Sunday, November 2, 2008

Vampirella 54


Vampirella dominates this issue, with 3 out of the 4 stories within dedicated to her. Enrich provides the cover while Jose Gonzalez contributes a frontis introduction from Vampi. All three Vampirella stories in this issue are drawn by Gonzalo Mayo and written by Gerry Boudreau.

First is "The Day the Music Died". In this story Vampirella discovers the music of a musician, Paul Daltrey which she enjoys. Paul sees Vampirella and becomes obsessed with her. Meanwhile Vampi & co. learn of a sphere called the Blood Ball which predicts that the person who touches it will kill someone if blood appears on it. Naturally when Vampi touches it, the blood appears. Around the same time Vampi realizes that she's developed an immunity to her blood serum, so Conrad and the others start working on a stronger version. Vampi is chained up so she won't kill anyone. Paul however, stalking her, thinks she's in danger and frees her, only for Vampi to suck his blood, killing him.

Next is "Twilight of Blood". In this story Adam and the others discover what Vampi has done and carry off Paul's corpse into the nearby swamp where they become the subject of law enforcement. Vampi meanwhile wanders through the swamp and finds an escaped convict which she also sucks the blood out of. The Blood Ball is shattered, causing the evil spirit within it to escape, looking for a host.

Third is "Chaos in a Sleepy Suburb". In this conclusion story a nearby cult of Chaos stars creating zombies, while the evil spirit occupies one of the members of law enforcement. Vampi, the evil spirit, the zombies all converge, resulting in a blood bath. Conrad is able to find a new blood substitute drug for Vampi, curing her blood lust. Overall, this is a rather drawn out storyline which was terrific in the first story, but only so-so in the latter two.

The issue concludes with "Bowser" by Richard Corben (art) and Jan Strand (story). This story was originally intended for Creepy 67 back around the end of 1974, and was even featured on that issue's cover, but was mistakenly replaced with another story in that issue and wasn't published until now. The story is about a boy who owns a unique pet, Bowser, a tentacled monster. The monster eats dogs, humans, etc... causing the boy's parents to want to get rid of it. He lets the creature go free but it ends up the problems were due to Bowser being pregnant, and it has babies, many more little tentacled monsters which they decide to keep.

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