Saturday, December 6, 2008

Vampirella 30


This issue starts off with one of my favorite Vampirella covers, by Enrich.

First is "The God of Blood" by Jose Gonzalez (art) and Mike Butterworth (story, as Flaxman Loew). In this story Vampirella meets a fellow illusionist who wears a mask and was actually given power from Chaos, which he chooses to abuse. The illusionist captures Vampirella and dresses as the sun god, but the actual sun god shows up and kills him, then kisses Vampirella as the story ends. This story would be continued in the next issue.

Second is Pantha's first appearance in "Re-Birth!" by Auraleon (art) and Steve Skeates (story). I've covered Pantha's later adventures with Vampirella extensively already on this blog, now I finally have a chance to review her original series. Her original series is a stark contrast to the appearances I've already covered; it is much darker and she kills many innocent people. In this intro story we meet Pantha, a young woman at a strip club who mysteriously turns into a panther multiple times with no knowledge of doing so.

Third is this issue's color feature, "As Though They Were Living" by Richard Corben (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). This story takes place in Salem in the late 1700's. A witch, who is spurned by a man she likes gathers her allies and summons a demon known as a Sidhe. Seconds later however the town ministers arrive and kill her and all her allies. The Sidhe transforms into a human and seeks out the man she liked and kills him. He then goes after the man's girlfriend, but she realizes who he is and manages to burn him alive in her wine cellar.

Fourth is "Memoirs" by Fernando Fernandez (story & art). This story is told from the perspective of a serial killer, who has written his memoirs in a book written with his cell mate's blood. His horrific murders are detailed and the entire city fears him. Eventually he is caught and after writing his memoirs himself on fire since anything else that can happen in his life will be a dissappointment after what he's accomplished. Terrific story and art from Fernandez, the best story in the issue.

The issue concludes with "Captain Death" by Isidro Mones (art, miscredited as Munes) and Carl Wessler (story). A comic strip artist lives with his sister, who controls all the wealth given to them by their parents. Secretly housing his girlfriend and her brother, the artist asks for money from his sister then kills her when she won't give him any. He finds soon after however that his girlfriend and brother have disappeared, and stolen comic strips he had drawn that need to be handed in. He goes to the police in order to help find them and confesses to his sister's murder. Digging her up, they uncover her months old corpse with the comic strips in hand. It appears that the girlfriend and brother never existed and were merely part of the artist's imagination.

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