Blade is a fictional character, a superhero and vampire hunter in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Gene Colan, his first appearance was in the comic
book The Tomb of Dracula #10 (July 1973) as a supporting character.
The character went on to
star and co-
star in several comic
book series as well as a Blade film series and television series. Actor Wesley Snipes portrayed the vampire hunter in the Blade film series while Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones took on the role for the television series.
While he was growing up on the street of London, he ran into American veteran Vampire Slayer, Jamal Afari and saved him from being killed by vampires with a grudge against the old man.
Afari soon learned about
Eric and his origins' and decided to take him under his wing, becoming his mentor and foster-
father and helped him to control his powers. Afari taught
Eric everything he knew about hunting, fighting and killing vampires.
Determined to avenge his
mother's
death,
Eric fashioned himself into a vampire hunter like Afari while still a teenager and started calling himself Blade, after the sharp weapons with which he used to kill vampires with. Finally Blade and Afari split up when Jamal willingly took the fall for murder when Blade accidentally killed a man (who was suffering from a deranged illness), which he mistook for being a vampire.