Blade was created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan and made his first appearance in The Tomb of Dracula #10, July 1973.
I have to say that the movie adaptation of Blade caught me off guard.
I had read TOD and was really a big fan of the comic, but my mind didnt make the connection between the Blade in the comic and the Blade on the screen.
I mean with Captain America, Iron Man, The Avengers, etc., why would Marvel make a movie about a supporting character from one of their "horror" comics?
I never really found out why Blade got the nod over everyone else (maybe because vampire movies usually sell) , but it appears Marvel made the right decision.

The first Blade movie starred Wesley Snipes as Blade, Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler and Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost.
I really liked this movie.
Not counting flops such as the original Punisher with Dolph Lundgren and Howard the Duck (again...why?) this was the first Marvel character to make a splash on the big screen.
My favorite part of the movie is probably the opening "Blood Rave"scene and the accompanying music.
And I loved Wesley Snipes' version of a nearly silent Blade as opposed to the comic's Blade, who was more outgoing.
The film did well, pulling in over $130 million worldwide.

The sequel again starred Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson, with the same writers but with a different director, Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy).
Interestingly, Ron Perlman who played Hellboy is in Blade 2 as Reinhardt, a member of the Bloodpack.
The sequel was even more successful than the original, pulling in over $150 million worldwide.
And Blade wasn't alone that year, Spiderman hit the screens a few months later.

Maybe Marvel should have left well enough alone.
Wesley Snipes returned, but Guillermo del Toro was working on the aforementioned Hellboy.
He was replaced by David S. Goyer, who had written the screenplays to the first two Blade films.
Kris Kristofferson shows up briefly, but is "replaced" by Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel).
It also had the WWE's Triple H and "Prison Break"star Dominic Purcell as vampires.
At the box office it didn't do as well as Blade 2, but it literally tied the first movie at $130 million.

Yes there are rumors floating around about a reboot of the Blade movies.
Back in December 2008, David S. Goyer told Shock Till You Drop.com in December 2008 that there is indeed a possiblity of a Blade reboot, possibly without Wesley Snipes.

"I heard rumors that they may want to start from scratch with a new person playing Blade. It's funny because I thought about how I never wanted to do a vampire film ever again because I'm sick of it. But I was reading the Tomb of Dracula Omnibus and I hadn't read them in a long time and I thought it might be cool to do another vampire movie at some point."