In the world of fantasy “bad girl” art, Vampirella has always been a slice of cheesecake served with a blood-red strawberry swirl.
It’s amazing the number of big creators who have worked on the title over the decades, even while it’s still gone on without a lot of people noticing. Dare I say, like a bat flying under the radar. I was even wondering what happened to “Vampi” recently and, lo and behold, Comic Vine receives this press release today from Dynamite, announcing that they’ve acquired the license to the long-running character from Harris, the previous holder of it.
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT ACQUIRES VAMPIRELLA!
March 17, 2010 - Before Twilight. Before True Blood. Before Buffy. Before Blade. There was…Vampirella! Leading comic book publisher, Dynamite Entertainment, is proud to announce it has acquired the Vampirella property from Harris Publications. Vampirella will become part of Dynamite's thriving comic book line-up, which includes Project Superpowers, The Boys, Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, Army of Darkness, Red Sonja and more.
Vampirella debuted in 1969 in a black & white magazine titled simply VAMPIRELLA. With a stunning cover by legendary artist, Frank Frazetta, Vampirella #1 quickly made publishing history with its depiction of a vampire heroine, and its success prompted comics giants DC and Marvel to launch horror titles of their own. Vampirella appeared in this magazine format throughout the 1970's. Many of these classic stories were illustrated by the legendary artist Jose Gonzalez and have remained quite popular with comics fans to the present day. After a brief publishing hiatus, Vampirella returned in 1992 and quickly regained her reigning status as the queen of all female comics characters! In continuous publication since her early 90s comeback, Vampirella has been written by top talents including Alan Moore, Mark Millar, Grant Morrision, James Robinson, Jeph Loeb, Warren Ellis, and illustrated by fan favorite artists such as Joe Quesada, J. Scott Campbell, Michael Turner, Jae Lee, Adam Hughes, Mark Texeira, Joe Jusko, Arthur Suydam, and many more! A Vampirella feature film premiered on Showtime Networks in 1996, and the character continues to appear on numerous items of licensed merchandise.
Commenting on the acquisition, Nick Barrucci, President of Dynamite Entertainment said, "Vampirella is one of the most well known and longest running comic characters in the history of the business. Outside of Marvel and DC characters, very few comics characters that debuted in the 60's still resonate with fans today. Our acquisition of this iconic brand is another step in Dynamite's exciting growth and builds on the ongoing success of our line.""I am incredibly pleased to be passing the stewardship of Vampirella on to Dynamite," says Stanley Harris, President of Harris Publications. "Dynamite has proven to be one of the premiere publishers in the comic book industry, and Vampirella couldn't be in better and more caring hands!"
Like I said, it’s kind of remarkable to see that so many big names have worked on a title that isn’t always even available at your “local comic book store.” In this article alone, we’ve got pin-ups by David Finch, Tim Sale and Mike Mignola. I imagine that this new deal with Dynamite will significantly increase the alien vampire covergirl’s profile, though. And I’ll tip my hat to Dynamite, as they’ve quickly become a player to be reckoned with on the comics scene and they’ve shown how to handle licensed properties. Dare I say, I feel like I turned away from an ignited stick and turned back to face an explosion!
How do feel about this news, oh blood-sucking Comic
Vine community? Actually, I’ll specifically put the question out the ladies here. How do you feel about Vampirella and her status as one of the longest-running superheroines in comics?
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.
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