Since we ran a Vampi ad yesterday I thought it made perfect sense to examine the (financial)savior of Warren today.I don't have that many issues of Vampirella--at least, compared to what I have of Creepy and Eerie--and I think that's because as a kid, those sexy Vampi covers(like this one, by Enrich) sorta scared me off...and maybe they still do today? Hmm, this requires some more thought...
Anyway, after a nice pencil pin-up by Jose Gonzalez, we have "The Malignant Morticians!"(great title) by Flaxman Loew and Leopold Sanchez. Vampi and her pal Pendragon are in the charming little town of Sinkville, where Pendy discovers his uncle's ring buried inside a can of dog food. Do the local mortician and the dog food manufacturer have an unsavory relationship?(as a dog owner, I have to say....eww. Thank God Johnny gets dry food!) Nice cartoonish work by Sanchez, whose use of mood and chiaroscuro(I've always wanted to get that word in here one of these days!)are reminiscent of Gene Colan's work. A fun story with a very EC-esque ending(how many times have I said that?)
Next is Dracula in "Rainy Night in Georgia"(which was a hit for Vicki Lawrence, I believe), about a rape victim running away from her attacker stumbles upon a traveling circus which contains as one of its members the Lord of the Undead. Nie, melancholy ending, where we find ourselves sort feeling for poor Drac. Story by Gerry Boudreau and nice moody art by Estaban Maroto.
Third is "The House on the Sea" by the always-great Jim Stenstrum and art by Auraleon. A group of sailors stumble upon a giant, creepy house...right in the middle of the ocean! They enter and meet its inhabitants, an odd group of people who might be ghosts. Really inventive setting and ultra-detailed work by Auraleon, whose work here looks almost like woodcuts, which work with the sea-faring setting perfectly.
Next is "The Wickford Witches" by Boudreau and Jose Ortiz, about a reverend who is killed and the townspeople are suspected of the crime, and of using the Dark Arts. Very abrupt ending which frustrated the heck out of when I first read it but is now growing on me...
Last is "Goodbye My Love Goodbye", story and art by Fernando Fernandez, about a robot woman duplicate named Human Sonja, who acts as a companion for a man named Nicholas. But of course, humanity can't be duplicated, not exactly, at least.
The sequential storytelling by Fernandez is a little weak--each page seems to consist of beautifully drawn images, to be sure:
...but I found they don't really flow together to tell a story. Nevertheless, its a fine story with a nice hook, and it is wonderful to look at.Top it off with some Captain Company ads and you've got a fine issue of Vampirella!
7 comments:
>beautifully drawn images, to be sure ... but I found they don't really flow together to tell a story<
Rob-
I wonder if that's because they weren't specifically designed for the story, but are photo-ref swipes?
You get that effect sometimes with that kind of art, i.e. Pat Morisi's later stuff.
-Craig W.
Fernandez was such a tremendous artist that I find it hard to believe that he'd do a photo swipe.
...that's what I'd like to say. I don't know whether that was the case or not with this story, but he certainly did it in one of his earlier Vampirella stories ("Stairway to Heaven" from issue 29, with a 2001: A Spacy Odyssey swipe).
Anyway, regardless of that "Goodbye My Love Goodbye" is a great story in my eyes from both the art and script perspective. It won Fernandez a "Warren Award" for best artist/writer of the year. Not as good as the previously mentioned "Stairway to Heaven", "Rendezvous" from issue 35 or "The Truth" from issue 31, but still quite a good story, as always seemed to be the case with Fernandez. Unfortunate that he only did about a dozen or so stories for Warren.
"House on the Sea" is another tremendous story with a very good script from Stenstrum and better than usual art from Auraleon. It's sole flaw is a final panel which never made much sense to me. Maybe someone here can explain the meaning of it to me. :P
Nice to see Leopold Sanchez getting a shot as Vampi, as his style was quite a lot different than Vampi regulars Jose Gonzalez and Gonzalo Mayo. He has a much more cartoony style which was a nice change of pace for a couple of issues. Certainly not up to snuff to be the regular artist for Vampi, but did a good job here in one of his three Vampi stories.
"Rainy Night in Georgia" is notable for being the final "Dracula" story from Warren, who had series in all three of Warren's horror magazines at one point, plus multiple appearances in Vampi's strip. The one dissappointing thing about it is that is not in color like the first 2 parts of the series.
"Wickford Witches" is a weak story in an otherwise excellent issue.
Would love to hear your take on other Vampis from this era rob, particularly issues 45 (best issue of Vampi ever IMHO), 43 (overall not a tremendous issue, but has what is probably one of the 5 best stories Warren ever published in it) and 40. The peak era issues of Vampi (issues 28 - 50) was the best material Warren ever published in my eyes. Although the great material was almost always the backup stories and covers rather than the Vampi strip itself.
-Quiddity
i think you can make a story flow using photo reference--its hard, but you can do it. i hope i didnt sound too harsh on the art--i do like it, its just that there are no transition panels, its all single, perfectly composed illustrations.
i only have one more issue of Vampi in my collection, and my plan is once i go through the rest of what i already have (30+ mags) i'll start searching out stuff ive always wanted and start talking about that stuff, and that includes more Vampi. i'm not intimated by the covers anymore. :)
The Enric covers are what drew me to the book in the first place!! I just loved the gothic glamour/romance feel he gave them! Vampirella quickly became a must have magazine for me!
The following is an excerpt from an interview I did last year that should appeal to the fanboy in all of us;
"I was coming home from school and I stopped at Andy's candy store because it was new comic day. As I scanned the racks for all the new stuff, my eyes caught site of a book I had never noticed before, probably because it was stuck on the top rack with the more "mature" magazines. This was a time when magazines weren't racked with comics, no matter what the content.
It was a copy of Warren's Vampirella #21, with that great Enric cover of Vampi dying of thirst with the big Death's Head radiating behind her. After paging through the book and seeing Jose Gonzalez' art on the lead Vampi story, I had to buy it. This sure wasn't your typical comic art. It seemed like something so much more, somehow.
I found that book fascinating! So much so that I decided to send away for issue #1 from the back of the book. Like every comic geek in history, though, I didn't want to cut out the coupon, so I made my own! This turned out to be a great decision on my part, as it was probably so illegible that the clerk handling back issues obviously didn't understand it. About a month later (a looong month) I received a large package from Captain Company, the mail order service for Warren Publications. Inside were all twenty one issues to date (minus #3), plus the Annual with the incredible Gonzalez origin story! A note included read, "Sorry, we were out of Vampirella #3, please accept these as a replacement." I couldn't believe it! Truth be told, I was sure they would realize their error and send someone to take them back! What else would a twelve year old think?" LOL
Joe-
that's a great and charming story! someday i wanna do a book putting stories like that all together--people's reminisces about buying comics as a kid.
if i ever do, that story is so going in there!
If they made errors like that all the time, it's really no wonder they went belly up!! LOL
Joe-
That IS a great story - and such Reverse Karma from the usual Captain Co. hijinks!
Rob-
Used to leave the Trailer Court broke, and gather pop bottles in the ditch on the walk to the Mom & Pop where we got the coverless books - 5c Regular, 10c Giant!
-Craig W.
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