What Is Your Favorite Vampirella (Warren) Cover?

[Mushroom]

That is the one......unbelievably cool.

[Mushroom]

You have to love the fact that the guy already has his wood in his hand................

[delekkerste]

That is the one......unbelievably cool.

 

Nice cover...sold for $11,500 on Heritage in December 2002.

 

[blowout]

You have to love the fact that the guy already has his wood in his hand................

 

[COI]

 

If I saw this cover when I was 12-14 years old, I think I'd be a Vampi fan for life. It's not necessarily the best of the run, but it's definetly one of the most suggestive .

 

 

[delekkerste]

If I saw this cover when I was 12-14 years old, I think I'd be a Vampi fan for life. It's not necessarily the best of the run, but it's definetly one of the most suggestive .

 

 

Ahh, sweet Pepe Gonzalez.

 

If you liked the #82 cover, check out his frontispiece from #101:

 

 

Gene

[Rip]

I don't remember that one

[COI]

If I saw this cover when I was 12-14 years old, I think I'd be a Vampi fan for life. It's not necessarily the best of the run, but it's definetly one of the most suggestive .

 

 

Ahh, sweet Pepe Gonzalez.

 

If you liked the #82 cover, check out his frontispiece from #101:

 

 

Gene

 

 

But seriously, are the stories half as good as the art? If so, I might have to put together a run for myself.....

[delekkerste]

But seriously, are the stories half as good as the art? If so, I might have to put together a run for myself.....

 

Quite honestly, the Vampi stories are hit or miss. I don't think any of them rise to the level of "greatness", but there are some good ones in the run. Also, the Vampi stories, for the most part, are not hard core action/adventure/horror...there's always a tongue-in-cheek element in them (which you have to kind of expect given the outfit that she wears!) That's neither inherently good nor bad...but if you're expecting to read something really gritty like Tomb of Dracula or Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, you won't find it here.

 

However, it is also important to remember that there are usually about 5 stories per issue, of which usually only 1 actually stars Vampirella. A lot of the issues feature back-up stories starring Pantha or Fleur, but most of the other stories are more traditional horror/sci-fi/fantasy oriented and some of those are quite good, even great - Bernie Wrightson's classic "Jenifer" story comes to mind.

 

Also, the series is worth collecting just for the artwork alone. Warren's stable of mostly Spanish artists have sometimes been criticized for not being able to tell stories as well as their American counterparts, but, aesthetically, their works are far superior than all but the very best American comic book artists IMHO. These guys were actually real artists who were drafted into drawing comics and not guys who could only draw funny books.

 

I would highly recommend picking up the book "The Warren Companion" which came out a couple of years ago. It has a full history of Warren Publishing, lots of great interviews and artwork, and a thick appendix section which tells you the creators on each story in every issue that Warren published (Vampi, Creepy, Eerie, etc.), the best stories published by the company, the best covers published by the company, biographies of the artists, etc.

 

Gene

[ghoulaid]

I really had to go with #1 as my favorite cover. The image is classic and I prefer the version with her suit on. Without it she looks more generic like it could be anyone which causes it to lose its impact for me.

 

Cover #12 the best ever? Well, no...but he's entitled to his opinion. Though they are excellent painters, I just never warmed up to the overall STYLE of the Spanish artists. I do like Sanjulian though.

[shiverbones]

i voted for 19, i just love it. I think frazetta did far better jobs than the #1, so while i love frazetta, he doesn't get this vote.

[delekkerste]

The pencilled prelim to Sanjulian's "Queen of Hearts" cover (see scan below) is up for auction on eBay now.

 

[Lantern]

 

The Queen

 

 

WOW! That is incredible. Now, if only I were in the market for a multi-thousand dollar piece of art work.