Review: Vampirella Year One #1

With the various Vampi books kicking around at the moment it can be pretty hard to keep things straight.  This time around though, the Year One moniker should go someway to setting your expectations.

Year One, as a concept, is pretty cool.  Probably the most famous Year One is the Batman run by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, which is still the best to date, by the way, even better than Scott Snyder’s Zero Year.  Christopher Priest may not be Frank Miller, but he has been around Vampi for quite some time now, almost as long as Tom Sniegoski!  As the titles suggests, this is a younger Vampi, from teen onwards on her home planet.

Christopher Priest certainly has his Vampi voice down pat, regardless of the age.  Thing is, I am not really that interested in child Vampi.  Priest on the other hand is focussed on creating a lived in world , full of interesting characters, some of which you may recognise.  Priest is a wordy writer to begin with; when you throw in that this is the first issue and includes a new cast and planet, you can imagine how these factors impact the verbiage.  There is a different vibe to the book, form Priest’s previous Vampi Dracula love story.

The art is supplied by pair of art teams.  First up, the prologue is provided by Giovanni Timpano and colored by Flavio Dispenza with a style that is probably more in keeping with readers expectations of a Vampi book, albeit with a little surprise thrown in.  The main book takes a strangely younger turn with Ergün Gündüz supplying both art and colors.  Whilst the colors, at time, have a sense of alienness, there is also a blandness which doesn’t appeal.  This is further aided and abetted by some lacklustre postures and facial elements.  Surely there has to be to a Vampi book than skimpy costumes.  Willie Schubert’s letters work well throughout the book.  There are a raft of covers;  it is buyers choice!

I persevered with the Vampi Dracula series right up the not an ending ending.  This book though, doesn’t have the same level of detail, art wise, and features ideas that I am not really interested in, making this one for the serious Vampi and/or Christopher Priest fans.

Writing – 3 Stars
Art – 3 Stars
Colors – 3 Stars

Overall – 3 Stars

Written by; Christopher Priest
Art by; Giovanni Timpano & Ergün Gündüz
Colors by; Flavio Dispenza & Ergün Gündüz
Letters by; Willie Schubert
Published by; Dynamite Entertainment