Vampirella 94

I realized that I posted Vampirella 95 before issue 94, a bad mistake of mine given that there are many continous series in these issues. So here's issue 94!

Vampirella's cover this issue is a conglomoration of a number of different past issues, something which had already been done before on issue 45's cover. Jose Gonzalez contributes a portrait of Vampirella on the table of contents page, something that would be common throughout the rest of this title's run.

First up is "Death Machine" by Rudy Nebres (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Taking place immediately after the end of the prior tale, the leader of Apocalypse Inc arranges for a humanoid robot to attack Vampi at her home. Vampi eventually defeats it, revealing a 10 year old girl who was controlling it.

Next up is the second part of "Cassandra St. Knight" by Auraleon (art) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Continuing from the past story, Cassandra and Tarot battle a psychic entity that follows them to the real world from hell. Eventually they are able to defeat it and send it back to hell.

Another segment in the Pantha serial is third, "Druids on 54th Street!" by Jose Ortiz (art, who takes on this role for the remainder of the serial's run) and Rich Margopoulos (story). Pantha goes back to being a stripper, but the place she joins is occupied by a bunch of cult members who try to sacrifice her in order to obtain great positions in life. Using her Panther shapeshifting power, Pantha is able to defeat them all.

"The Big Shot" is next, by Delando Nino (art) and Michael Fleisher (story). The story is about a human cannonball in a circus who kills a fellow performer, whose girlfriend gets revenge by switching the cannon that he had ordered with one that ends up killing him.

Fifth is "The Last Gift", a christmas story by Esteban Maroto (art) and Roger McKenzie (story). The story takes place a number of years after the death of Santa, all his reindeer and helpers except for one. In a post apocalyptic world the last survivor tries to restore Christmas to how it used to be but fails and ends up killing himself. Quite a depressing Christmas tale!

Last is "Gunplay" by the Artifact team (John Lakey, Val Lakey & Laura Buscemi). This story is about a group of outlaws who rob a bank but get pursued by the cops and mostly get gunned down. The last two are a man and his brother, who is already severly wounded. Eventually the outlaw agrees to shoot his brother to put him out of his misery. The ending reveals that it was actually kids all along. As usual, terrific art by the Lakeys.

Vampirella 85

A rather unique issue of Vampirella with this issue, as Vampi gets drawn by a trio of artists for unfortunately the only time ever.

The cover is by Paul Gulacy, in his only Warren cover. He does a pretty good job although isn't at the same level as Vampi's usual cover artist, Enrich, at least in my opinion. The table of contents page features a Jose Gonzalez drawing of Vampi, something that he would do on nearly every issue of Vampirella over the last three years of the magazine's existence. Unfortunately Gonzalez would vanish almost entirely from Warren except for these one page drawings for about 20 or so issues during this period of time and lesser artists like Rudy Nebres (already discussed in my review for issue 88) would draw many stories in his place.

The Vampi story for this issue is "Flame Spirit" by team of Val & John Lakey (artists) and Bob Toomey (writer). The Lakeys (who were frequently credited under the name "Artifact") were a great artist team who unfortunately only did about half a dozen stories for Warren, mostly in the last few years of Vampirella's existence. This would be their sole story featuring Vampirella herself. Their artwork was arguably as life-like as anything ever published in Warren, although they did have a notable flaw in that the people in their stories always seemed completely detached from the background. Anyway, this story features Vampi on her own in the desert, where she meets a pair of Native Americans and encounters the Flame Spirit, an alien being who has slept on Earth for millions of years but ends up returning to its home planet after its encounter with Vampi. The story's hardly that great although I do like the art a lot.

The next story, "The Conscience of the King" is by Auraleon (art) and Budd Lewis (story). This story of a miniature elf going on a quest to rescue a prince along with the animals he befriends is nothing special and is just one of countless instances during Warren's last few years where fantasy based stories crept their way into these 'horror' magazines.

"Curly's Gold" is up next, with art by Leo Duranona and story by Michael Fleisher. Another story with no horror elements whatsoever in it, its about a husband and wife who are after their uncle's treasure. The uncle refuses to tell them anything but instead tells his neighborhood friend, who is followed by the two of them. When the wife shoots her husband, seeking the treasure all to herself, the cavern caves in on them, killing them. Duranona uses a lot of real life photos in this story, something he'd do a number of times during his run at Warren.

Fourth is "A Green Phoenix" by Noly Zamora (art), in his sole Warren appearance, and Laurie Sutton (story). Billions of years in Earth's future, a lizard like man seeks three magic stones which will give him the power to cast a magical spell. He eventually is able to obtain all three after his encounter with a blind man and a female warrior, but becomes a demon like creature under her control once the spell is cast. Nothing all that special here.

Last is Lilywhite and Lavender by Alex Nino (art) and Gerry Boudreau (story). Nino's artwork is probably about as complex as anything you'd see from Warren, and this story is a prime example of that. His style is not without its flaws though, as its sometimes so complex that its hard to figure out what's going on. This story is about an ugly hunchback named Lavender who kills a beautiful girl, Lilywhite. Lilywhite's Guardian Angel, Wendell, is sent to Earth and shows Lavender heaven and hell. Not a great story, but certainly better than the other non-Vampi stories in this issue.