Vampirella #1

[Feb 1975]; Cover price 30p.
48 pages. Full colour.
IPC Magazines Ltd.

A Magazine to Haunt You

Painted cover by Manuel Sanjulian (uncredited).
r: cover from Vampirella (Warren) #12 (Jul 1971).

Contents:

 2 UNTITLED a: Jose Gonzales.

r: partial cover from Vampirella (Warren) #19 (Sep 1972).

 3 Vampirella contents page. / Indicia

 4 Vampirella The Origin of Vampirella w: J. R. Cochran; a: Jose Gonzalez.

r: Vampirella Annual (Warren) 1972 (1972).

19 Wolf Hunt w: Joe Wehrle; a: Esteban Maroto.

r: Vampirella (Warren) #14 (Nov 1971).

26 Horror Story of the Month The Call of the Dead text story by Dirk Hess, translated by (uncredited).

r: Hörst du die Toten rufen? from Vampirella (Pabel Verlag) #01 (Sep 1973).

28 Vampirella The Cry of the Dhampir w: John Jacobson; a: Rafael Auraleon.

r: Vampirella (Warren) #22 (Mar 1973).

40 Vampirella As Though They Were Living w: Gerry Boudreau; a: Richard Corben.

r: Vampirella (Warren) #30 (Jan 1974).

48 Vampirella in-house advertisement; a: Enrich Torres.

r: cover from Vampirella (Warren) #18 (Aug 1972).

Published in order to capitalize on the pre-publicity for the 1976 Hammer film which (as with many of their excellent ideas) failed to materialise, there isn't much in the way of love for the title or character apparent in the packaging - there not even an introduction, leaving casual purchasers without context for the material at hand. New titles need (at the very least) a welcome, and (if the publisher is being generous) a letters page to publish any received feedback. That we only get a translated text piece to read is an oversight which shows just how little consideration was taken while composing this launch.

But you want to know about the stories.

...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 ...

The Origin of Vampirella isn't really representative of Vampirella, and it is an odd tale to begin the title with. Yes, it explains her origins, but it is a wordy story which takes a long time to get to the point.

The planet Drakulon, where two suns hang in its sky, Vampirella and Tristan are rudely interrupted by Earthmen (freshly landed in their spaceship) who kill her lover and wound her - she, entirely justified, kills all but one and wanders off. A hand rises out of the ground, followed by a misshapen form, which reveals itself to be Tristan. Twisted by his death and resurrection, Tristan vows to kill Vampirella, taking for himself the name Mercado. Not wishing to fight her former lover, Vampirella takes the abandoned spaceship and flees her homeworld.

There's a nasty undercurrent to the story, which isn't merely from the fact that it is about vampires. First there's the gronos, a creature resembling a bear. Vampirella's first instinct is to kill it and eat it, which - in this setting - is fine. The Earthmen, however, come across as bloodthirsty idiots attempting to kill everything that moves. I'm not sure if this is heavy-handed "we are the monsters" storytelling or merely badly-written pulp storytelling, but either way it seems a little too convenient.

Tristan's return is a whole 'nother ball game.

My beautiful Vampirella... most beautiful when she is helpless!

Put your hands behind you my sweet, so my eyes may feast on all of you!

Come, Vampirella! Your hands behind your back as if they are fettered... as if someone had actually bested her whom they call Vampirella.

Creepy and disturbing is one thing, a plant-man who gets excited by a strong female rendered helpless is... Just plain icky and rather sad, all at once. The undertones running through the entire scene are of barely concealed sexual violence, which is the major problem with this introduction to the character. Vampirella isn't the most important character in hew own story, and her actions are first dictated by assisting Tristan and then by way of escaping his reach. It is so unlike the majority of her stories that by including it at the beginning of the run taints the perception of her stories thereafter.

Vampirella is meant to kick ass. She's a powerful, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows. This is not the story with which to launch her presence in the UK.

Wolf Hunt is barely better - a werewolf story introduced by Vampi which begins with an odd remark:

Once upon a time there was a young girl who liked to run through the forest in her birthday suit...!

I know this is a seventies title, but even so...

Drenched in full moonlight, the sensuous figure of a young girl begins its strange metamorphosis from human into bestial form!

To the wolf-girl Lupagar's changed nostrils come keen traces of animal life nearby---flesh and blood!

Torvath, a hunter hidden in the undergrowth, throws a stone at Lupagar, knocking her unconscious. At dawn, Lupagar awakes and, having transformed back into human form, tells Torvath that he has no right to hold her. He responds that he has been watching her for days, knowing that she is is a white wolf who lives on the flesh and blood of animals, but does not devour human flesh.

Forcing himself on Lupagar, Torvath tells the wolf-girl to resign herself to her fate. While Torvath is out hunting, Lupagar digs her way out of the cell with her bare hands, then hunts Torvath as he searches the castle for her. Trapping him in a corner he convinces her to give in as she has had no nourishment and is weak from her escape attempt. Besides, she won't be able to lower the drawbridge in her wolf form. Lupagar states that she not go far for that sustenance, but Torvath has proved himself lower than an animal and she will feast long and well on his skulking flesh.

It is basically I Spit on Your Grave with added supernatural elements, and is every but as troubling as an "entertaining" narrative. Despite the story, the art throughout is great, and sits uncomfortably with the accompanying text. I want to applaud Esteban Maroto's handling of atmosphere, while keeping a solid grasp on the underpinning reality of the location, but it is impossible to separate the imagery from the strip as a whole.

The Call of the Dead is a fine segue between strips, but doesn't really deliver on the set-up. Extremely atmospheric, though lacking a narrative thread to drive forward on - slightly reminiscent of short pieces from forty years before, and would be rather dated even then. It barely counts as a short story, and the reason it is included here seems to be rest more on the fact that two pages required content rather than for inherent worth.

Long nights of intense investigation and searching finally bear fruit as two priests of the village of Alba Lullia in Transylvania close in upon one of the undead, trapping him within the ruins of an ancient building.

Chasing after vampires has been a staple of horror literature for so long that nearly every twist has been comprehensively covered. This is a problem which Jacobson is well aware of, so Vampirella pops up to reassure us that the situation is well in hand:

The beginnings of another typical vampire epic, you say... Where you know beforehand each move of the characters... And the end comes deep in some ancient catacomb where the doctor pounds the cliché-ridden stake deep into the vampire's bloated heart. No... Not this time. A breath of fetid air direct from reality will soon overthrow all the clichés and carry with it the unexpected Cry of the Dhampir.

With a smirk, Byron - a vampire - tells his pursuers that they talk too much, then pulls a rope connected to a trapdoor, where the priests are impaled on stakes. Daegga, a beautiful vampire, comments that it is an ironic end for vampire hunters, and Byron queries her presence. Leading him through the building, Daegga shows him a coffin, its owner completely destroyed, turned to ash so suddenly that he didn't have time to resist. Daegga tells Byron the destroyed vampire's name was Vladimir, who had a theory that the high number of vampire deaths weren't random, but caused by one agency.

Byron notes a circus which has been at each village where a vampire has been destroyed, and that it must be more than a coincidence. Investigating among the crowds which have gathered. the vampires attempt to find clues. Daegga takes refuge from the hustle and bustle in the tent of Tryphenia, a gypsy fortune teller, where she enters the woman's mind to learn all that the old woman knows. Tryphenia strikes out at the vampire, but is subdued and killed - only for her son, a Dhampir, to arrive and raise the alarm.

Sacrificing Daegga, Byron flees into the woods in the hope of escaping his fate, but the Dhampir manages to catch him by transforming into a great bird. Just as he is about to kill Byron, a shot rings out - and the Dhampir falls dead, a villager explaining that he had seen the man transforming from a bird, and only those in league with the devil possess such powers. Later, as Byron laughs at his good fortune, the woman accompanying the Dhampir appears to him, and explains that there is something he failed to learn - the fortune teller gave birth to twins, and she possesses the same abilities as her brother.

This is a fantastic tale, rattling along with enough conviction in its twists and turns, and blessed with Auraleon's superb art, but it isn't a story which should be in a first issue. The story immediately places itself outside of the tired, cliché-ridden vampire tales, but also highlights the fact that there are problems with the sub-genre. If there's one thing a title shouldn't do in an inaugural issue, it is to draw any attention to real or perceived deficiencies which might exist. For a third or fourth issue this would have made an exceptional inclusion.

The final story begins in 1794, in Salem, where thirteen figures dance around a fire. Karyn Haining is among their number, and she - having been snubbed by Holland Wingate - is set on avenging her hurt feelings. A Sidhe - a tremendous creature from Hell - is brought forth from the flames, and Karyn orders it to punish those who wronged her, but is killed by the minister and his witch-hunting forces before long. The creature kills the mortals, then takes the form of a man in order to move freely about the village. He meets Wingate, using the name Nathan Browne, and kills the man while in his original form.

Becoming close to Wingate's fiancé, the Sidhe walks her home, and when he is asked to fetch a bottle of spirits from the cellar obediently descends the stairs to fetch it up. The door slams behind him, however, and she proceeds to tell him what she knows - and suspects.

A finely-written story, let down in places by uneven art, As Though They Were Living is not the finest way to conclude the issue, but it manages to tell a fine - if derivative - tale without serious impediments to the enjoyment of the story. While the conclusion is rushed, and somewhat out of the blue, there is enough tension in the story to make up for most of the pacing problems. This is a story which would have benefited immensely from a longer page-count.

I wish this was a better introduction to Vampirella...