Warren Publishing
September 1969 saw the dawn of an era when Warren Publishing launched a new title to supplement their ongoing series of Horror magazines. Eerie and Creepy were the flagship titles, with a motley selection of horror stories in each issue. As a counterpoint to the male, ghoulish presenters of Eerie and Creepy, it was decided that the new title should be fronted by a female - and a pretty one at that!
Forrest J. Ackerman and James Warren (reputedly inspired by the film Barbarella) came up with the idea of a "vampire-ella". A rising star in the art world was asked to create the front cover illustration, and the now legendary Frank Frazetta provided the world with their first glimpse of Vampirella.
Reputedly the first ever drawing of Vampirella (Frank Frazetta - 1969)
Credit for her distinctive and minimalist costume always seems to go to Frank Frazetta, though true Vampirella aficionados will acknowledge that Trina Robbins had the idea and Frank Frazetta brought it to life.
In an interview with Park Cooper of Silver Bullet Comics, Trina states "It's true -- I described it over the phone to Frank Frazetta, who to this day, I've actually never met. His original cover art of Vampirella looked a lot like my idea, but her costume shrunk more with each issue and by now it doesn't bear any resemblance to what I designed."
A number of factors ended the Warren publishing empire. Louise Jones left her editorial position in 1980 and no one ever really filled her shoes; James Warren had less and less to do with the running of the company due to ill health; many of their Spanish artists left and were replaced with artists from the Philippines who did not have quite the same "quality"; horror comics were less popular, the readers turning to the new wave of Superhero comics from Marvel, DC and a variety of Independent publishers. With their top writers and artists migrating to other companies, Warren Publishing quietly slipped into oblivion.
The final Vampirella issue from Warren (#112) was published in March 1983.
Click on each title to get more information about individual issues and scans of their covers.