The true origins of the mysterious being known only as the King of the Vampires are shrouded in mystery, but he is said to be extremely old. Before he came to Earth, he had already devoured entire worlds. As legend has it, when the first human took his first steps, then the first vampire was already there, waiting in the shadows to feed off of him.

  He who would be known as the King of the Vampires infected others with the vampire plague, and created a small following which he took with him to underground caves, where they could hide from the harmful rays of the sun. Through the years, the King of the Vampires would make excursions to the surface world, before returning once again to the cool solace of his underground dwelling. He is known to have been particularly active during the rule of Julius Caesar, when Rome was overflowing with wine, orgies and decadence. Many were those who willingly and in ecstasy gave themselves to the King of the Vampires. [Related in Hellblazer #50 (February 1992)]

  At some point, the King had a brief and as of yet unrecorded encounter with Jason Blood, the human host of Etrigan the Demon.

  The killing fields of World War I proved to be a veritable smorgasbord for the King of the Vampires. In 1916 he killed William Constantine, the forefather of occultist John Constantine on a battlefield in France. “Twenty thousand men lay dead or dying on the scarlands of the Somme. It was paradise. I hardly knew where to begin.” [Related in Hellblazer #69 (September 1993)]

  In our time, the King of Vampires approached John Constantine, asking him to become his spy in the magic community. Constantine declined, won the argument and was allowed to leave. [Hellblazer #50 (February 1992)]

  Some months later, the King came across Constantine again when the occultist was down on his luck, living on the streets as a drunken bum. Intent on killing Constantine, the King of the Vampires found that he had bitten off more than he could chew, quite literally. In Constantine’s veins flows the poisonous blood of the demon Nergal, a diet unhealthy even for a vampire. Poisoned and weakened, the King was unable to stop John Constantine from dragging him into the direct sunlight. The King of the Vampires was destroyed, thereby leaving the prophecies, where the King would drink Earth dry and leave for other worlds, unfulfilled. [Hellblazer #68-69 (August-September 1993)]

  He was succeeded as King of the Vampires by his sometime lover and companion Darius, who was eventually killed by Hitman. [Hitman #38] The current King of the Vampires, if any, has not yet been named.

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