If you thought you had seen all the crossovers possible, guess again. In June Vampirella will team up with The Demon, The Starchild, The Spaceman, and The Catman in KISS/Vampirella #1 from Dynamite Entertainment.
Gene Simmons said, “I have been in love with Vampirella (who hasn’t?), ever since Forry Ackerman created her. I knew Forry, and he spoke fondly of Vampi, almost as if she was real. For a wide-eyed kid who grew up voraciously devouring the pages of Warren publications (including Famous Monsters of Filmland), it’s a personal thrill to witness this momentous event in our four-decades-old, proud comic book history. I can’t wait to see and read KISS/Vampirella.”
Los Angeles is a strange town on the best of days, but in the summer of 1974, the City of Angels feels especially demonic. As temperatures soar and wildfires burn, all sorts of strange creatures are drawn to town… including Vampirella. While Vampi goes out and hunts down monsters all across La La Land – defending humanity from evil – she’s also killing it every night on stage as a member of an all-girl rock group – defending rock ‘n’ roll from a dying scene. Help arrives in the form of four creatures who’ve just flown into town: The Starchild, The Demon, The Spaceman, and The Catman. Away from their home turf and trying to record their new album, KISS discovers that all their favorite L.A. bands have mysteriously broken up, disappeared, sold out, or gone crazy. Led by a driver who moonlights in the occult and haunted by satanic strangers dressed in black, KISS finds themselves drawn into a web of conspiracy that threatens to kill rock ‘n’ roll itself!
I love that this is set in the ’70s at the time when KISS was super hot and Vampirella was even hotter…
Writer Chris Sebela said, “Setting it in the 1970s, I wanted the book to feel like a drive-in movie at times, but one that has a heart to it and actual characters. Because KISS is so much larger than life, it’s no fun if they don’t have something pushing back against them. Having them in their early days, there’s more room to throw them into the action and have them be unsure what to do. That’s where the fun happens. There’s big action scenes, sleazy clubs, scary strangers dressed all in black, crazy monsters, and on-stage pyrotechnics. It’s as fun as it is dark, I hope! Meanwhile, Vampirella is seen so often as a kind of lone monster hunter that I really wanted to see Vampirella in a group situation. She has to get along with them and they have to work together to get things done. So I put her in a band. It’s an all-girl rock group with a witchy gimmick. I got to create the rest of the band members and establish their look with artist Annapaola Martello and I got to write songs, which no one ever told me how much fun that is.”
KISS/Vampirella #1 is scheduled to arrive in June 2017.
