 The latter part of the 20th century saw the rise of multi @-@ volume vampire epics . The first of these was Gothic romance writer Marilyn Ross ' Barnabas Collins series ( 1966 – 71 ) , loosely based on the contemporary American TV series Dark Shadows . It also set the trend for seeing vampires as poetic tragic heroes rather than as the more traditional embodiment of evil . This formula was followed in novelist Anne Rice 's highly popular and influential Vampire Chronicles ( 1976 – 2003 ) . 
