Review- VAMPIRELLA ARCHIVES VOL. 4

VAMPIRELLA ARCHIVES VOL. 4 (Dynamite, First Printing, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects Vampirella #22-28 and 1972 Vampirella Annual (cover dates Annual 1972- October, 1973)

Writers: Don Glut, Bill DuBay, Doug Moench, Steve Englehart, Tony Isabella (credit given to Len Wein; Isabella ghost-wrote the story for him), J.R. Cochran, Esteban Maroto, Dube, Steve Skeates, John Jacobson, Ed Newsome, Kevin Pagan, Gerry Bordeau, Jim Stenstrum, Robert Rosen, Nicola Cuti, W. Eaton, George Henderson, James Crawford, Lynn Marron, Jose Toutain, Flaxman Loew, Fernandez, Jose Bea, James Crawford, and Bruce Bezaire

Artists: Jose Gonzalez, Esteban Maroto, Rafael Auraleon, Bill DuBay, Jose Bea, Ramon Torrents, Munes, Fernandez, Escolano, and Felix Mas, with cover paintings by Aslan, Enrich Torres, and Sanjulian

Vampirella is the star of this series. Her story takes up a chunk of each issue and she hosts the rest of the stories a la the Cryptkeeper. She is all cheesecake and helped usher adolescent Baby Boomers through puberty. In all honesty, she is the least interesting aspect of the series to me, as I don't read comic books for that kind of inspiration. I much prefer the non-Vampirella stories. They are interchangeable with the stories found in the other Warren Magazines (Creepy and Eerie), meaning that they are well executed EC-inspired Horror.

Artwork by Auraleon.

The 1972 Annual, which was omitted from Vol. 3, is thankfully included here. Stories which were reprinted from earlier issues in the series are omitted from that issue, which is fine. #23's Cobra Queen is one of those morality type stories that is so familiar that it must be derived from a fable. Don Glut is a great writer and pulls it off fabulously.

A quick look at the list of writers above shows that this is a proverbial who's who of Bronze Age stars before they were stars. Doug Moench's talent was already fully formed, as his stories are a cut above the rest. All of the stories were good, and the art is top notch as well. Younger fans may not recognize many of the names above, but all of these writers and artists deserve your notice.

Artwork by Auraleon.

Rafael Auraleon's artwork is without peer. His art in #24's The Choice is fantastic, so photo realistic that if it were done today I would swear that he was a Photoshop cheat of an artist. I wonder if he used models for photo referencing. Look at that splash page from #25's The Haunted Child. He crams so much atmosphere into each panel, truly cinematic stuff. His panel composition is like a camera angle, with each panel being a different shot. Absolutely brilliant. I could sit here all day and gush about his work.

Artwork by Auraleon. 

Munes is another artist whose artwork is museum worthy, as evidenced by #26's Blood Brothers! He uses solids to paint colors in your mind more effective than using actual color. #28's Old Texas Road is another creepy one.

This is fun, old-fashioned Horror, heavy on the haunted houses, werewolves, and the like. It is interesting to see slasher type Horror begin to creep in. Anxieties about the Viet Nam War and the Cold War would soon usher in a new breed of Horror movie the following year. Movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would forever change the standards of what is considered Horror, but that is a different conversation altogether. I prefer the old school to what passes as Horror these days. Now get off of my lawn!

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- Dynamite lists the creator credits in the table of contents by the names used in the original issues. Some of these, such as Dube, were pseudonyms for creators. (Dube was Bill DuBay.) There is a difference between a pseudonym and a “stage name”.

Other credits are not included. For example, the artists who did the painted covers that made the series so famous are not listed in the table of contents of the book (although they are credited on the original issue letters pages, which are included). Dynamite should have an intern do five minutes of Internet research so that proper credit can be given to the creators. Cripes, I'd be willing to do it for a comp copy of the book.

This book is presented in the dimensions of the original magazine publications, meaning that this is the same height and width as Dark Horse's Creepy and Eerie Archives as well as their EC Archives.

Linework and Color restoration: These are all cleaned up high resolution scans of the original issues. Covers and the handful of pages originally presented in color are in full color here.

Paper stock: Thick glossy coated stock. I like the smell of these Chinese made books.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding, lays perfectly flat. This book will outlast me on this Earth.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: Dustjacket is fully laminated. Hardback has faux leather casewrap and dye foil stamping on the cover and spine. 

Review- VAMPIRELLA ARCHIVES VOL. 3 HC

VAMPIRELLA ARCHIVES VOL. 3 (Dynamite, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Vampirella Nos. 15-21 (cover dates January- December, 1972)

Writers: Archie Goodwin, Don McGregor, Doug Moench, Dave Mitchell, Pat Boyette, Nicola Cuti, Don Glut, Bill Dubay, Nebot, Gus St. Anthony, Jan S. Strnad, T. Casey Brennan, Mike Jennings, Esteban Maroto, Steve Skeates, Kevin Pagan, Martin Pasko, Greg Potter, Chad Archer, and Chuck McNaughton

Artists: Jose' Gonzalez, Esteban Maroto, Jose Bea, Richard Corben, Luis Garcia, Nebot, Auraleon, Pat Boyette, Bill Dubay, Felix Mas, Jerry Grandenetti, L.M. Roca, Luis Dominguez, and Martin Pasko

The Warren magazines are a mixed bag in terms of quality, although this series is much better three books in. Vampirella the character has become more three-dimensional and less cheesecakey. The weaker stories were the ones with Vampirella in them. The better ones were the generic Warren Horror stories which would be interchangeable with either of the other titles, Creepy and Eerie. These were, of course, variations of old Pre-Code Horror comics such as those found in EC, Harvey, etc. of two decades prior. I don't need the wheel reinvented, just give me some solid old school Horror and I am happy. Even though this was a magazine which eschewed the Comics Code Authority of the day, there is little in the way of gore. Most of the taboos found here which would have raised the ire of the CCA would be slight nudity, excessive faux-occult references, and vampires and the like.

Gorilla My Dreams (issue #16) is one of those tried and true Horror stories which has been told so many times that it is almost impossible to pinpoint where it originally came from. I'm going to go with the old saying that all cliches come from either The Bible or Shakespeare. Surely this can be found in either one, right? (Insert winky-faced smiley guy.)

This book is filled to the brim with talent. Many of the writers, such as Don McGregor and Doug Moench, would go on to great acclaim over at Marvel (and later DC as well for Moench). On the art side there are fewer “names” but no less talent. Artists such as Esteban Maroto and Luis Garcia offer stunning photo-realistic artwork decades prior to Photoshop. Some of these cats are awe inspiring, and I can't help but wonder why they didn't stick around. Maybe they left comics to pursue more lucrative graphic design or commercial artwork.

The concerns of young people of the time, such as drugs, feminism, nuclear annihilation, and the overall anxiety and sense of foreboding of the era are all captured brilliantly here. I tend to read old comics with the era that they were written in in mind. Some of this material holds up in 2013 by 2013 standards, other stuff is lovably dated and charming and quaint.

There are some real problems with this book, though, and you must read this edition of The OCD zone below for more information on that. Before we end the review portion, I must give credit to the following fine human beings for their invaluable assistance:

Special thanks to Aussie Stu from the Masterworks Message Board for furnishing me with high resolution TIFs of the two missing story pages.

Special thanks to KOBE 27 from the Masterworks Message Board for furnishing scans of the two missing text pages.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This book is missing several pages. I have emailed and Tweeted Dynamite Entertainment about this and have yet to get a response.

Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I have obtained scans of the missing story pages and printed them out and tipped them in myself. The following pages are missing:

Page 17 of ...And Be A Bride Of Chaos from issue 16 (Page 22 of the issue proper).

Page 8 of Death In The Shadows from issue 17. This page is the climax of the story for crying out loud! (Page 41 of the issue proper.)

Second page of the Scarlett Letters column in issue 20. 

Second page of the Vampi's Flames fan story column from issue 20.

So there they are...the four missing pages! Just print them out, trim them accordingly, and tip them in! Thanks again to Aussie Stu, who provided super high quality TIFs of the story pages, and KOBE 27, who did the JPEGs of the text pages. You guys rock!

Dynamite had three courses of action that they could have done to rectify these errors:

1. Recalled the entire run and pulped it and/or manually glued in tip-in sheets of the missing pages.
2. Offered high resolution PDFs on their site for people to print and then tip-in themselves, or...
3. Done #2 and then reprint the complete stories with an apology in Volume 4. NONE of these things happened. Dynamite is clowntown and I know of many folks who have quit this line of books because of the fiasco that is Vampirella Archives Volume 3.

Dynamite also screwed up by not including the Vampirella 1972 Annual, which had an all-new cover and a brand new 15 page story, The Origin Of Vampirella. This story was reprinted in issue 46, albeit with a new script.

It would be nice if a company doing a high end series of Archives like this, which are by design completist be all, end all editions, would do 10 minutes of research online when mapping these books out. Dynamite should also pay more attention when mapping these books out. People make mistakes, but owning up to them is part of being human. Dynamite has lost a lot of goodwill with the fans of these books.

Gripe for Volume 2 that I did not include in that book's review years ago: The story Fiends In The Night from issue 10 was not included in that book because it featured Uncle Creepy. This is at least understandable as Dynamite's license does not include that character, I am just mentioning it as a point of reference for the OCD completists out there. 

Curiouser and curiouser...this was found on Page 77, in one of the stories missing a page. Note how the *box refers to the Creepy Classics Trade Paperback from the '90s rather than the original issue. Is it possible that Harris did paste ups? Or is this the case of altered film? Or is it that Dynamite are simply incompetent boobs?

DVD-style Extras included in this book: A three page preview of Dynamite's new Vampirella series.

Linework and Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. Solid restoration.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Beautiful thick coated stock, dull matte semi-glossy. Considerably less glossy than Dark Horse's Creepy and Eerie Archives. 

Binding rating: 4.25 out of 5. While the binding is indeed sewn, the book block is glued square to the casing, rendering it a two-fisted read for roughly a quarter of the book. It is a durable binding but will not lay completely flat in the very front or the very back of the book.

Buy VAMPIRELLA ARCHIVES VOL. 3 HC at InStockTrades!

Review- VAMPIRELLA ARCHIVES VOL. 2

VAMPIRELLA ARCHIVES VOL. 2 (Dynamite, 2010: Hardcover)

Collects Vampirella Nos. 8-14 (cover dates November, 1970- November, 1971)

Writers: Archie Goodwin, Gardner Fox, Steve Skeates, Nick Cuti, Don Glut, Doug Moench, Wally Wood, Chris Fellner, Alac Justice, Gerry Conway, Denny O'Neil, Len Wein, Chuck McNaughton, Larry Herndon, Buddy Saunders, Sanho Kim, Jeff Jones, Dan Latimer, Bill Dubay, Gary Kaufman, and Lynn Maron

Artists: Tom Sutton, Billy Graham, Ken Barr, Jack Sparling, George Roussos, Tony Williamsune*, Jeff Jones, Joe Wehrle, Wally Wood, Jerry Grandenetti, Barry Windsor-Smith, Alac Justice, Ralph Reese, Frank Brunner, Neal Adams, Steve Englehart, L.M. Roca, Dave Cockrum, Sanho Kim, Jose' Gonzales, Steve Hickman, Jose M. Bea, Bill Dubay, Gary Kaufman, Mike Ploog, and Esteban Maroto

There is a marked improvement in the quality of the stories in these issues over the ones collected in Volume One. Vampirella benefited from being a magazine, free from the conventions of the Comics Code Authority which strangled creativity at the time. These stories are a mixed bag, being either hit or miss. 

Artwork by Wally Wood. Is Wally Wood the first to use full bleed artwork in comics?

Some stories, such as To Kill A God by Wally Wood and She'll Never Learn from issue 11, are excellent, while others fall flat on their face. The ones that are good are really good, while the ones that are bad tend to be really, really bad. 

Esteban Maroto makes his Warren Magazines debut here. He is an incredible artist whose work I have bumped into now and again, and I always enjoy it when I see it. Ken Barr is another artist whose work really shines here.

Archie Goodwin really locks into a groove and establishes a continuity for Vampirella. I can see why this was so popular with the Baby Boomers, especially those in their adolescence during the original publication dates. Lots of double entendre and cheescake poses in her stories, ripe for teenage fantasies. The best stories are the ones that don't feature Vampirella and are likely left over from the other Warren mags, Creepy and Eerie.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- I love the paper used in these books. It's a super-duper thick coated stock with a dull matte finish. While this book has sewn binding, the casing is glued square into the spine, which prevents the binding to flex so that the book can lay flat. This book weighs 3.2 pounds (1.4515 kilograms), and the super squared binding and spine make it uncomfortable to hold in your hand to read. It doesn't lay flat within the first or last 100 pages. It's slightly over 400 pages, so it only lays flat for half of the book. This is publishing amateur hour.

There is a page sequencing error in Issue 9. Page 7 is placed before Page 5 on Jack the Ripper Strikes Again. This is unfortunate and amateurish, but at least it's better than what happened with Volume 3, which omitted 3 pages of story from 3 different stories. I'm not looking forward to reading that one. Dynamite never acknowledged the fans' complaints, nor did they offer a solution.

Solutions other publishers who have made similar mistakes have offered: Marvel omitted a story page in one of their old G.I. Joe trade paperbacks, but included it in the back of the next volume. Gemstone repeated a cover and omitted another in Weird Science Archives Vol. 3. They printed out a tip-in sheet, which was sent to all retailers for those who ordered the book. They also went to great expense and cracked open every remaining copy in the warehouse, inserted the tip-in sheet, and resealed them. Fantagraphics/Blake Bell omitted two pages in two separate stories in The Steve Ditko Archives Vol. 3, and offered two solutions. Printable tip-in sheets on the Fantagraphics website and the complete stories will be included in Volume 4.

All are satisfactory solutions to unfortunate editorial errors. Dynamite has done nothing, and have as a result they have lost me. I won't be purchasing the rest of the run of this title.

Linework restoration rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5.

Binding rating: 2 out of 5.

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Review- VAMPIRELLA ARCHIVES VOL. 1

VAMPIRELLA ARCHIVES VOL. 1 (Dynamite, 2010; Hardcover)

Collects Vampirella Nos. 1-7 (cover dates September, 1969- September, 1970)

Writers: Don Glut, Gardner Fox, Doug Moench, and others

Artists: Tom Sutton, Billy Graham, Frank Frazetta (covers), Reed Crandall, Neal Adams, Mike Royer, Jack Sparling, John Fantocchio, Frank Bolle, and others

Vampirella is a beloved baby boomer icon. I love Horror comic books, especially EC Comics and their illegitimate children, the Warren Magazines Creepy and Eerie. Vampirella was added to the stable after those two titles took off. I figured that this would be a can't miss, fun filled black and white Horror romp. After all, they didn't make bad comic books until the '90s, right? Wrong.

While there is the occasional decent story or decent artist, most of this book is just plain dull and uninspired. I had no sense of urgency to read this other than to the clear the docket for something that I might actually enjoy. The worst part of all of this is the fact that I already acquired Volumes 2 and 3 before I started this book. That is why I always read volume ones before I buy subsequent volumes nowadays. 

Don't get me wrong, this didn't suck. I just wasn't feeling it. I read a lot of Horror comics and can appreciate black humor and cheesecake, but this was a big yawn for me. If I were an adolescent during this era and had no Internet or access to pornography, then I can see how this could be titillating for a teenager. I get why it was popular back then and a beloved icon. It just doesn't do anything for me here in 2012. 

The OCD zone- The paper in this book is a coated stock with a dull matte finish. I enjoy it more than the paper that Dark Horse is using in their Warren hardcovers, Creepy and Eerie. Those books have superior binding to this one, though. Those books lay flat. This book also has sewn binding, but the book block is glued to the squared spine, and is difficult to read for the first and last 80 pages. This is a 392 page monster, so you get 100 or so more pages than those two books at the same price point. There are trade offs for sure, but I'd rather have 2 less issues and better binding. Your mileage may vary.

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