in Europe

First Appearance: Scary Tales#1 (Charlton Comics, August 1975)

Powers/Abilities: Undead vampire, unaging and resistant to damage, but vulnerable to sunlight and needs to drink blood to live.

History: In the 15th century the vampire Count Gregor von Bludd ruled the people huddled in a village within the dark valley beneath the castle on the Crags, having stationed men-at-arms on the only road in or out the valley with instructions to slay any peasant who tried to flee. Every now and again he would ride forth, usually just after sundown, at the head of a heavily armed band, seeking victims, who would be hauled back to the castle dungeons and later drained of their blood. When the young woman Rosa, the daughter of one of his targets, stood up to him and tried to defend her father, Gregor was impressed, and, with his first wife having died a decade earlier after falling to her death from the castle tower, he forced Rosa to marry him. However, shortly after she became Countess R.H. von Bludd, a plague killed all the humans in the valley and castle except for Rosa and her maid, Olga. Still needing human blood to feed him, Gregor drained Rosa, turning her into a vampire, but, as Rosa had anticipated this possibility, Olga then slew Gregor using a crossbow bolt per her mistress' instructions. Reviving after Olga had departed, the Countess also left the castle, eventually travelling to the USA, where she set up home in an apparently abandoned spooky-looking house atop a hill, kept company by a white cat. When exploring children discovered her coffin, rather than feed off them she preceded to tell them scary tales of the supernatural, finding a new vocation as a storyteller.

Comments: Created by Nicola Cuti and Joe Staten.

I've seen online sources claim she is the same horror host as the single-appearance Charlton host Bela von Drak, but I haven't been able to corroborate whether that's the case (in which case it is an alias), or if that's someone making an assumption.

Thanks to Mike McAllister for informing me that the Countess' origin is given, and her husband and father introduced, in “The Wedding Gift” from Scary Tales#1.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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