Vampirella - Sexy Vampire Queen Of Comics.

Vampirella hails from a planet known as Draculon, a planet inhabited by an ancient race of vampires who feed on blood that runs naturally from the planets rivers. Draculon is a planet that orbits twin suns that are causing drought on the planet. The doomed inhabitants of Draculon lie dying when a spaceship from Earth crash lands on the planet, after investigating the crash Vampirella notices that the astronauts from Earth have blood in their veins and sets off for Earth in order for her kind to survive. On arriving on Earth Vampirella finds Earth has already been infested by the evil vampire Dracula and his followers and sets out to rid the world of Dracula and his ilk.

Vampirella was created by Forest.J.Ackerman and Trina Robbins in 1969 and appeared in her own comic book " Vampirella " published by Warren Publishing from 1969 to 1983 until Warren Publishing became bankrupt. Vampirella was a sister black and white horror anthology to two other Warren magazines Creepy and Eerie. Creepy and Eerie both had their own mascots who would introduce the stories contained in their respective magazines, Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie, Vampirella would perform the same role as comic book host in her titular title but would also star in the main story.

After the bankruptcy of Warren, the rights to the character of Vampirella were acquired by Harris Publications. Harris would publish Vampirella stories in various series and mini series from 1991 up to 2007, the publishing gap between 1983 and 1991 caused by legal battles over the ownership of the two other Warren properties Creepy and Eerie.

In 1988 Harris printed Vampirella # 113 an issue that carried on the original numbering from Warren and reprinted black and white Warren stories, the issue was not a great success and any returns were destroyed, consequently the book has become a rare modern issue and highly collectable.

Dynamite Comics have a history of obtaining the license to print the stories of many old and established comic book characters, some of the books Dynamite now publish include Red Sonja, Zorro and Green Hornet. The company do a fine job of giving these dated characters a boost with great artwork and colorful stories and pages. In March 2010 Dynamite acquired the rights to publish Vampirella stories and alongside a new series Vampirella #1 they also produced the monthly series Vampirella And The Scarlett Legion.

Vampirella shares the powers and abilities of most vampires that are seen in literature, she has superhuman strength, speed and senses as well as the ability of flight and immortality. Vampirella has superb night vision an increased healing factor and the power of hypnosis. Unlike other vampires Vampirella is not prone to traditional vampire weaknesses such as crosses,garlic, holy water or even daylight. Vampirella only occasionally drinks human blood usually if she is attacked by a human.

Vampirella is always seen in her signature bright red sling suit with a white collar and knee high black leather boots.

In the mid 1970s British horror film studios Hammer were beginning to struggle, much larger studios in Hollywood were producing big budget horror such as Rosemary's Baby, Hammer were in trouble. In an effort to gauge public mood Michael Carreras ran an advert Warren Publishings magazines asking readers which character would they like to see featured in a movie, the answer was unanimous, Vampirella. Originally Caroline Munroe a beautiful British actress who had appeared in a James Bond movie was cast in the role of Vampirella but she was to soon drop out due to there being nudity scenes, soon actress Valerie Leon dropped out for the same reasons. Eventually Hammer settled on actress Barbara Leigh to play the role, the script was written and publicity shots and posters produced but the film never saw the light of day. It seems likely that Hammer never had the money to produce the movie and the company were soon to fold, ending a great British film tradition and also the career of Miss Leigh.

A Vampirella movie that did get made was Vampirella in 1996. This movie stars Talisa Soto as the titular character and bizarrely the lead singer of the rock group The Who Roger Daltrey as a Dracula like character named Vlad, it is an awful film that went straight to video its only saving grace is that it is unintentionally funny in parts.

Hopefully someday a Vampirella movie will be made that will do this great comic book character justice, here's hoping.