Thursday, March 18, 2010

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!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Happy St. Patrick's Day--from the Leprechaun...in Space!


Next to being Ewok Wicket W. Warrick and Professor Flitwick, this will be the role Warwick Davis is best remembered for!
He's pretty damn funny, even when the material isn't!

They got up to #6 (Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood)in the Leprechaun series before finally putting the character to rest.

Trivia:
Like Friday the 13th and Critters, the series ended (chronologically) with the lead character in space!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Samson Classic Cover Gallery

Besides being one of the characters to be revived by both Erik Larsen (in Next Issue Project: Fantastic Comics #24) and Alex Ross (in Project SuperPowers), Samson was the FIRST demigod characters to receive his own comic, predating Marvel's Mighty Thor by several decades!
(And yes, I'm looking forward to Natalie Portman as Jane Foster in the new Mighty Thor movie!)

BTW, did we mention that ALL these covers (and six more) are available on our Classic Samson 2010 12-Month Calendar? ;-)

Monday, March 15, 2010

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept it...

He was not the original leader on Mission: Impossible!
With Martin Landau and Barbara Bain in 1966.

But once Peter Graves took over as Jim Phelps, no one even remembered the original (Steven Hill as Dan Briggs)
With Greg Morris, Leonard Nimoy (replaced Martin Landau), and Peter Lupus in 1970.

After Mission's seven-year run ended, Graves did extensive voice-over work including A&E's Biography (and parodying it in Men in Black II) and moved into comedy in Airplane and Airplane II.
He also appeared in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, as Major Noah Cooper, in "Return of the Fighting 69th", replacing Buster Crabbe who was unable to reprise his role as Brigadier Gordon.
Personally, I remember him in numerous 1950s genre films like It Conquered the World, Begining of the End, Red Planet Mars, and the over-the-top, but fun, Killers from Space!

Peter Graves (Peter Aurness)
March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010
Younger brother (by three years) of actor James Arness (James Aurness)