Today is the publication birthday of comicdom’s queen of the bad girls, Vampirella—that swimsuit-wearing immigrant from a dying planet of vampires who came to Earth to drink the blood of evildoers, fall in love with a descendant of Count Dracula’s number one nemesis, pal around with an alcoholic stage magician, and fight monsters!

Yup, it was fifty years ago today that Warren Publishing’s Vampirella #1 (cover-dated September) went on sale in 1969 and set the template for generations of bad girls to come.

Behind that iconic cover painting by art legend Frank Frazetta (who’s probably best known for his equally iconic paintings of Conan the Barbarian and John Carter of Mars) and that distinctive costume designed by comic artist Trina Robbins, readers found horror stories by writers Don Glut and Nicola Cuti, and artists Billy Graham, Reed Crandall, Neal Adams, Mike Royer, Tony Tallarico, and Ernie Colon. And leading off the issue was “Vampirella of Draculon” by writer/co-creator Forrest J Ackerman (aka “the Ackermonster,” editor/creator of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine) and artist Tom Sutton.

In Vampi’s seven-page launch, we were introduced to a heroine who was a mash-up of horror and science fiction themes, an inhabitant of Draculon, a planet light-years from Earth that orbited twin suns; a planet that had literal rivers of blood running across it, until the suns turned the world into a dried-out husk. Vampi is one of the few survivors hanging on to life, and becomes the first to witness the crash of a spacecraft—the Arthur Clark (named, of course, for Arthur C. Clarke, the sci-fi writing legend)—carrying visitors from Earth.

Freaked out by the sight of a giant bat (Vampi’s in-flight form), they fire laser guns at her, and she responds by draining their blood—and discovers that the “water” on her world is the same type of liquid that flows in the veins of the astronauts. And when she goes inside the ship and finds a complement of crewmembers in suspended animation…well, let’s just say she’s not about to go hungry anytime soon.

It’s a cute story that gets across what Ackerman set out to do—introduce Warren Publishing’s new character and horror-story hostess—but it’s hampered somewhat by the wince-inducing puns he inserts throughout. Vampirella exclaiming “Smorgasblood!” when she spots the frozen crew, then saying ”Feast come, feast served!” as she taps into them…the water composition on Draculon being H20 (hemoglobin doubled with oxygen)…remarking that the blood shower is “Sole satisfying! Right down to my soles!”…they’re shining examples of the wacky sense of humor Ackerman always exhibited in the pages of Famous Monsters, but which don’t work in a semi-dramatic setup.

This goofy approach would continue in issue 2, when Forry and artist Mike Royer brought Vampi “Down to Earth”—with a tossed-off explanation that “her IQ of 2000” provided her with the knowhow for flying a crashed spaceship (and repairing it, I guess). Nothing said about the crew whose blood she drank along the way, though.

Thankfully, the jokey tone was left far behind when Vampi’s adventures were placed in the hands of editor and new writer Archie Goodwin (of Warren’s other horror magazines, Creepy and Eerie), who began to introduce all the aspects of Vampi lore that her fans came to appreciate: her boyfriend (and vampire hunter) Adam Van Helsing, and his father, Conrad; the inebriated magician Mordecai Pendragon; the revelation that Dracula was a fellow refugee from Draculon; the blood-substitute serum that allowed her to function without going on feeding frenzies; and, most important, the Cult of Chaos—the Elder God–worshipping sect whose creation reflected Goodwin’s appreciation for horror master H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. All these concepts are still in use, in one form or another, by contemporary Vampi scripters.

Vampirella art by
Jose Gonzalez.

The main attraction of “Vampirella of Draculon,” of course is Tom Sutton’s artwork. His Vampi is playful and sexy, his spacemen ruggedly handsome, his sci-fi sets reminiscent of those found in artist Wally Wood’s science fiction tales for the EC Comics titles of the 1950s. (As a horror artist, he wouldn’t really hit his stride until his days at Marvel and Charlton, where during the 1970s he illustrated such titles as Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider, and Man-Thing.) Sutton returned for Goodwin’s debut as Vampi’s writer and remained on the feature through issue 11, at which point he was replaced by Spanish sensation Jose “Pepe” Gonzalez, whose amazing style elevated the magazine to such a level that it’s still talked about and admired to this day.

Fifty years of comic adventures—that’s one hell of an accomplishment!

So why are we celebrating Vampi’s “birthday” here at SWC? Because we’re currently waist-deep in making preparations for the upcoming release of my nonfiction examination, From the Stars…a Vampiress: An Unauthorized Guide to Vampirella’s Classic Horror Adventures!
In its pages you’ll find a breakdown of every Vampirella story that appeared during her Warren Publishing days from July 1969 to December 1982 (plus a list of the modern-day books that reprinted them); a checklist of every Warren Era appearance she made; a look at the six-book novelization series written by sci-fi and pulp-adventure author Ron Goulart and published by Warner Books in the 1970s; an examination of the awful 1996 movie that starred Talisa Soto of the Mortal Kombat movies as Vampi and featured a scenery-gulping performance from rock-god Roger Daltrey as Dracula; and a pretty extensive look at the history of Hammer Films’ Vampirella movie, announced in 1975 with model/actress Barbara Leigh and Hammer legend Peter Cushing as its stars, but which was never produced. Plus little-seen photos and other material pulled straight from the vaults of the Ackermonster by the Official Vampirella Historian, Sean Fernald, who also wrote the foreword. If you’re a Vampi fan, this will definitely be a book you need to pick up!

Happy birthday, Vampi!