Vampirella Archives

by Robert Greenberger

By 1969, Jim Warren had moved his growing publishing company from Philadelphia to New York but the costs associated with the move proved staggering. Suddenly, he resorted to reprints in Creepy and Eerie and felt pushed against the wall. It was then he thought of something daring and new…a female-centric continuing character that would headline her own magazine. Clearly inspired by the recent success of Jane Fonda in Barbarella, he thought of a vampire heroine.

With little more than that to go on, he turned to Forry Ackerman, his editor on Famous Monsters of Filmland, outlined his idea, and asked for a script. Its an odd choice since Ackerman was not a skilled comic book writer or even liked writing comic books but he accepted the work and created the world of Draculon, where blood flowed like water. The people were dying from a worldwide drought when a spaceship from Earth arrived, and when it was learned humans had blood in their veins, Vampi somehow managed to pilot the craft to their home planet. Vampirella was therefore a strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

The initial story was drawn by the great Tom Sutton, who didn’t give Warren the moodiness he wanted and things were overall too playful. For the second story, Warren had Ackerman’s script turned over to Mike Royer, who did a different take on the character. By then, Warren and/or Editor Bill Parente decided to give up on a series of Vampirella stories, reducing her to host like Uncle Creepy…at least for a time. Parente left and Warren edited issue #6 before Archie Goodwin briefly returned to staff as editor, reviving the notion the daughter of Draculon was too good not to use in stories.

On the other hand, Frank Frazetta gave him exactly what he wanted for the cover (after Warren rejected a first attempt by European artist Aslan). The late, great painter accepted the cover assignment but actually struggled a bit with Warren’s vague notion of a red and black costume. As fate would have it, he called when Warren was entertaining underground cartoonist Trina Robbins, who heard the conversation and sketched out what Warren intended, and then got on the phone with Frazetta to describe it.

The rest, as they say, is history. Vampi is best remembered for that cover and the taut, dramatic tales produced in those early years by Archie Goodwin, setting the tone for that followed. But that didn’t happen until issue #8 and Warren has always said the book overall wasn’t any good until #12 when things began clicking with the arrival of artist and Jose Gonzalez. Goodwin didn’t totally ignore Ackerman’s stories as an element from #2 was used for his first script.

Still, those early issues are vital building blocks and now Dynamite Entertainment, the current owner of the heroine, is collecting those first seven issues in Vampirella Archive Vol. 1, an oversized hardcover.

The rotating editors filled each issue with the same EC-inspired stories of monsters, the occult, and a dash of science fiction. Don Glut was one of the more prolific writers for Warren at the time and he’s well represented throughout this book. He’s joined by the also prolific Nicola Cuti with single stories from Gardner Fox (shortly after leaving DC), a very young Doug Moench (who leapt from fan letter writer in #3 to pro with #7), and Buddy Saunders (yes, that Buddy).

Artistically, Frazetta and Sutton are joined by Billy Graham, Reed Crandall, Neal Adams, Ernie Colon, Jerry Grandenetti, Jack Sparling, Jeff Jones, Dan Adkins, Frank Bolle, and Tony Tallarico. John G. Fantuccio, best know for his work in Gary Groth’s Fantastic Fanzine, makes a rare professional appearance here. The cover to issues 3 and 4 feature work from the somewhat forgotten Vaughn Bode, in partnership with Larry Todd on the first and Jeff Jones on the second. It’s a real mix of styles as veterans at different stages of their career sought work or merely refuge at Warren Publishing which was paying something like $35 a page for complete artwork.

While the stuff really gets good in the next volume, you don’t want to miss this essential introductory volume with those fabulous Frazetta images. Dynamite’s Nick Barrucci was telling me about the restoration process being undertaken so you know she’s in good hands.