Like Cookie, Cookie, Cookie (2024), this is based on a poster I had in my childhood room in the ’70s, that I would gaze at constantly before I went to sleep. Instead of counting sheep I would count the bats along with the Count! Going back to this mode while drawing was my first time revis-iting the Count in decades, and I realized his great allure. Brought to life by classic Muppeteer Jerry Nelson, his cheery Bela Lugosi impression is also a bit like Grandpa in The Munsters, with the same haircut and heart of gold.  But the OCDism of the Count is the most intense and attractive and somehow respectful aspect of his character—he truly LOVES to Count (“Ah ah ah” was his staccato laugh when he accomplished his task).

Cardinality is when you can match one object to another, and is an essential part of early math learning, especially in the era of the early ’70s when the CTW came up with his concept. I think there is something deeply satisfying for any viewer of any age to be able to objectify concepts and things (not people!) that are abstract and therefore in chaos until you are able to define and order them and put them into rational thinking, something the Count does in every routine, and for a young viewer, taking something that could be scary—like a monstrous vampire who doesn’t go by the rules—and be able to contain and understand and appreciate and respect their difference is also the very progressive aspect of his concept.

Vampires of the night who dress fashionably well as a fop and live in gothic places with gloomy pets could also be queer people who are “against nature.” Although the Count did have girlfriends in later years when they toned down his character to be less “scary,”  he ultimately was truly “queer” in that he didn’t fit into the patriarchal symbolic order, except as an abject outsider—but as he is interpolated and loved by the Sesame Street gang, he also becomes one of an accepted group, like the “crazy uncle” of a family that has a love but doesn’t speak his name.