FEMME FATALES: VAMPIRELLA! (PART 1)

FEMME FATALES
Vol. 5 No. 5 (whole number 21)
November 1996
Publisher: Frederick S. Clarke
Editor: Bill George
Cover: Photo cover (Cristiva Turner as Vampirella)
Pages: 64
Cover price: $5.95

I bought the first issue of VAMPIRELLA off the comic rack at a Van Nuys Blvd. newsstand in the summer of 1969 amid all the other society-bending activity that was going on during this legendary year. It was the last copy and looked like it had been thumbed through quite a few times. Even then, I was one of those comic geeks that preferred their 'zines in "newsstand mint" shape. But, after leafing through this new Warren mag, I decided it would be best to buy it because it might be the only copy left available in my small circle of comic resources (remember, no internet, no comic shops -- just catch-as-catch-can newsstands, drug stores and liquor stores). That was the beginning of my complete run until Vampi flew away from the Warren cave for good with issue #112 in 1983.

Along the way, there were several attempts at producing a Vampirella film, with lots of pretty starlets promoted for the lead role. All were aborted with the exception of the 1996 direct-to-video abomination directed by Jim Wynorski. Wynorski later said about the film, : "a mess... a film I cannot watch. Everything went wrong. Everything!" Talisa Soto played Vampi; she looked anorexic in the not only hideous, but laughable costume (I'm calling out costume designer Roxanne Miller), that to me, looked like it was made from edible panties material (I've just seen pitchers, if yur wondering). I still think Hammer should have made their version with Barbara Leigh.

This issue of FEMME FATALES does its best to glamorize the video, and, outside of eye candy and appearances by Roger Daltry and Angus Scrimm, is very forgettable. Included is coverage of Joan Severance's second BLACK SCORPION effort (now, she would have made a better Vampi!), PUPPETMASTER's Dana Plato, the sultry Gina Gershon, and model Apollo Smile posing in anime costumes -- you know, in the kind that would be called Cosplay just a few years later.

Part 2 tomorrow.