Monday, February 5, 2007

Vampirella (1996)


Vampirella is a fictional character, a comic book vampire heroine created by Forrest J. Ackerman for Warren Publishing's namesake black-and-white horror-comics magazine, and developed by Archie Goodwin with artists Frank Frazetta and Tom Sutton.

After appearing in Warren magazines from 1969-1983, Vampirella was sold to Harris Comics, which has been publishing her in various series and miniseries from 1991 to 2007. At the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention in January 2007 Scott Licina, Editor-in-Chief of Fangoria Comics announced they had acquired the character from Harris, and that it was not a licensing deal.

Vampirella was originally presented as an inhabitant of the planet Drakulon, a world where people lived on blood and where blood flowed in rivers. Drakulon orbited twin suns, Satyr and Circe, with the former erupting at irregular intervals to destroy all life on the planet. As the effects of the explosion wane, a new civilization begins. The race of which Vampirella was born, the Vampiri, were able to transform themselves into bats at will, sprout wings when required, and drink blood.

The story begins with the inhabitants of Drakulon being destroyed slowly by Satyr's latest eruption. The last few lie dying when a spaceship from Earth crashes on the planet. Vampirella, sent to investigate, is attacked; retaliating, she discovers that the astronauts have blood in their veins. In order for her race to survive, she manages to pilot the ship back to Earth where her adventures begin. Vampirella becomes a "good" vampire, and devotes her energy to ridding our world of the homegrown "evil" kind.

Harris Comics revived Vampirella in the miniseries Morning In America, written by Kurt Busiek. Soon thereafter, Vampirella was established as being brainwashed by her sister and brother (in the story "Mystery Walk") and led to believe she was from the planet Drakulon. She learned that she was, in fact, the daughter of Lilith, the first wife of Adam from the Book of Genesis. Lilith would not submit before Adam and was cast out of Eden. She mated with demons in hell, giving birth to vampires who would kill the offspring of Adam and Eve on Earth. Later, she sought redemption from God and gave birth to Vampirella, whom she sent to Earth to kill all evil vampires. According to this account, Drakulon was a part of Hell where Lilith lived and ruled.

Vampirella was made into a 1996 feature film starring Talisa Soto and Roger Daltrey. This film was directed by Jim Wynorski.
Now this movie is what bad cinema is all about.
Avoid it.

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