This is not exactly the cover to the first issue of Vampirella, which was published back in 1969. I’ve taken the liberty of replacing the original VAMPIRELLA title logo with a later one because I think the later logo was way better than the first one. I did not tamper with the drawing itself because it’s quite iconic and it was done by Frank Frazetta. Anyone who thinks they could possibly improve a Frazetta drawing would be out of his ever-lovin’ mind.
The first issue of Vampirella went on sale officially on July 19, 1969. Jim Warren, who was kind of a maverick in the comic book business then, had been publishing Creepy and Eerie — two very good horror/weird comic anthologies with black-and-white interiors and an awful lot of ads for neat-looking monster stuff one could order from an outfit called Captain Company, which was also owned, I believe, by Mr. Warren. I actually had a friend who had very little interest in the fine stories in Creepy and Eerie but would buy an issue occasionally for the ads. He spent a lot of money on some of those ads.
They were very good horror comics containing not all that much horror and very little of the gore that would dominate some of the magazines that came along later, trying to emulate Warren’s success. But Creepy and Eerie were only great until the issues that came out around September of 1967. A superb editor/writer, Archie Goodwin, wrote most of the stories up until then and they were drawn by the likes of Al Williamson, Angelo Torres, Gray Morrow, Alex Toth, Jerry Grandenetti, Steve Ditko, Reed Crandall, Gene Colan and other great talents. And somehow, Warren was able to engage Frank Frazetta to do paintings for most of the covers.
I don’t know what Mr. Frazetta was paid but it was probably about a half-millionth of what he got for a painting later on at the peak of his career. The originals to some of those paintings have recently sold for huge amounts. One of those those amounts had seven figures in it and the first one was a 5.
Then Archie Goodwin left to work for Marvel (and other places) and most of the great artists left at the same time. Creepy and Eerie went to all or mostly reprints for a while and when new material did appear, it was not of the same caliber. There were a few more Frazetta covers — including the painting recently sold for those seven figures with a 5 in first place — but only a few. Eventually, better stories and art did appear and Warren magazines made a great comeback. My friend who bought them for the ads even noticed the improvement.
Vampirella joined Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie — the hosts of their respective magazines — on the newsstands in 1969. One suspects that someone said, “Gee, these horror-type comics would sell better if they were full of beautiful women with little or no clothing.” And so Vampirella was born. She was created by Forrest J Ackerman, who was also the editor of Warren’s other most notable magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland.
Most issues of Vampirella featured a story about the lovely title character. Tom Sutton drew the first one and in it, she wore (when she wore anything) a costume designed by Trina Robbins, who was soon to emerge as an important talent in the underground comics movement. And then there was that amazing Frazetta cover of the character in the costume Trina had designed.
In the rest of each issue, there were non-series stories that contained bits of female nudity or near-nudity. On newsstands that also sold Playboy and Penthouse and a thousand copycat publications, Vampirella seemed rather tame. Some good artists popped up in it but I recall not finding it terribly sexy. A couple of the artists drawing naked women did not seem to have ever actually seen one in real life.
But it must have sold decently because Warren published it until his company shut down in 1983…and it must not have sold huge numbers because he never brought out a companion magazine. There were rumors he was planning one but they never panned out.
I do not recall any significant outcry against the “adult” element of Vampirella. It wasn’t quite erotic enough to prompt many protests. I do, however, recall one very silly semi-scandal involving the first issue and one of the members of our old comic book club. I’ll tell you about it in a day or so.
Vampirella — the magazine and the character — have continued on from other publishers. As you probably know if like me you’ve tried, it’s not easy to kill a vampire. And I was going to end this piece here but after I wrote the first half of it, I realized I got something wrong. There is — or rather, was — a person who could improve on a Frank Frazetta painting. That person was Frank Frazetta.
Frank — I didn’t know him well but I think I knew him well enough to call him that — was rarely satisfied with his paintings after he may have thought they were finished. But very so often, after one of them was published, he’d put it back on the easel and improve it to his satisfaction — sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. He was never that fond of the costume for Vampirella so he went back to that painting that adorned the cover of #1 and he added something.
No, I’m wrong again. He didn’t add something. He subtracted something…her costume.
As the painting now stands, Vampirella is sans wardrobe. No uniform. No clothing. And the painting will soon go up for bids over at Heritage Auctions. The selling price will probably be about the same as the amount of our money Donald Trump is prepared to pay for Greenland…or maybe his stupid ballroom plus Greenland.
I myself will not be bidding on the painting but if you’re interested and you want to see what you might be buying, click this link. Actually, I doubt anyone will. I’m sure most readers of this blog have way too much class to want to get a look at a fully naked Vampirella painted by Frank Frazetta., In fact, I don’t know why I even bothered supplying that link. No one will use it.
0 Comments