Posted in: Comics, Dynamite | Tagged: christopher priest, dynamite, vampirella, Vampirella: Year One

Vampirella: Year One #1 Launches With 51,700 Orders

Published Fri, 08 Jul 2022 05:57:11 -0500

Vampirella: Year One #1 by Christopher Priest, Ergün Gündüz and Giovanni Timpano is launching later this month, and it shouldn't be hard to find copies. That's because comic book retailers, at FOC, have ordered 51,700 copies of the first issue. That was after initial orders of only 16,254, over 300% increase at FOC. Of those numbers, about 14,000 are also retailer-exclusive covers.

Christopher Priest, who has been writing Vampirella for the last three years as one of the most politically incisive, racially challenging, a woke carving up of America that the kind of people who would usually be offended on Fox News and/or YouTube have missed, because it's just Vampirella, is going further back for the character's origin.

VAMPIRELLA YEAR ONE #1 CVR A TURNER
DYNAMITE
(W) Christopher Priest (A) Ergun Gunduz, Giovanni Timpano (CA) Collette Turner
Following the explosive conclusion to Vampirella/Dracula: Unholy comes the next chapter in Christopher Priest's Vampirella saga! Wanted for murder, and with every demon, shaman, vampire, whack-job zealot, reporter, and law enforcement officer on Earth hunting for her, Vampirella has taken refuge in an undisclosed location where she questions why she came to our world in the first place.
In Shops: Jul 27, 2022
SRP: 3.99

This limited event series is not only an exploration of the Daughter of Drakulon's earliest days, but also a follow up to the explosive conclusion of Vampirella / Dracula: Unholy. Our vampiress is now wanted for murder, with every demon, vampire, whack-job zealout, reporter, and law enforcement officer on Earth hunting for her. As she takes refuge hidden away, Vampirella begins to recall and question how and why she came to this planet in the first place.

Priest shared, "I'm actually a bit surprised this hasn't been done before. There are vast areas of Vampirella's life, especially her childhood on Drakulon, which remain largely unexplored. Half our series will be a kind of 'pilot' episode to gauge interest in artist Ergün Gündüz's amazing reinterpretation of Drakulon and the new history we created during our 'Interstellar' story arc in Vampirella #18-21."

"The remaining issues will take an odd turn on the E.T. story, examining the plight of many refugees who come to America seeking asylum and freedom. Vampirella leaves Drakulon on a mission of mercy, unaware that, due to the crude state of Earth technology, it will be a one-way trip."

"Stranded in a strange land, Vampi is a literal illegal alien, immigrant and lost soul in 1969 New York City–a far more dangerous city than it is today. Vampirella does not understand our language, our culture, our politics. We land her squarely back in the pages of her original Warren Publishing book, with cameos from some of the original cast. The book is a lot of fun while also exploring important themes of who we are as Americans and how to live up to our core values."

Artist Giovanni Timpano returns to illustrate the present-set framing sequences. For the core tale, Priest is reunited with Ergün Gündüz after the pair started the whole run back on Free Comic Book Day 2019. Letterer Willie Schubert continues to contribute as well. Together, the creative team is overhauling and expanding the classic origin story from Forrest J. Ackerman and Tom Sutton that originally amounted to just a handful of pages.

Dynamite invites readers to travel to the scenic, exotic sites of Drakulon, and then back in time to 1960s New York City, where Vampi finds herself grappling with depression and intense loneliness as she attempts to build a new life. Through the series she will meet her first friends like the fan-favorites Pantha and Pendragon, as well as her first enemies. She'll also be navigating the turn of the decade amidst one of America's most turbulent periods. Grab your go-go boots, Afro Sheen, and love beads!"