Praise for the Work of Steven A. Roman LORELEI: SECTS AND THE CITY “Steve Roman’s Lorelei is sexy, wild, and entertaining! A page-turner with a real punch.” —Elizabeth Massie, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Sineater “Obviously, you’ve got a sexy character here, but you didn’t stop at that. You’ve got a real story going with real characters. These people kind of sneak up on the edge.” —Neal Barrett Jr., Science Fiction Writers of America Author Emeritus;on you—semi-normal author of The appearing Prophecy for Machine a while,, andThe thenHereafter you find Gang they’re, and rightPink Vodka Blues “Kudos to Roman for capturing the essence of 1970s fare like Vampirella. Filled with ghouls, chicks, and some strong artwork, this is a title that might’ve piqued Hammer Studios’ interest back in the day.”—Dread Central “A satisfying romp that feels like it would have made an excellent seventies fullhorror volume.”— film (especiallyStrange Amusementsone made by Hammer). The story is funny at times, graphic at times, and horrific at others, and it’s always delivering its stuff at “Roman’s writing is effective and propulsive. The story moves along quickly and convincingly; it’s a fast-paced adventure whose story will leave readers eager for more.”—Cemetery Dance THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK “Far and away one of the best young adult supernatural fantasy novels released in the last few years. Pan is exactly the kind of teen heroine that readers should be standing up and cheering for.”—HorrorNews.net “Blood Feud is a roller-coaster read; the action never lets up. Roman has an incredible gift for running lateral plotlines that intersect with a glorious crash.”—SampleMonster Librarian file FINAL DESTINATION: DEAD MAN’S HAND how their lives intertwine in the run-up to their own, personal brush with death“Roman and does revealing an excellent what happens job here, thereafter, delineating as the terriblefive characters, truth dawns showing that they haven’t escaped, only delayed the inevitable.”—The Third Alternative Sample file FROM THE STARS…A VAMPIRESS AN UNAUTHORIZED GUIDE TO VAMPIRELLA’S CLASSIC HORROR ADVENTURES STEVEN A. ROMAN SampleFOREWORD BY SEAN FERNALD file www.starwarpconcepts.com NEW YORK, NY From the Stars…a Vampiress copyright © 2020 Steven A. Roman Foreword copyright © 2020 Sean Fernald Vampirella® is a registered trademark of and copyright © 2020 Dynamite Entertainment All images copyright their respective owners. The inclusion herein of such images is strictly for journalistic, informational, educational, and/or commentary purposes and use of the same is in no way intended to imply transfer, authorization, ownership, or other claimant rights other than for such use. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, by recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system—except for review purposes—without the express written permission of the publisher. This book is unofficial and unauthorized. It is not authorized, approved, licensed, or endorsed by Dynamite Entertainment or any of its licensees. StarWarp Concepts P.O. Box 4667 Sunnyside, NY 11104 Visit us online: www.StarwarpConcepts.com Library of Congress Control Number: 2019904901 ISBN: 978-0-9982361-4-8 (trade paperback) ISBN:First StarWarp 978-0-9982361-5-5 Concepts Edition: (e-book) February 2020 Front cover photograph © Anna Subbotina, under license from Shutterstock. com Cover photograph is for illustration only, and any person depicted is a model. Frontispiece by Bob Larkin BatSample icon courtesy of Open Clipart file Edited by K. C. Winters Cover and interior design by Mat Postawa Printed in the USA This one’s for Vampirella’s two dads, James Warren and Forrest J Ackerman With thanks to the brilliant talents who brought comics’ greatest outer-space vampiress to “life”: Archie Goodwin Tom Sutton Jose Gonzalez Frank Frazetta Trina Robbins Enric Torres-Plat Manuel Perez-Sanjulián Clemente Gonzalo Mayo Bill DuBay Barbara Leigh Mike Butterworth T. Casey Brennan Steve Englehart Rich Margopoulos John R. Cochran Jose Ortiz Rudy Nebres Esteban Maroto Leopold Sanchez Sample file For s.f. comicbook fans [Forrest J Ackerman] has created a character which we will call the “Draculady” if he doesn’t think featuresof it first, her and name: favorite VAMPIRELLA. “swordcery” artist Frank Frazetta brings her to life on the cover—William of the first L. issueCrawford, of the editor, magazine Spaceway which1 If you’re au courant with the comicbook scene, you know wasTrina created. Robbins. Between Frank Frazetta and Herself (my favorite sylph of yesteryear) the eroticostume—Forrest for J Ackerman,Vampirella2 Cocreator of Vampirella, editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland I don’t recall when the publication of Vampirella started, but any red-blooded adolescent male was crazy about the cover know, and boots and everything. anyway because she was wearing this kick-ass—Stephen hot outfit, King, you3 Bestselling author of It, ’Salem’s Lot, The Shining Vampirella with that costume. You know you can’t spell “titillating” without. —J.J. Abrams,4 Director of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Trek Vampirella is so cool. As a kid I got into Vampirella because if you were scared to buy skin books, you would go and buy [her comics]. —Grant Morrison5 Award-winning comics writer of All-Star Superman, Vampirella Vampirella owes her true birth to the wet dreams of countless comic book and horror fans, for whom the notion of a sexy has always been beyond provocative. Sampleand scantily clad vampire who fights the forces of filedarkness6 —Comics reviewer Tom Knapp ACKNOWLEDGMENTS a vacuum. Sure, you can pore through books and magazines and run Internet searchesIt’s an undisputed to compile fact information, that nonfiction but bookssome arematerial never just completely can’t be written accessed in without much-needed assistance. And so here are the folks I’d like to thank smoother. for their invaluable help—they made the journey to the finish line a whole lot First off, thanks go to Richard Boom, owner/publisher of the news site Comics for Sinners. When I contacted him about the earliest notion of this book, I asked if he knew any Vampirella fans who might own a copy of the long-discussed but little-seen screenplay for the unproduced 1970s Hammer Films adaptation meant to star Barbara Leigh and Peter Cushing. He said he knew of only one person who could help with that, and pointed me to . Sean Fernald, who didn’t just have access to the script—Peter Cushing’s personal copy, in fact!—but who’s known far and wide in Warren fan circles as Vampi’s cocreator, Forrest J Ackerman. Sean dug through the Ackermonster’s the Official Vampirella Historian, and who was the longtime business advisor to pages; he even wrote the foreword. Thanks for all the help, Sean! photo collection to provide some great images that you’ll find within these Bob Larkin, who provided the awesome frontispiece, has not only been a aboutfriend everyfor over Warren twenty Publishing years (and title, the coverincluding painter Vampirella for a good. When number I saw of themy incrediblenovels!) but Vampi was onesketch of thethat amazing became talentsthis book’s who frontispieceprovided cover among art afor batch just of his pencil drawings, I knew I had to use it. Ya still got talent, kid! It was Bob who put me in touch with . Benjamin DuBay Warren creation, the time-traveling Rook. Ben answered what he could about Bill’s time as a Vampirella, keeper ofwriter, the flame and provided for his uncle some Bill’s incredible, most well-known invaluable behind-the-scenesSample information about the Warren Publishing file bankruptcy of the 1980s and Warren’s lawsuit against Harris Publications a decade later. But mostly we just correspond about the Rook, my second-favorite Warren character. I’m still waiting for Sam Elliot to play that ornery gunslinger, Bishop Dane, in a movie, Ben—make it happen! The late Tom Sutton embodiment of the phrase “what a character!”—regaled me back in the 1990s with some stories of his—Vampirella’s Warren days, andfirst pointed interior me artist in an andunusual the directionabsolute to look for a possible little-known inspiration for her “true” origin. Hammer Films legend Valerie Leon was kind enough to respond to my query about the long-told tale of how she was considered for the lead in the studio’s 1970s Vampirella movie that never happened. Producer and author John Scoleri things about another Hammer legend, Caroline Munro, and her involvement in Hammer’s Vampirella, but also provided not only scans helped of methe figure photos out of oneMs. Munroor two Formeryou’ll find Warren in this Publishing book. editor John R. Cochran was no doubt surprised when I tracked him down to ask a couple of questions about his sole Vampirella writing credit, but was gracious enough to tell me what he could. Warren Publishing super-fan Allan Pollett answered my questions about a never-produced Vampirella animated project. Yes, a Vampirella cartoon was considered, and Allan owns the cells to prove it. Mikhail Ilyin has an awesome B-movie-dedicated website called Wrong Side the place to go to for images of the of the Art (wrongsideoftheart.com), and it’s cream of the crop in forgotten low-budget, cult, and exploitation film posters. You should definitely check it out. Mat Postawa for putting this whole thing together. Mat and I have worked together for—what, twenty yearsAnd finally, or so?—and thanks it’s to alwaysdesigner a pleasureextraordinaire doing a project with him. Thanks for all the hard work, Mat! Sample file CONTENTS Foreword by Sean Fernald xi Introduction xv Part I: The Vampire Who Fell to Earth: A History 1 Part II: The Vampirella Episode Guide 33 Part III: Vampi Goes to Hollywood 133 Queen of Blood: Vampi’s Space-Age Predecessor 137 Vampirella A.D.