Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, dynamite, entertainment, nancy a collins, Patrick Berkenkotter, vampirella

Nancy A. Collins' Writer's Commentary For Her Last Monthly Vampirella Issue

Published Thu, 20 Aug 2015 21:00:33 -0500

Nancy A. Collins' writer commentary for her final monthly issue of Vampirella for Dynamite Entertainment. Art by Patrick Berkenkotter.

While the 2015 Vampirella Annual and a short story in Vampirella: 1969 are still in the pipeline, Vampirella #13's "God Save The Queen" is effectively my last monthly Vampirella story. And in case you're wondering, yes, the title was inspired by the Sex Pistols song.

As I've stated in numerous interviews, I used to read Vampirella, and the other Warren horror mags, back in the 1970s. To be honest, she wasn't my favorite character, but I followed her because there were so few female characters carrying their own title back then. I always felt that she and her world had a lot more potential than was ever realized. One of the things I tried to do with my run on the character was open up her world beyond being kidnapped by Chaos cultists and fighting interchangeable vampires. I hope readers feel that I left her a more three-dimensional character.
I'm not going to give a page-by-page commentary, because it would be full of spoilers. However, I wanted to touch on a few things in the first half of the book, which Dynamite allowed to be 36 pages instead of 22, so I could wrap up the story arc properly.

Pages 1-2

I wanted to introduce different supernatural species and communities in Vampirella's world, while at the same time utilizing classic, public domain characters from Victorian and Edwardian literature, which was a huge influence on me as a kid. In this case, we see ghouls, as represented by Erik, who is modeled on the classic Phantom of the Opera.

Pages 3-6

Here we have Drago revealing what passes for the afterlife among vampires—at least the ones that have had their hearts consumed in ritual combat with other vampires. Lord Drago was a character who, once invented, took on a life of his own. I truly enjoyed writing his scenes, and I'm not surprised he demanded to come back for a final bow.

Page 7-8

Vampirella's lover, Tristan Caillet, was another character who pretty much wrote himself. He's inspired, in part, by Guy Endore's classic Werewolf of Paris (which was adapted as Curse of the Werewolf starring Oliver Reed in 1961) and horror novelist Robert R. McCammon's Nazi-fighting lycanthrope in The Wolf's Hour. His first name is a reference to the Warren-era Vampirella's true love, a fellow vampire who died on Drakulon and who occasionally haunted her dreams. Since Tristan is a supernatural secret agent, I modeled his and Vampirella's relationship after the original John Steed and Mrs. Peel on the classic 1960's British TV show The Avengers.

Page 13

Originally the story arc for "God Save The Queen" was supposed to run from Vampirella #12-#15. However, when Dynamite decided to end the series with #13, I had to compress everything into 2 issues. I ended up cutting Vampirella summoning the Nosferatu and ordering them to adapt more human-friendly feeding practices, sped up the palace intrigue, and dropped a subplot involving a the Nosferatu nobles insisting Vampirella take one of their own as a consort instead of Tristan. I also planned to give a little more time to Count Savanovic (the most famous vampire in Serbian folklore) and The Duchess (who was inspired by a character in the 1972 dark comedy The Ruling Class, starring Peter O'Toole).

Pages 14-19

The throwdown with the blood-drunk Duchess is a tongue-in-cheek response on those who routinely dismiss Vampirella because of her name or her costume. As The Duchess finds out, one should never judge a book by its cover. Let there be no mistake: Vampirella is a bad-ass, and she gets to be one more than once in the finale. While she may be a good vampire—she's definitely not someone you want to piss off.

For more on Vampirella #13, click here.

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