Ken Johnson - Zoltan, Hound Of Dracula

[dem bones]

Sometimes the only thing that will do it for you is a 180 page novelization utilizing HUGE print and beginning each chapter with an authentic quote from the likes of Ornella Volta, Anthony Masters, McNally & Florescu, C. Lee & co.

That's when you need:

Ken Johnson - Zoltan, Hound Of Dracula (Everest, 1977)

Now a major EMI film

When the dust of the explosion died down, the soldiers realised they had uncovered an ancient grave.

The Dreadful thing that escaped from the damaged coffin looked like a dog.

Its search for a master took it from Central Europe to California - and an ordinary couple on a camping holiday with their children and their beautiful puppy dogs.

There was nothing special about the couple: except that Paul's grandmother had changed the family name to Drake from Dracula ...


Transylvania, 1977: The army are training in the mountains when a stray shell unearths a vault wherein lie the coffins of the Dracula family plus two others. One of these contains Veidt Smit (1630-1670), the loyal servant of the infamous vampire Count Igor Dracula, the other is unmarked. Captain Gheorghita immediately orders a suspension to the detonation fun and leaves young Private Laszlo to guard the site overnight while he gets in touch with the experts. Laszlo gets bored and prizes the lid off the mystery coffin as he's only ever seen the corpse of his father and he'd like to make comparisons. There's a lump of wood stuck through the body so he gets rid of that first .... and out jumps this massive blood-lusting Doberman Pinscher, Zoltan!

Zoltan makes short work of the soldier and then sniffs about the coffin for his master. First he frees Smit, drawing the stake from his mummified remains with his jaws, but before they can revive Count Igor, the entire vault collapses and they have to abandon the old fiend and struggle to safety.

The next day, the aforementioned vampire expert, Inspector Branco arrives. Captain Gheorghita is no respecter of hocus pocus mumbo jumbo but Branco makes a favourable impression on Major Hesse, "a stocky, brusque-mannered woman in her thirties [who] seemed deliberately to have hidden her natural attractiveness under her army hat ....Captain Gheorghita could not help wondering how she would look with a trace of makeup, a modest decolletage and a pair of more feminine shoes than the standard army brogues she wore."

While Captain Gheorghita is letting his imagination wander, a bunch of rhubarbing yokels show up. After a brief consultation its decided to burn all the Dracula's and poor Laszlo to cheer them up otherwise they'll go into their usual superstitious frenzy. With the stench of roasted flesh still fresh in his nostrils, Branco gets down to work. He immediately deduces that Vlad Smit is a fractual lamia, "someone only part-vampire ... unlike their masters, they can function in the daytime. They can be trusted to find victims. And more important, they have no craving for blood." So servile are these fractual lamia that "they cannot exist without a master".

Major Hesse is relieved to learn this as there are no Dracula's left for Smit to pamper, but Branco is one step ahead and rattles off the name and address of Michael Drake in Los Angeles, a non-vampire who fled the old country as a child for his own safety. Smit, who's been hiding in the shadows all along, gleefully jots this down and makes preparations for he and the demon dog's journey to the USA ....

"The full moon lay reflected in the lake and threw its bright silver beams over the half-tones of the woods and grassy slopes. Once again cicadas and night insects set up their continuous chorus. Out by the gnarled old tree, there eventually came a much fainter, more unusual sound. Beneath the low, circular mound of earth where the family had buried the puppy, there was a persistent scratching noise, like that of some burrowing creature.

It grew more and more agitated until eventually, the soil around the top of the mound began to undulate and crumble away. Then, out from the earth stirred a whitish shape, coated in damp deposits of mud, which wriggled and writhed until from it struggled the tiny head of the Drakes' puppy. The little creature struggled for a moment to free its back legs, then crawled unsteadily forward, away from the mound. As the moonlight fell upon the animal's face, its eyes were dull and vacant, yet open wide, almost as they had appeared in death. Slowly, it half-stumbled, half-crawled into the undergrowth of the forest."

If anybody survived the earlier post, they'll have realised that the remainder of the book takes place in America, specifically Lake Arrowhead where Drake, his wife Marla and the kids have set off for vacation accompanied by their German Shepherds Samson and Annie and a litter of pups. Hot on their trail are Smit and Zoltan. Smit reveals himself to be a master-brain as, no sooner does he arrive in the States than he steals a hearse which he intuitively knows how to drive. It's hardly an inconspicuous mode of transport, but the coffin comes in handy for Zoltan during the daytime. Sadly, we don't hear any more about Major Sensible Shoes, but Branco shows up armed with a bag of stakes ....

If you want a painless read that you don't have to think about in the slightest and you kind of like the idea of vampire puppies returning from the grave, you'll enjoy this ridiculous novel as much as I did. I think there's also an edition called Dracula's Dog and, should anyone have a copy, I'd certainly be grateful for a cover scan. ;D

[jkdunham]

admin said:

I think there's also an edition called Dracula's Dog and, should anyone have a copy, I'd certainly be grateful for a cover scan. ;D

Can't do you a Dracula's Dog, but it was also released as Hounds of Dracula (Signet, 1977);

[dem bones]

Thanks, J. K. Isn't he gorgeous? I think you've found the definitive Zoltan cover!

[pendragon23]

Kenneth Johnson was a very close friend of mine - he died a couple of years ago and left me his archive. Amongst the gems we found (and we're still going through the collection) is the original script for Zoltan (or as it was Dracula's Dog) from which Kenny worked. He also adapted Blue Sunshine as a novel ( I also found the script for that). He was a lover of the unknown and of the classic horror genre (classic, in this, meaning case up to and including the seventies) and he was very proud to be a small part of the genre.

He was primarily a journalist but hewas never happier than when interviewing stars such as Boris Karloff or Vincent Price.

Just thought I'd share that.

[dem bones]

Hello mr pendragon, thank you so much sharing. Are there any plans to publish (anything from) the archive?

[dem bones]

Jul 20, 2014 12:24:46 GMT pendragon23 said:

Kenneth Johnson was a very close friend of mine - he died a couple of years ago and left me his archive. Amongst the gems we found (and we're still going through the collection) is the original script for Zoltan (or as it was Dracula's Dog) from which Kenny worked. He also adapted Blue Sunshine as a novel ( I also found the script for that). He was a lover of the unknown and of the classic horror genre (classic, in this, meaning case up to and including the seventies) and he was very proud to be a small part of the genre.

He was primarily a journalist but hewas never happier than when interviewing stars such as Boris Karloff or Vincent Price.

Just thought I'd share that.

Mr. Pendragon, should you get to see this, here's one you may be able to shed some light on.
From Justin Marriott's article on Everest Books in Paperback Fanatic #29.

"There was also the delightfully bonkers The Zarkon Principle which was Chariot Of The Gods turned up to eleven. Rumour has it that Ken Johnson was the mysterious 'Zarkon.' "

[Dr Strange]

The Zarkon Principle was updated and re-issued as Armageddon 2000 in 1996 - confidently predicting that the world would end in 2000. The re-issue had the name "Kenneth Rayner Johnson" on the cover - he also wrote The Succubus (published by NEL in 1980), and is the same "Ken Johnson" as wrote Zoltan (according to this at SFE), along with The Homunculus (NEL, 1982) and The Cheshire Cat (Dell, 1983), and non-fiction books about alchemy (The Fulcanelli Phenomenon, 1980) and The Ancient Magic of the Pyramids (1978).

[dem bones]

Jul 29, 2014 15:39:48 GMT Dr Strange said:

The Zarkon Principle was updated and re-issued as Armageddon 2000 in 1996 - confidently predicting that the world would end in 2000. The re-issue had the name "Kenneth Rayner Johnson" on the cover - he also wrote The Succubus (published by NEL in 1980), and is the same "Ken Johnson" as wrote Zoltan (according to this at SFE), along with The Homunculus (NEL, 1982) and The Cheshire Cat (Dell, 1983), and non-fiction books about alchemy (The Fulcanelli Phenomenon, 1980) and The Ancient Magic of the Pyramids (1978).

Thanks for the confirmation, Dr. S.

[helrunar]

Another great thread! The hits just keep rolling here on the Vault!

And now I must go pass out for another evening.

Cheers all,

Hel