Vampirella Revelations

The Vampirella magazine may have given exposure to a lot of up-and-coming alternative artists, but it also eviscerated the character Grant Morrison’s crafted for her, which elevated her far above her undead eye-candy origins.

The seven-page story does a good enough job of presenting her as a vampire urban legend that it doesn’t make us dread future installments, but, if Mike Lilly is serious about his vision of the “real” Vampirella, both she and we are in for tough times. She’s rendered so top-heavy that, not only isn’t she anatomically correct, she’s aerodynamically correct. All future artists who want to see how she should be drawn (sexy, not grotesque) can check out José Gonzales’ work in the old Warren magazines.

This is followed by several text pieces on how writers Mike Carey, Jay Faerber, and John Rozum will handle her in their upcoming arcs. Naturally, they left out the only author whose work I’m really looking forward to reading: Christopher Priest. Oh, and the cover’s stunning.

— S. A. Bennett

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#0

Jul 2005

Cover: $0.25

W: Mike Carey · A: Mike Lilly

1 copy for $2.40
#2 Variation C

Cover C by Mike Lilly

Jan 2006

Cover: $2.99

W: Mike Carey · A: Mike Lilly

2 copies from $0.99