Vampirella Master Series Featured Reviews 

“Vampirella Master Series” Volume 6

By | July 19th, 2016
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

For a character that isn’t spoken about in laudatory terms often, a ton of great creators have spent time on Vampirella comics. Their “Master Series” credits read like a who’s who of modern comics royalty – Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, Mark Millar – and James Robinson, to me, belongs in that conversation. The sixth installment of the Master Series is dedicated to Robinson’s brief, but very important, work with the character. The fact that Joe Jusko painted the main story in the book was just the icing on the cake.

Written by James Robinson
Illustrated by Joe Jusko, Ray Lago, Rick Mays and David Mack

Collecting James Robinson’s and Joe Jusko’s sense shattering tale “Blood Lust” as Vampirella journeys to hell with Adam Van Helsing to uncover the truth of her existence. This tale re-wrote the book on Vampirella and her homeland of Drakulon. Also includes the Blood Lust epilogue originally not released with the original two issue series and an article which covers how Joe Jusko worked from the script and thumbnailed, drafted and then painted some sample pages. Also includes James Robinson’s short Vampirella tale “Vampirella Vs. Dracula” with art by Rick Mays and David Mack.

All comic fans have blind spots in their reading; it is simply impossible to be familiar with all corners of any medium. For me, Vampirella is a character that I had only passing knowledge of, and most of that was gleaned from pop culture osmosis. Hell, I only knew that she was from a planet called Drakulon because my pal Chad told me, and I thought he was joking.

Part of my aversion was, let’s face it, Vampirella doesn’t appear to be the most progressive character in comics. She’s the poster child for revealing/non-functional costuming, she’s known for the cheesecake covers of her books more than their content, and nothing says cheesy late-night soft-core pornography than a female vampire with a prominent chest. For this reason, I had almost no familiarity with the character at all, outside of knowing she was a vampire.

I wish I could tell you that after reading this book, it all clicks for me, and I understand that there is an empowerment aspect to Vampirella, and that the book is an allegory for the ills of our society. I don’t think that, but I do see more depth to the character, and I can see why Drakulon and environs could be an interesting place to spend some more reading time. I’m not exactly ordering all the other books in this series just yet, but I’m curious to see what other stories are out there.

The main story here is a two-parter called “Blood Lust,” which is the Robinson/Jusko piece that takes up the majority of the space in this book and was originally published by Harris Comics. Joe Jusko, for the uninitiated, has an incredibly important role in the lives of comic fans of a certain age. Jusko painted the original ‘Marvel Masterpieces’ card set in 1993, which was the height of collecting comic cards. I have memories of friends paying upwards of $50 or more for some rare Masterpieces cards, and my complete set still sits in a binder in my childhood bedroom (I just saw them on Friday when visiting my folks).

Jusko’s paintings represent what I thought ‘grown up’ comics looked like when I was 11, and there’s still something to that. Painted pages create a feel that, by design, transcends the usual look of monthly comics which, though often times beautiful, look like they were created in a month. It is much harder to believe that Jusko could have created this work in a similar time frame. I feel like this a great example of just how flush with money comics were in the 90s: Harris Comics could afford to pay Joe Jusko to paint 60 pages of Vampirella comics and (hopefully) turn a profit.

Jusko’s Vampirella doesn’t shy away from any of the more revealing aspects of her outfit. There are plenty of places in this book that, if her top (is that what you’d even call that?) shifted a centimeter to the left or right, would reveal her exposed breast. Look, I’m no prude – well, maybe a little – and I can appreciate that there is a certain beauty to how Jusko draws Vampirella. Some of the closeups look similar to mid-70s Linda Ronstadt, bangs and all, and that’s squarely up my alley, but there’s something inherently exploitative about the character. Jusko isn’t leaning into that as much as others might, but there’s still some of that, and I could see someone looking at this book and being disgusted by its portrayal of its main character.

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I tried to look past that while reading this, because I wanted to get a ‘true’ Vampirella experience. I wanted to see what sort of stories could be told through the character, and see what I’ve been missing. I see now that this was the wrong book to grab for that, because Robinson takes one key part of her origin – that she’s from an alien planet called Drakulon, and flips the script. Robinson, instead, makes Drakulon a part of hell, and says that Vampirella’s mother, Lilith, planted false memories into her head to convince her of her alien nature. Why Lilith did this isn’t really discussed, but you can see why Robinson thought, perhaps, that a more traditionally evil/vampire origin would make more sense for the character.

Robinson and Jusko spend the majority of the book bringing Vampirella and her now-dead lover, Adam Van Helsing, on a journey across Drakulon to kill Lilith, therefore restarting the river of blood that runs through the land, allowing vampires to feed off the river and not living things. Jusko’s Van Helsing is truly something to see, with his bloody face and plucked out eyes. There are shades of the Hammer Films-era Frankenstein’s monster in his appearance, and paired with Vampirella and the color palette Jusko choice, this book feels very much of the 60s/70s horror era in tone, which I’m absolutely fine with. I’m a huge Hammer fan, and this brought the book into a milieu with which I was familiar.

Some of Jusko’s best work comes along the journey, as he gets to draw some bizarre hell creatures that resemble dragons, dinosaurs, and druids. Robinson sets them out on a journey to stop Lilith, even though Vampirella is reluctant to kill her mother (who is also the mother of all vampires – I should probably mention that). This attempts to give Vampirella some characterization, outside of just ‘vampire who thinks that a collar is the most important part of an outfit, and it works. By the end of the two-parter, you sympathize with what Vampirella has to do, and the character grows in ways you wouldn’t necessarily expect.

The book also features two additional Robinson-penned pieces. One is the fine, but somewhat forgettable “Two So Different,” with art by Ray Lago, where Vampirella meets Count Dracula. The art is lovely, full of mystery and intrigue, but the story, due to its short nature, never really develops in the way you’d hope a meeting of these two vampires would. It also seems to deal more with the ‘traditional’ Vampirella continuity, of which I am woefully ignorant. There’s a lot of Dracula explaining who he is to Vampirella, which makes for about as visually exciting scene as you would expect and, since everyone reading this knows who Dracula is, we don’t need to be reminded that he is vulnerable to sunlight. There’s a lot of telling, but not a lot of showing in the story, which has Vampirella chained to a stone altar for most of the duration. Again, there are threads of a fun story there, but they don’t really go anywhere, and spend time on the parts of the story that we, as readers, don’t need focus on.

The final story in the book, however, “Vampirella Vs. Dracula,” couldn’t have been any more engaging, and sweet in a really bizarre way. The story involves a library, where creative people do their work and gain inspiration while writing. It’s a really neat concept, and it sets up a nice scene where Archie Goodwin (legendary comics editor and writer) and Bram Stoker are sharing a desk, doing research on bats for their respective works. Stoker and Goodwin are talking about their work, and Goodwin is heaping praise on Stoker for his creation of Dracula. There’s a melancholy to Stoker, especially after he realizes that only Dracula will be remembered long after he is gone.

The installment is illustrated by Rick Mays, working off of David Mack layouts, and Mays does a serviceable job in making this story come to life. After the two painted stories that precede it, the art can feel a little lesser, but that is quickly forgotten when the conversation between Goodwin and Stoker amps up, and Mays conveys their joy at being around each other perfectly.

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For a few minutes, you almost forget the story’s title, and then you see that, among the stacks of books are both Dracula and Vampirella. Drac believes that if he kills Stoker before he finishes the book (in which the Count dies), he can grow more powerful and, that if he kills Goodwin, Vampirella’s strength will be lessened. What follows is a fun battle between the two, where the two writers look on in awe.

Sure, there are a few cheesy points where Goodwin tries to explain comic books and films to Stoker, but there is a true love on the page, from Robinson to these two writers. But Robinson has spoken at length about his affection for Goodwin, and that practically drips off these pages. Vampirella, at the end of the story, even gives Goodwin a complement that any writer would love to hear from a character they worked on: “Thank you for writing me so well. Believe me, there are plenty of writers I would have happily allowed Dracula to kill…but never you.”

Goodwin was nearing the end of his battle with cancer at this point, and was editing Robinson on “Starman” at DC. This rare bit of humanity and love inside of a vampire comic shows just how much Robinson loved Goodwin, and that love elevates this story above all the others in the book. While this might be the least traditional Vampirella story in the book, it is the most squarely in Robinson’s wheelhouse. He loves connecting the past to the present and ‘reality’ to fantasy, and this has that in spades.

Overall, I don’t quite know if I’m ready to jump into more Vampirella stories anytime soon. I enjoyed this book for what it is, and even enjoyed that it didn’t shy away from being what it was, if that makes any sense. There was no desire to tell a more socially conscious, or more subtle Vampirella story. While Robinson and Jusko added their own spin to her origin, she remains the same. And, while I appreciate that, I don’t quite know if the character resonates with me enough to go deeper.

If anyone has a suggestion for another Vampirella story to check out, let me know in the comments!


//TAGS | evergreen

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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