Vampirella #57 - Warren

Jan. 1977 - Boo!

Considering today is Halloween, and who was "sponsoring" the blog all this week, how else could we end but with Vampirella?

A very nice cover by Enrich--Vampi, a zombie, stuff on fire--how can you beat it?

The opening Vampi story, by Roger McKenzie and Jose Gonzales, is called "City of Ghosts":

Vampi wakes up dazed, not really sure where she is. She has memories of being in her lover Tristan's embrace, but also being in some sort of Old West boom town.

Gonzales does a fantastic job on the art, mixing in some photographic elements:

Its initially kind of jarring, seeing something near a photograph alongside the pencil art, but it in the end it works. It gives the whole story the quality of a fever dream, which works to its advantage.

Next is Joe Brancatelli's regular "The Comic Books" text feature, this time talking about comic book publishers being bought by large media conglomerates. Huh, as if!

Next is "Rusty Bucklers" by Bruce Jones and Estaban Maroto:

Its about a young knight who accompanies an old one to defeat an old wizard, slay a dragon, and rescue a maiden...but what's waiting for them once they arrive is not what they expect. A funny twist on an old plot.

Next is "Stand-In", by Jones again, with art by Carmine Infantino and Dick Giordano:

With art by Infantino and Giordano, this feels like a DC story from Mystery In Space has somehow escaped and made its way over to Warren's offices. I mean that in a good way!

Bruce Jones is up again, this time with Raymon Torrents for "Magnificent Ephemeral":

A really unusual story about a movie glamour queen that made a huge splash in her first movie, who then mysteriously vanished. Even after reading, like, a billion comics, it had an ending I did not expect.

Last is "An Insult To Science" by Fernando Fernandez and Jose Mirales:

Its about a doctor who is determined to expose a would-be master of the occult as a fraud, but this relatively simple task takes him down a road he doesn't expect.

Following is the standard Captain Company section, including the giant two page spread advertising back issues:

As a kid, seeing the covers of all the older issues really gave whichever one I was reading at the time a little extra...gravity, for lack of a better word. It was so cool seeing all the previous adventures represented in one place, and I think it really helped the Warren mags have an even more distinctive feel.

Of course, DC and Marvel weren't set up to sell back issues, so they couldn't run ads like this...this was one of the advantages Jim Warren had built in to his company.

A really solid issue, with no real weak story in the bunch. I've mentioned before that sometimes, to my eye at least, the use of similar art styles in Warren mags made the stories blur together, but the Infantino/Giordano job sits right in the middle of this issue, giving the whole thing a nice visual "break."



Okay, here's the final Angelique Trouvere glossy up for grabs:

We'll announce the winners tomorrow, plus some mention a couple of other fun things. Be here as we wrap up our week at All in Black & White For 75 Cents!