Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Vampirella 71


Here's another issue of Vampirella featuring a photograph of Barbara Leigh, as Vampirella.

First up is "The Case of the Connected Clows and the Collector!" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Bill Dubay (story). Vampi is in Hollywood with Pantha, working on shooting for a movie. Meanwhile movie stars have been dissappearing including one working on the movie. It ends up that a crazed man at the production studio has been kidnapping them and he does so to Vampi, who is able to escape. A parallel storyline featuring Pantha and her encounter with siamese twins with domineering sexual habits also takes place. In contrast to the recent Vampi stories I've been reviewing, this is a pretty good story, with terrific art by Gonzalez.

"Trial of the Sorceress" is next, by Esteban Maroto (art) and Maroto & Bill Dubay (story). It features a woman accused of being a sorceress by multiple men. She is found guilty and is tortured. At the end it seems that one of the accusers set her up for defying him, but she ends up being an actual sorceress and takes her revenge.

"Night of the Chicken" is third, by Jess Jodloman (art) and Michael Fleisher (story). This is a bizarre story about an old man who feeds real humans to his chickens. The story features multiple women dressing up in a strange chicken outfit. In the end the old man ends up getting eaten by his own chicken. Quite an odd story, but very good art.

Fourth is "Machu Picchu" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Josep Toutain & Nicola Cuti (story). This story was originally intended to be for an additional Warren magazine, 'Yesterday, Today... Tomorrow', but the magazine was never published, so it ended up here in Vampirella. The story features a treasure hunter at an Incan temple to tries to take the treasure there, and instead encounters astronauts, who tell him that its uranium! He doesn't listen to them and is killed along with the woman who has been helping them.

Last is "Australopithicus" by Leo Duranona (art) and Bruce Jones (story). This story features two storylines, one taking place with prehistoric man and one taking place with a man in modern times being forced to do things he doesn't want to do. The storylines converge at the end, with disastrous results for our main character. Very good art by Duranona in the prehistoric part of the story.

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