'Vampirella' makes a comeback

Harris Publications has released Vampirella: Second Coming to mark the character's 40th anniversary.

Illustrated by Phil Hester and Daniel Sampere, the series describes the heroine as "a phenomenon like Marilyn Monroe and Bettie Page", and pits her against a virus that is spreading across Washington.

"Vampirella celebrates her 40th anniversary this month. People tend to be shocked when I tell them that because they think she first appeared during the 'Bad Girl' period of the early '90s. And because of that a lot of people tend to think her sexiness is the only thing that keeps her popular. But there's been a lot of comic book characters over the years who've shown nearly as much skin and maybe a few who've shown more," editor Bon Alimagno told Newsarama.

"There's female characters out there that are essentially naked but are coloured in such a way that it looks they're wearing skin-tight body suits or just have unusually coloured alien skintones and they never receive the grief that Vampirella gets for her costume," he continued.

"We didn't just want to celebrate the previous 40 years but set the character up for the next 40. Phil leaves the character in a very different place than where she started. She won't just be a specific character anymore but much more than that: an icon, a symbol, an idea that can take on many, many forms. That opens up a lot of possibilities in the future."

Vampirella first appeared in 1969 as a horror-story hostess in Vampirella #1. After being revamped as a main character, the bloodsucker has starred in books by Warren Publishing and Manga as well as featured in several dual company crossovers.

Vampirella: Second Coming #1 was released today.