MONTHLY WEBZINE OF SF, FANTASY & ADVENTURE STORIES & ART 

Published by Paul Edmund Norman

Every month ~ Volume 3 Issue 9 July 2001

VAMPIRELLA!

Okay, Buffy fans, let's talk about the real Queen of Vampire literature, VAMPIRELLA!. Vampirella first burst onto the scene in the 1970s, the brainchild of Forrest J Ackerman and Jim Warren. Unlike Dracula and Nosferatu, the legend behind Vampirella is totally different - she's not a centuries-old woman feeding off the blood of young people, she's an exile from the planet Drakulon, where the natural foodstuff, on which all the (normal) inhabitants live, is.....blood!

Let's start with a quote from the very first issue of Vampirella:

"The descent, the slow, halting glide, clawing at the air...in search of that fearful pulse beating in the night...hidden somewhere...and the attack, swift and sudden, a small dark bird lost admid the wings of the bat, caught there as if in a web, thin contracted claws digging inwards...and the bat almost floating now. ...The shadow of night like a wraith, the bat begins a metamorphosis...once more its wings spread wide and the bones of birds tumble forth...the creature spills forth a cocoon...long, sleek fingers tumble forward with a life of their own...the cloak of wings become a silken vest...and who is this shadowy figure?...This girl of unearthly beauty whose name is Vampirella...come forth from a small, loping bat...dream upon her...for she has no dreams, her only wish is to keep that small and ever flickering candle of life burning in a world of violent winds..."

Visitors from Earth encounter Vampirella and Tristan on their home planet, Drakulon, once a perfect place whose inhabitants' natural powers included metamorphosis and hypnotism. Captured by the Earthmen, Vampirella seeks her teeth into the neck of an assailant as she avenges Tristan's death...but he is not really dead, and returns to haunt her as a spectral monster hell-bent on revenge for what he sees as her failure to protect him from the Earthmen. Vampirella decides she can no longer live on Drakulon and uses the Earthmen's spaceship to take her to...Earth!

Now I only own the first four Vampirella magazines from the seventies, together with some of the newer issues, the latter having stunning covers by Dorian and Jusko. Consequently, I am not able to tell you the entire story of Vampirella. Suffice it to say that she seems to encounter demons in exactly the same way as Buffy, but she deals with them in a slightly different way. Eventually she takes a serum, a substitute for the blood she needs to sustain herself, and instead of being a threat to Earth, she helps rid it of unwanted and dangerous factions. In fact, it would be silly of me to try tell the entire story of Vampirella here - there are numerous outlets across the country where you can buy copies of the comics. Instead, I want to concentrate here on the legacy of Vampirella in comics, and where she's going in the future.

You can read a review of the finest issue of Vampirella, Blood Lust, by my web colleague Mike Grace here, and if you drop the page a little here, you'll find my own selection of the finest Vampirella images, many of which can still be purchased in specialist shops. As I mentioned earlier I have the first four issues of the UK publication of Vampirella - I'm told they're worthless in terms of collectors' editions, but that isn't really what collecting comics is about, is it? I have some Dorian and Jusko editions in my collection, and I didn't buy them for their intrinsic worth, but for what they do for me.

As you know, I'm a great fan of Dorian and Joe, and most of what they do is OK by me, it's inspiring - awe-inspiring, actually. But the thing about Vampirella is that there are lots of great artists doing great work on Vampirella, and now Vampi! Of course, we're always months behind the States in terms of what's available in comics, but the last Vampirella I saw suggested that after her demise in 2000, she was coming back, and the Vampirella site, to which you can jump here, bears that out. There is a great section on Vampi and a search for a real person to play Vampirella and a whole new section on the return of Vampirella, with scanned images of the first dozen or so pages. It is an excellent site. My impression, however, is that they're going to concentrate on Vampi for a while.

So, what can we expect from Harris comics? Well, they've promised to bring our heroine back.....they have frequent contests and competitions for fan artwork.....they publish calendars, they give away posters and downloadable screensavers (though they're apparently not available at the moment, which is a shame - the screensaver is the best I've ever seen, and is in place on both my home PC and my office PC!).....and they have mentioned on more than one occasion that there will be a Vampirella film. There are numerous comics featuring Julie Strain, and it seems that a whole host of artists are queueing up to illustrate the Vampire Queen. Not bad for a phenomenon that first saw the light of day in the 1970s (though she has a long way to go to compete with the Jungle Lord!). And, as I've already mentioned, there's Vampi. Now Vampi is a cute young lady with a tendency to violence, and the comics are beautifully drawn by Lau. They, too, are readily available over here. There's plenty going on in the world of Vampirella!

Now, sit back and take a look at some of the staggering beautiful images, starting with Joe and Dorian.....