Vampirella Archives - Volumes 1-3

Taken straight from the scoop newsletter:

Vampirella, a character celebrating her 45th anniversary this year, has a storied publishing history that begins with her creation by horror fandom icon Forrest J. Ackerman and designer Trina Robbin and has continued to the present. Vampi was developed to be a host character for Warren Publishing, akin to their Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie for Creepy and Eerie, respectively, or like EC’s Crypt-Keeper, Vault-Keeper, and Old Witch before them.

The cover for Vampirella #1 was by Frank Frazetta, and it had more of the spirit of the character most readers would recognize than any of the stories in the first seven issues. It wasn’t until Archie Goodwin arrived as writer with Vampirella #8 that the character really began to grow.

But it would be a significant mistake to write off those first seven issues, and thank goodness that Dynamite Entertainment has made them so accessible with their New York Times best selling Vampirella Archives – Volume 1.

In addition to Ackerman and Frazetta, the book features the work of Don Glut, Tom Sutton, Neal Adams, Ernie Colon, Billy Graham, Alan Weiss, and Jeff Jones, among others. The stories fit right in with Creepy and Eerie of the period. Even better: the beautiful Vampirella Archives volumes will fit right next to Dark Horse’s excellent Creepy Archives and Eerie Archives editions.

In Vampirella Archives – Volume 2, Archie Goodwin arrives. Remembered as the founding editor of Epic Illustrated and Marvel’s Epic line, a longtime group editor at DC Comics, and for his great stints on the Secret Agent Corrigan and Star Wars newspaper strips, Goodwin’s work on Vampirella Vampirella #8, kicks off the second volume in the series.

crystallized her character and more than a decade of how she was interpreted. His first issue,

Goodwin would most likely have succeeded anyway, but the series found its voice and style with artists such as Jose Gonzales (for many, the definitive Vampi artist), Ken Barr, Wally Wood, Jerry Grandenetti, Barry (Windsor-) Smith, Berni Wrightson, Ralph Reese, Dave Cockrum, Frank Brunner, Sanho Kim, Bill Dubay, Mike Ploog, Sam Glanzman and Estaban Maroto, among others. The lead stories featuring Vampirella began to find their direction and the secondary stories demonstrated the twists, turns and artistry for which Creepy and Eerie were known.

Supporting players Adam Van Helsing and Pendragon the magician are more firmly established in Vampirella Archives – Volume 3, which kicks off with Vampirella #15, an issue that started off with a Richard Corben frontispiece and didn’t stop. It includes work by Goodwin and Gonzales, Doug Moench and Gonzales, Don McGregor and Luis Garcia, and more.

The rest of the volume, anchored by the exquisite matchings of Goodwin and Gonzales, is equally diverse and consistently worthy of the reader’s attention.

Nick Barrucci, Joe Rybandt and the rest of the team at Dynamite Entertainment deserve our thanks for producing these great volumes and the ones that have followed in the series. We’re truly living in a Golden Age of archival collections, but it would have been easy just to concentrate on the Vampirella lead features. If they had, we would be missing out on some truly great stories.

Giovanna Casotto - Playful and Carefree

Giovanna Casotto is next to Ilona Staller(Cicciolina) one of Italy's most popular TV actrices, but she also is an comic art artist, already author of « Expériences Interdites », « Les Désirs de Vénus», «Mauvaises Habitudes » and « Chambre 179 »; is one of the most published artists of the collection «Selen presents ».

She's the first femal erotic Italian illustrator, she's not only an illustrator, but she draws herself in all the "Selen-covers" in the most explicit erotic scenes , she's also an actrice who acts in those stories. Because of her fantastic realistic drawings( of herself and her best friends), the artwork of Miss. Giovanna Casotto is one of the most beautiful you will find in that catagory. The quality of her autoportaits are so beautiful and fantastic realistic that everyone who likes the comic art must see or have this.


Giovanna Casotto got hooked on erotic comics in 1994, after meeting feet-fetish artist Franco Saudelli. With Saudelli she learns to draw and they start collaborating on several stories they write together, Franco pencils and Giovanna inks and models for.

After a short stint on adventure comics for L'Intrepido, Italian publisher Trentini signs her up for his new publication Selen.
Her artwork in Selen leads to major sales in Italy, reprints all over Europe and publication of her stories in the United States in the Bitch In Heat series (Eros Comix). She also becomes a requested guest in many Italian TV shows, and her appearances at comic-cons in Italy and abroad draw huge crowds.

Eros Graphic Albums 5 and 6 - Ironwood - Bill Willingham

Bill Willingham when asked by Eros Comix: "I thought, “what the hell!” Had often wondered whether I could do an adult comic and have an interesting story as well that held together.  The answer I found was: probably not.
I tried!  Ironwood was 11 issues and some people liked the story, and there are aspects of the story I like, but the formula — the implied contract — that you owe the average reader one arousal, or potential arousal, per issue overshadowed everything else.  “This is a nice story, but get some dirty stuff in there, for God’s sake!”  —  Guess I’m a boring guy, 'cause was running out of ideas on how to get people off.  I didn’t just want to do the same thing over and over again, because that would just be…creepy.  Thinking it was a failed experiment with a few things that I’m still fond of within it.  Yes, that was certainly an interesting time in my career."

In the dark forest of Ironwood, somewhere between the Goblin Kingdoms and the Human Lands, the villainous Sulimon Canto has hired Fantasia Faust, a killer who uses sex as a weapon, to steal something called the Lazarus Knife from errant ship captain Pandora Breedlswight. But the beautiful Pandora has some allies in the form of adventurer Dave Dragavon, the hero for hire: brave, powerful and above all ... horny, and the polite but deadly demon Hugo Wormfire. Sword and sorcery exploits mix with tantalizing and bizarre sexploits, but the overall effect is that of a fairly coherent narrative, and not just an excuse to show drawings of naked people (or, in this case, naked monsters and centaurs, too).

The protagonist of the 11 issue series seems to have been the source of inspiration for one of Willingham's later more successful creations, Jack Horner (star of Jack of Fables).

He has done two Ironwood short stories which were not sexually graphic. Both stories were published in issues of Mythography. One was a three-page comics story and the other was a short text story with a couple of illustrations.

Bill Willingham Website

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SECRET IDENTITY: The Fetish Art of Superman`s Co-creator Joe Shuster

Title: SECRET IDENTITY:
The Fetish Art of Superman`s Co-creator Joe Shuster
Author: Craig Yoe, with an introduction by Stan Lee
Artwork: Joe Shuster
Published: Abrams Comic Arts, New York (2009)

It is a well-known fact in the comic world that the original artist and co-creator of Superman died having earned only pennies on the dollar for his contribution to the world`s most famous superhero—the rights to the character were won by D.C. Comics in the 1940s.

So what to make of this work in later years? He never signed his name to it, but the Nights of Horror illustrations that depicted lusty ladies, titillating torture, and all manner of mild S&M scenarios were in fact Shuster. What`s more?! The characters of these filthy booklets all look, at great deal, like one Clark Kent and Lois Lane… Find out more in this curious twist in the history of comics and erotic art.

from SEX: A Graphic History by Nicole Marie Guiniling (AD ASTRA COMIX)

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A Memorial to Art Wetherell

I'm handing over Father's Day(column on comicsworld website) to my old friend Tim Perkins this month, so that he might share some memories of British comic book artist Art Wetherell. Back in the dim and distant days when I was an editor at Marvel UK, Art sent me samples of his work and I hired him to pencil strips for THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, DEATH'S HEAD and DOCTOR WHO. He was talented, always cheerful and willing to learn (and teach) and never missed a deadline. When I left Marvel UK for the states he sent me a wonderful illustration with the legend "Starkings Quits, Will Things Fall Apart?" I remember how happy I was to see his work in JABBA THE HUTT a few years ago but had not spoken to him in fifteen years when I learned he had passed away suddenly before this past New Year's. It came as quite a shock, as I always imagined that I would run into him at a convention one day and we would catch up with one another. Art was about my age, still working hard and, of course, he was a father too...

— Richard Starkings

 Thanks once again Richard for affording me the opportunity to say a few words about British Comic Artist, Art Wetherell, who sadly passed away on Christmas day last year.

I first heard of Art back in the early-mid-eighties back on Martin Lock's Harrier Comics. At the time most of the Harrier Gang (creatives such as Kev Hopgood, Steve Yeowell, Jeff Anderson, Mike Collins, Mark Farmer, James Hill, Art Wetherell and myself) little suspected that we would soon become a big part of Marvel UK's next big push into publishing its own titles. This, following the success of Alan Davis' lovely work on Captain Britain and John Ridgway's classical renderings of Doctor Who, the guys that paved the way for us to enter mainstream comics. 

Eros Graphic Album No 1. Birdland - Gilbert Hernandez

Gilbert Hernandez‘s comics, from his work in Love and Rockets to standalone volumes like last year’s Love from the Shadows, have often included some pretty intense sexual content. But he’s only ever released one project that qualifies as full-on pornography: Birdland, a three-issue miniseries from 1990-1991 and a one-shot sequel from 1994, later collected as a single volume. Birdland has been out of print for a while, which is a pity. It’s witty, eccentric, bursting with joy, and utterly, cheerfully smutty.

As often happens in Hernandez’s stories, the basic setup is a complicated chain of frustrated and sublimated desires, although in this one everyone’s sublimating them by getting it on. The stripping team of Bang Bang and Inez (who’d previously appeared briefly in early issues of Love and Rockets) are both carrying on secret affairs with sexually inexhaustible lawyer Mark Herrera.

Every woman seems to desire Mark, except for his wife, Fritz, a psychotherapist who has sex with her patients while they’re under her hypnotic spell. Fritz’s sister Petra unrequitedly lusts after Mark, too, but she’s been carrying on a years-long affair with Mark’s brother Simon, who in turn is erotically fixated on Fritz and, specifically, her lisp, although he’s also sleeping with Inez. And so on. Eventually, the aliens who abducted Bang Bang as a child get involved, and transport the whole cast up to their ship for a pansexual orgy.

Then things get weird, or weirder. Almost the entire cast undergoes a gender reversal, and Fritz breaks the fourth wall to attempt to hypnotize the reader. That’s followed by a handful of wordless dream sequences involving versions of the cast members in X-rated prehistoric, Western and sci-fi scenarios (the first includes some hot dinosaur love) before we get to the comedy-of-remarriage denouement. And the whole thing is drawn in a style that’s the erotic equivalent of Jack Kirby’s fight scenes: grounded in the way actual bodies interact, but pumped up to an imaginative intensity way beyond anything the naked eye has ever seen. On top of that, Birdland is funny–not corny-funny or nudge/wink-funny, but absurd and sly, with a terrific sense for what can make the overfamiliar language of pornography fresh again. In one soap-operatic scene, Petra’s saying “B-but I can give you all the love you need, Mark; you’re wasting your time waiting for Fritz to come around,” and thinking “Oh, shut up and ransack my rapacious rectum with your reputedly tireless tongue, you gorgeous geek!” Dialogue in another panel: “Ah-ah-acmesthesia!” “Oh-oh-ontogeny!”

Yes, this is the kind of porn that requires a dictionary to catch everything that’s going on. A few years ago, Marc Sobel convincingly argued in a multi-part essay that Birdland is a satire of Wilhelm Reich and his theories about sexuality and “orgone energy,” by way of Patti Smith’s song “Birdland” — the story never mentions Reich outright, but the connections are everywhere — and that it’s full of other subtleties for the careful reader. (The bodily-fluid sound effects in one of the final scenes, Sobel points out, are all Spanish words relating to the story of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.) It’s not often that a story pretends to be nothing but stroke material but is actually a bit deeper than that.

It's Disgusting

Just picked up Sci-Fi magazine. It largely features the 100 all-time greatest comics.

Being this article in this magazine, I know what is to come: getting squashed with superhero crap.

Funny thing is, the magazine itself states that its more then superheroes. Probably knowing they're lying through there teeth.

Im thinking some retard must be getting paid(bribed) to publish this kind of stuff.

And I mean seriously: retarted. I found one erotic comic mentioned, which I personally not even bothered to read.

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It never gets old:

Following item written by Nick Blodgett, Monday, February 11, 2008 [The Los Angeles Loyolan]

 

Believe it or not, boys and girls, but the comic book industry has long been a battleground for freedom of speech ; starting in the 1950s with congressional hearings aimed at determining their supposed impact on rising juvenile delinquency. The publisher most heavily targeted during these witch hunts was E.C. Comics. Ultimately, the hearings resulted in the "comics' code" which basically sucked all creativity and intelligence out of the medium. Throughout comics' history there have been those who opposed the code ? mainly the underground era of the sixties and seventies, the magazine craze of the eighties and the birth of independent and alternative comics in the nineties leading up to the present. The comics' code has now been abolished, and E.C. Comics can be read in their full, uncensored glory. I could dedicate months of columns to the extraordinary books E.C. put out, as they've contributed more to our popular culture than one can possibly share in this small space. Some of their conributions include "The Crypt Keeper" and the television show, "Tales From The Crypt," originally an E.C. comic. George Lucas has cited them as a major inspiration in his work, and they served as a launching pad for such great artists as Wally Wood and Frank Frazzetta.

As much as I love E.C. and recommend you seek out these gems, this column has, and will be, dedicated to lesser known artists and books. Which brings us to Dennis Cramer and his unique sadomasochistic epic "Mara: The Celtic Shamaness," and his own struggles regarding that wonderful First Amendment. The first thing you'll notice when reading Mara is the incredibly bizarre world she inhabits, which blends both elements of dystopian science fiction and heroic fantasy. The bulk of her adventures take place in two locations; In-City and the Wilderlands. In-City is your typical futuristic totalitarian world, everything is controlled by the government - you aren't even allowed to go barefoot, which upsets Mara to no end. This is as good a time as any to mention that, although Mara is not entirely a foot fetish book, Cramer definitely likes his feet - cute, girlish feet - and isn't afraid to express his love for them.

The Wilderlands exists as a place not yet touched by society where people have taken a fancy for primitive delights. Mara is torn in her struggle between these drastically different worlds; she has grown up in In-City but longs for the freedom of the Wilderlands.
Mara is by no means a simple series. In fact there is a glossary of terms at the beginning of each book to help you out. Cramer challenges readers to grow as his characters do. It may seem overly complicated, but Cramer has stated many times that he continues to make sacrifices to write and draw Mara for those who love her, and that is what one must do to enjoy her journey. Even though she is a character, Mara is portrayed as complex as a living breathing human being, with thoughts, desires, hopes and dreams.

Dennis Cramer never found a niche in the comic world and has virtually been exiled from its domain, driven out by constant criticism and opposition from peers and fans alike. This is in large part due to his being ahead of his time. While most adult books are centered around the simple plot of a buxom, naked girl running around, Mara does this, but with considerably smaller breasts and a purpose to her nudity. It also comes as no surprise that a character who lives from thrill to thrill and feeds on pain for her passion and will to fight would be hard pressed to be accepted in most markets let alone one driven by men in tights.

Cramer has overcome these setbacks, moving into the realm of illustrated prose which has overall been an enormous plus for the stories, as the reader is able to get a better sense of each character's internal motivation.

Why bother taking a chance on Mara? It's not for everyone as it includes graphic scenes of violence and sex, notably due to its inspiration from the works of another maverick, the Marquis De Sade. But for those who aren't afraid of a little darkness and can identify with Cramer and his character's feelings of wanting to be free in a world that still has a long way to go to get there, than you might be pleasantly surprised.

Comicbookdb: Mara: The Celtic Shamaness
Dennis Cramer aka Justine Mara Andersen

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