Way back in 1975, when I was a college freshman, Ian and Betty Ballantine visited my university to give a talk about publishing fantasy and science fiction. In particular, they were there to promote Betty’s latest project, The Fantastic Art of Frank Frazetta. This was catnip to a young nerd who was already playing Dungeons & Dragons, so of course I attended. So did two other people. It was embarrassingly poorly attended.
To my advantage, though — she just gave out pages from the book, and poster-sized prints of the art from the book, so we got all this wall art for our rooms, in addition to stories about Frazetta and the publishing industry. I had a poster of Vampirella!
I lost my nerve and didn’t tack it up in my dorm room — it was just a little too wild and racy.
And now I learn that Frazetta was fond of reworking his paintings, even after he’d sold them for pulp magazine covers, and that he’d updated Vampirella. The repainted version is up for auction now, but I’m not putting in a bid, and I wouldn’t hang this one on my wall, either. The revision involved completely removing her skimpy red costume, and I’ve never considered redecorating my house with sultry naked vampire paintings.
The point is not the nudity, the question is, will blood be consumed or not?
And having grown up with Richard Corben doing artwork and stories for the Fantasy magazine Heavy Metal , Frazzetta seems pretty tame.
Hmm, Vampirella fought baddies.
And the main character in the later books by Annie Rice fed on baddies.
They are basically Blade without dietary hangups.
….and Japanese manga took up the crime-fighting, blood-drinking tropes, going where no American artist dared to thread.
Huh…
I’m pretty certain I have that book. Mixed in with a few other books of pictures of muscular, sword-wielding, heroes and half-naked woman riding mythical animals which I collected in those pre-internet days of my youth.
Remember Boris Vallejo?
Yeah, but I never cared for Vallejo. You could tell he just painted over photos — everything was so static.
Not only was Vallejo’s art static, the outfits (if you can call them that) that he put the characters in were so ridiculous looking that it detracted from whatever the piece was supposed to be.
Disappointed to encounter sexist art here, no matter how nostalgic or “retro.”
Even teenage me would have found a poster like this embarrassing. Not to mention what teenage me’s girlfriend would have had to say about that!
Of course the thought that I used to have to Sandman posters on the bedroom walls is really depressing these days, considering what we now know about the author…
The second Conan film (not the third. Never the third) was one of the few sword- and sorcery films that got it halfway right.
And a film titled Innocent Blood got the blood-drinking vigilante vampire part right.
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For a bit of fun with a vampire version of Deadpool, complete with dark humor try “Hellsing Ultimate Abridged”, a fan-based parody.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=D9J7Q4Tzui4
OK, why does she look like she has a farmer’s tan? In fact, how does a vampire get any sort of tan?
Hillaryrettig @ 7
A lot of comic book art features gods and demi-gods. Maybe we could commission one based on Venus from Willendorf (ca. 40 000 BC). Other body ideals than the current ones.
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My favv heroine is Ripley. And maybe Galadriel.
i wouldn’t say vallejo was sexist bc he lived his artistic vision – he worked out to get muscles, he married a muscular workout lady with the same art style, and they made sexy naked people art together. frazetta i don’t know about, but he had better art chops than those sex nerds.
Did someone say “1975”?
“120 Songs That Turned 50 Years Old in 2025”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=y1zEqUmsrFs
Jeez, I feel old when I realise half a century has passed since I listened to this.