Vampirella - Crimson Chronicles Volume Three!

By the time we get to this third volume of Crimson Chronicles the Vampirella series has become fully formed. We have established her coterie of male assistants -- the drunk magician Pendragon, the dour Dr. Van Helsing, and the handsome Adam Van Helsing. There are several writers who will take a crack at Vampirella in this collection but the art of Jose Gonzalez gives the strip its signature look. This is to my mind the best of the three Jim Silkie covers produced for this series. 

Under a striking cover combining past issues of the mag with an iconic Jose Gonzalez figure (used as the full-sized poster of Vampi) we do get a short ten-page story titled "Shadow of Dracula". In this oddball tale by T. Casey Brennan Vampirella travels back in time to 1897 to encounter the original Dr. Van Helsin and get help with a potential cure for vampirism. She encounters Dracula who has likewise been sent back in time by the Conjuress for the same reason. 

Vampi's time-travel adventure ends when Dracula is unable control his hungers and causes the death of Lucy Westerna again, after she'd been saved from the curse of vampirism. The story is by T. Casey Brennan. Luis Domniguez created this very fetching cover. 

Back in her own time Vampirella along with Pendragon, the two Van Helsings and Dracula are sent to a strange world of desolate sand inhabited by monstrous sand worms. To survive Dracula returns to his old ways and loses the support of the Conjuress who sent them there. When Vampi and her gang return to their own world she is despondent that she might never free of the vampire curse. This a story written by both T. Casey Brennan and "Chad Archer", a pseudonym for Steve Englehart. The cover is by Enrich Torres. 

Under an unrelated cover by Marti Nipoli we get a story by Steve Englehart under his own name. "Hell from on High" takes the team to the mountains where Vampi's plane crashed, and Van Helsing's brother was killed by a lack of blood. The find a dubious priest and seek to ferret out a strange man in remote castle. 

We are treated to a Sanjulian cover for the next issue, lovely though not connected to Vampi directly. "The Blood Queen of Bayou Parish" is a direct sequel to the last story in which the Vampi gang head to the swamps where they find a deadly woman who can appear as the "dream woman" for anyone, hence making her seductions all the more powerful. This is Englehart's last story for Vampirella. 

This cover by Enrich Torres is one of my all-time favorite Vampirella covers, it's both sexy and ominous, the perfect blend of emotions for the book. Bill DuBay takes over the scripting (unheralded) and in "Into the Inferno" introduces more information about Pendragon's past. We find out his daughter has married a gangster and she wants revenge on her father for abandoning her and her mother so many years before. 

The second half of the story by Bill DuBay is "What Price Love" in which find out the costs of Pendragon's daughter's revenge. Vampirella is given vast amounts of pure cocaine and loses control of her vampiric desires, ultimately killing Pendragon's grandson. This cover is by Enrich Torres. 

"Demons in the Fog" is a story credited to Len Wein, but according to the Grand Comics Database it was in fact ghost-written by Tony Isabella. The art in this issue by Gonzalez and another talent named Escalono. The Cult of Chaos is back and up to its old tricks as Vampi falls victim to the demon Nuberius. With the ultimate help of Pendragon she escapes. The cover is a hodge-podge of elements from artists Gonzalez, Estaban Maroto and others. 

"Return Trip" is a story by Jose Toutain and gives up a chap named the "Dreamer" who contracts to get revenge for Pendragon's former wife for the death of her grandson. He captures Vampi in a hazy world of illusions in which she is cajoled into attacking Pendragon. It is followed by a non-Vampirella story titled "Wecome to the Witches' Coven" by Don McGregor with art by Luis Garcia. In this one a young woman seeking empowerment falls victim to a cult worshipping the goddess Diana. 

Under another stunning Enrich Torres cover we meet Vampirella's next regular writer Flaxman Loew. In the story "Curse of the MacDaemons" we travel to Scotland where Vampi is again lured to become a potential sacrifice for a deadly sea creature which had taken over the will of the local lords of the castle. This story sets up the next quite nicely, but that will have to wait until next time. 

On more general note let add that the art by Gonzalez has been betting stronger issue by issue as the storytelling is much improved. The stories in this volume were produced in 1972 and 1973. The removal of the Van Helsings from the latter stories helped quite a bit with the pacing and with the stories focusing on Pendragon that made sense. More Vampi next week when I take a glance at the fourth volume where new artists appear to give Vamirealla hand. 

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