Vampires Most Fowl

A little while back I published a blog post about Bovine Vampires, rare creatures to be sure, but out there nonetheless. In a comment on that post, blog friend Alex suggested that an article on vampire ducks might be in order.

This is not a leap, after all Howard the Duck took on both Dracula and Hellcow but, more importantly, Howard was turned into a vampire too – after being bitten by Dracula – Ahh you see, Marvel catered for all tastes it seems. If you want to read the comic in which Howard lived the life of a blood sucker then the blog the Wonderful World of Stupid have posted the whole comic here.

Drake-ula

Of course Disney had to get in on the act and not so long back we looked at the Duck Tales episode The Ducky Horror Picture Show in which we met the duck version of Dracula – Drake-ula. This duck vampire only bite apples, however, to keep his fangs in good working order. It should be mentioned that Loony Tunes also flirted with vampires, but Daffy Duck (to my knowledge) only wore fake vampire fangs (made by acme of course).

Duckula - villain

The most famous Duck vampire has to have been Count Duckula. He made his first appearance in the cartoon Danger Mouse in which he was comedic, inept, stage struck but very much a villain. Despite the fact that his weaknesses changed (in certain episode he burnt in the sun and others he did not) he certainly threatened to drink blood.

Duckula reimagined

When Duckula got his own series that ran three seasons (click for seasons one, two and three) he morphed from being the villain to the hero and the method was ingenious. Duckula could be resurrected, indeed there was a long line of Counts. In this incarnation there was a glitch (from a vampire point of view). Whilst henchman Igor conducted the ritual to resurrect his master he was passed a bottle of tomato ketchup rather than blood and the Count was reborn vegetarian, good and immune to much of the normal apotropaic things.

vampire cockerel

However it is not only ducks that become vampires. In a madcap moment during the film the First Vampire in China we get a vampire cockerel. The corpses in a certain burial area are put in a cliff face as the ground will turn corpses into vampires. To prove this, the Taoist master has a cockerel buried that a couple of sceptics dig up and, yes, it is a vampire. It manages to injure both, however, and pass on the vampirism. In their case it causes them to scratch at the floor, peck and crow. Sticky rice, however, manages to cure them.

Herschel the turkey vampire

Now, you might be thinking that this is all well and good – and somewhat amusing (perhaps) – but wondering why I would post this on Christmas day. Ahh, but there is method in my madness as we have still to look at the film Blood Freak a film that features a vampire turkey. Yes indeed lead character Herschel becomes a turkey-headed vampire who slits throats so that he can drink his victims' blood (probably because his papier-mâché beak wasn’t up to piercing necks). Remember Herschel, dear reader, as you tuck into your turkey dinner (vegetarians, of course, are saved this delight). An awful film, indeed a real turkey.

And there we have it… vampire fowls.