Vampirella is a fictional character, a comic book vampire superheroine created by Forrest J Ackerman and costume designer Trina Robbins in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazine Vampirella #1 (Sept. 1969). Writer-editor Archie Goodwin later developed the character from horror-story hostess, in which capacity she remained through issue #8 (Nov. 1970), to a horror-drama leading character. Vampirella was ranked 35th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.
Related: Vampirella #60 (1969 Series) May 1977 Warren Magazine Grade F/VF
Vampirella was originally presented as an inhabitant of the planet Drakulon, a world where a vampiric race lived on blood and where blood flowed in rivers. Drakulon orbits twin suns that were causing droughts across the planet, marking certain doom for Vampirella and her race. The race of which Vampirella was born, the Vampiri, were able to transform themselves into bats at will, possessed superhuman physical attributes, sprout wings when required to fly, and drink blood.
The story begins with the inhabitants of Drakulon dying slowly due to the drying up of its blood. 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 evil kind. Evil vampires owe their existence to Dracula, who came from Drakulon but was corrupted by Chaos.
Harris Comics revived Vampirella in the miniseries Morning In America, written by Kurt Busiek. Soon thereafter, the story "Mystery Walk" revised her origin. She learned that she was, in fact, the daughter of Lilith, whom popular medieval Jewish lore depicts as the first wife of Adam. Lilith would not submit to Adam and was cast out of Eden by God. Lilith spawned demons, but later repented and went to Eden to bear children to fight the evil she had created. Her first attempt was Madek and Magdalene, who turned to evil; Vampirella was her second. Her brother and sister brainwashed her into believing she was from the planet Drakulon.
Her origin was later revised in Vampirella Lives and elaborated on in Blood Lust. Drakulon was real, but was a place in Hell. Vampirella was brought to Eden, not born there. It is later implied that Vampirella was raised in Drakulon, not in Eden. She was made to believe that Drakulon was another planet by Lilith, not by her brother and sister. Vampirella and her boyfriend restore the rivers of blood to Drakulon, which weakens Lilith. Lilith is killed by the hand of God.
A further revision in the "World's End" storyline revealed that Lilith did not really repent and raised Vampirella to be good because she wanted to release the Heart of Darkness (heart of the fallen angel Malkuth) from Metatron's lance, which could only be done by a good person.
This story was revised again in Vampirella: Revelations. Lilith is again alive. Lilith still did not repent, but the reason she raised Vampirella good was that the existence of vampires made Lilith weaker and she wanted someone to kill them. Lilith had used a magic mirror to make Vampirella believe whatever variation on her origin was necessary at the time.
Vampirella initially appeared in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazine Vampirella #1 (Sept. 1969), running to issue #112 (March 1983). The title was a sister magazine of Warren's horror anthologies Creepy and Eerie. Like those magazines' respective mascots, Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie, Vampirella hosted horror stories, though unlike them, she would also star in her own story, which would headline each issue. Vampirella was initially edited by Bill Parente. It would later be edited by Archie Goodwin (issues #7-12, 34-5), Billy Graham (#13-16), Bill DuBay (#21-50, 87-95, 101-102) and Louise Jones (#51-86).
As comics historian Richard J. Arndt describes, "Forrest Ackerman created, or at least had a strong hand in creating, Vampirella and he clearly had a major influence in shaping the lighthearted bad-girl story style of this issue as well." Her costume and hair style were designed by comics artist Trina Robbins. The character's first story artist was Tom Sutton. Artist Frank Frazetta's first-issue cover "was a substitute for the original cover by European artist Aslan."
José González became the character's primary artist starting with issue #12. Other artists who would draw Vampirella during her magazine's original run included Gonzalo Mayo, Leopold Sanchez, Esteban Maroto, José Ortiz, Escolano, Rudy Nebres, Ramon Torrents, Pablo Marcos, Jim Janes, John Lakey, Val Lakey, and Louis Small, Jr..
Backup features appearing in Vampirella included "Tomb of the Gods", "Pantha" and "Fleur". Vampirella herself also appeared in a story with fellow Warren characters Pantha and the Rook in Eerie #94-95, and with most of the Warren characters in a company crossover special in Eerie #130. The final issue of the original Vampirella was cover-dated March 1983.
