WARREN PRESENTS (PANTHA, THE PANTHER GIRL)
Vol. 1 No. 8
October 1980
Warren Publications Co.
Editor-in-Chief & Publisher: James Warren
Editor: Will Richardson (Bill Dubay)
Cover: Bob Larkin
Pages: 68
Cover price: $1.75
CONTENTS
"Rebirth" (reprinted from Vampirella #30)
"Family Ties!" (reprinted from Vampirella #31)
"Black on White" (reprinted from Vampirella #32)
"Childhood Haunt!" (reprinted from Vampirella #33)
"Straw on the Wind" (reprinted from Vampirella #42)
Announced on the cover as a "Premiere Collector's Edition", all the stories here are reprints from earlier issues of VAMPIRELLA, where Pantha's premiere actually occurred.
Pantha is a mysterious woman who is part female, part jungle cat and part murderer. In this set of Pantha's original stories, little is revealed about who she really is and where she came from (later incarnations in her comics by Dynamite place her in the same "universe" as Vampirella). Along the way, she plays a tortured soul that would make Larry Talbot jealous, a stripper, a seductress and a violent feline that claws and slashes her way through the blood-soaked streets of New York City. In one episode, she even gets high on opium.
Deliberate or not, considering the time these were written, they are conveniently suitable to act as metaphors for victimized women who are pawns of misogynistic men. Pantha's character makes for a more than appropriate feminine wish-fulfillment.
All the stories are scripted by Steve Skeates, except for the last one which is written by Budd Lewis. Jim Laurier is credited with the cover art on the contents page, but it is the work of Bob Larkin. Hard to say what happened there. Perhaps Laurier bowed out or couldn't meet his deadline. All the artwork is by Rafael Auraleon, one of the excellent Spanish artists that Warren used in the later years of his comic magazines.
This edition had a lower print run than the others and it was once thought that it would increase in value as a result. However, copies can be found today at very reasonable prices.
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