Friday Holiday Fun VAMPIRELLA "Jackie and the Leprechaun King"

For St Patrick's Day, here's an offbeat tale about leprechauns...

...as rendered in an extremely non-traditional way by comics legend Esteban Maroto!

Scripted by Bill DuBay, this somewhat more "heroic fantasy" approach to the legend of leprechauns appeared in Warren's Vampirella #53 (1976) when elves and related creatures were experiencing a revival in popularity due to the 20th Anniversary of the official American publication JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy.
(It's a long story, and I'll tell it in a future post...)
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to start prepping Shepherd's Pie (with lamb marinated in Guinness) for dinner...

CoronaVirus Comics VAMPIRELLA MAGAZINE "Masque of the Red Death"

We've presented several versions of Edgar Allan Poe's tale of pandemic pandemonium HERE...

...and HERE...

...and HERE...

...in fact, its' one of the most re-told tales of classic horror that doesn't involve a classic "monster" like Frankenstein or Dracula!

Here's another rarely-seen (in fact, never-reprinted) version from Warren's Vampirella #110 (1984)...

Written by Rich Margopoulos, and illustrated by Rafael Auraleón, this is one of the moodier and graphically-gruesome versions, stopping just short of qualifying for our Not Safe for Work Comics Retroblog!

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Raven and the Red Death

Adapted by Richard Corben

Reading Room TOMB OF THE GODS "Horus"

The 1970s was a time of experimentation in comics...

Art by Enrich

...and one of the more interesting strips appeared in the back of Warren's b/w magazine Vampirella, beginning with this cover-featured tale...which may be NSFW...

Written and illustrated by Esteban Maroto, the strip played with a number of mythological characters from various pantheons, offering twists on the long-established legends.

This premiere tale appeared in Warren's Vampirella #17 (1972) with other Tomb of the Gods entries appearing irregularly until #23.

Vampirella Resurrected...at Dynamite!

Before Twilight!
Before True Blood!
Before Buffy the Vampire Slayer!
Before Blade!
There was…Vampirella!

Dynamite Entertainment (Project SuperPowers, Green Hornet) has acquired the Vampirella property from Harris Publications.

Vampirella debuted in 1969 in a black & white magazine titled simply Vampirella.
Initially, she was just the hostess of various horror stories, much like EC's Crypt Keeper or DC's Cain and Abel, but much cuter!

In Vampirella #9, the character received her own strip, with the first tale being (what else?) her origin story!

 

Vampirella has been around since then in both b/w and color comics form from Warren and then Harris Publications, remaining one of the most popular female and/or vampire characters in comics!
In addition, there was a series of paperback novels by Ron Goulart, adapting the comics storylines into prose!
There was even a Vampirella feature film starring Talisa Soto as the Draculonian, now available on dvd.

We wish her a long and prosperous un-life at Dynamite!

Fantastic Femmes--Talisa Soto

Note: this page has been updated with NEW info HERE!

Talisa landed her first modeling assignment at the age of 15 doing catalog work!
After being told she was "too Latina" for fashion modeling, she went to Europe, where she graced the covers of most of the major fashion magazines.
When she returned to the US, her modeling (both high fashion and swimsuit including Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues) and acting careers took off, and she worked steadily for over a decade.
After marrying actor Benjamin Bratt and having two children, she went into semi-retirement.

Genre appearances include...
La Mission (Ana)
Island of the Dead (Melissa O'Keefe)
Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever (Vinn aka Rayne )
C16: FBI (Rosemary Vargas)
Mortal Kombat / Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
(Princess Kitana)
Spy Hard [listed in credits as "Desiree More"]
(Seductress in Hotel Room)
Vampirella (Vampirella aka Ella)
License to Kill [17th Eon James Bond film]
(Lupe Lamora)
Silhouette (Marianna Herrera)

Check out...
the UnOfficial Talisa Soto Page

Other actresses to play Princess Kitana include...
Cree Summer in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm
Note: two actresses played Kitana in the Mortal Kombat: Conquest tv series--Dara Tomanovich and Audie England
Other actresses to play Vampirella include...
Barbara Leigh in the unproduced 1975 Vampirella film from Hammer Studios.