Monday, July 14, 2008

Vampirella 98


Another series dominated issue of Vampirella. The cover for this issue is done by Enrich, and is a reprint of the one that originally appeared for issue 53. The table of contents page features a drawing of Vampi by Gonzalo Mayo.

Up first is "Army of the Dead!", continuing from last issue's Vampirella story. The art is by Mayo and the story is by Rich Margopoulos. Vampi, Pantha and Adam confront a large pterodactyl like creature and defeat it. Shadrach, the werewolf man they faced last time, next summons an army of rotting corpses to fight them. While Pantha and Adam fight them, Vampi faces Shadrach himself. While he almost beats her, Adam arrives and shoots him with a silver bullet, killing him.

Second is "Mindwars" the latest segment in the Cassandra St. Knight series. Art is by Auraleon and story is by Margopoulos. Cassandra's russian enemies come up with a plot to take her out by harnessing the mind powers of numerous individuals. One of the russian agents works on Cassandra's mind and gets her to leave the CIA due to disagreements with their mission. Cassandra returns however and takes on the russians, being able to defeat them.

Third is "The Haitian Connection" part of Pantha's serial. Art continues to be done by Jose Ortiz, with story by Margopoulos. This story continues directly from the previous issue. Adam saves the detective from the zombie that was attacking him. Pantha meanwhile dreams of Drakulon and is confronted by Conrad. Adam soon arrives afterwards. The whole group heads to Haiti, the suspected origin of the zombies, while they use voodoo to disrupt the ocean, hoping for the ship to crash.

Fourth is "Dragon" by Esteban Maroto (story & art). In a medieval kingdom a dragon threatens everyone's livelihood. They initially sacrifice animals, but they eventually run out. They decide to sacrifice people in place of the animals, and the princess by chance ends up being the first one chosen. She waits out in the forest naked, waiting for her fate. Suddenly a barbarian arrives and defeats the dragon, then heads off. The barbarian in this story looks exactly like Maroto's Dax the Warrior, who starred in Eerie for a period of time in the early 1970's.

Last is "The Fox" by Luis Bermejo (art) and Nicola Cuti (story). After skipping a few issues, we return to the storyline started back in issue 95. Ming Toi hopes to topple her evil uncle Quang and is able to summon a number of dead animals to attack his army. This better prepares a countering rebel army which hopes to take him out, but was outnumbered to this point. Quang discovers Ming's ability to turn into a fox and orders her executed, but she tricks the guards into instead executing a person wearing a fox costume, which just happens to be her cousin and Quang's daughter, Sun-Li.

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