The Four Color Media Monitor

And looks like it too. Cornell and his artist gave an interview to Bleeding Cool a few weeks ago where they talk about their upcoming run on Vampirella, but from what's provided, it looks more like they're still intent on belittling a famous character co-created by a woman artist (Trina Robbins):

DAN WICKLINE: Vampirella has had a rather convoluted past, with her origin changing a few different times. You seem to touch on that in the Zero issue. Who is the Vampirella we meet in this new series and how does she relate to the various incarnations that came before?

PAUL CORNELL: She’s all of them, and that’s all she knows. It’s a mystery we set up, part and parcel of how she got into our dystopian future. I think some characters have been reimagined too many times, and I wanted to do the opposite, bring it all in. She’s a tone of voice, wry and sighing and funny and slightly Goth English, and humane, ruthless, thirsty, afraid.

First, I'm beginning to find this whole "convoluted past" claim laughable at this point. If some stories from past publication are too much to get into, just follow an example Marv Wolfman went by when he wrote the New Teen Titans and don't actually mention them; let the readers decide for themselves what counts or not. Besides, some of the stories they think are convoluted probably surfaced just 2 decades ago, and if they think they should be disregarded as poor, why not just say so?

Second, it's similarly absurd to think they have to bring everything in, if that's really what they're planning on doing. All they need to do is stick by the main characteristics that work for a heroine like Vampirella, and tell a story that's self-contained with the main goal being to entertain. That way, it's not like they're contradicting anything they assume shouldn't be, and can allow the audience to judge for themselves. What so difficult about that?

DW: So far we’ve seen the one image you did of Vampirella wearing the red dress and dripping blood to the cat. Is this the Vampirella of the new series? How do you approach redesigning a character that has been around for over four and a half decades and has such an iconic look?

JIMMY BROXTON: This is more or less how she looks, the hand drawn “bat of blood” being a late addition/revision. This came from Matt and was a brilliant move. Both he and Matt wanted the new look to look more like a real outfit, rather than a “comic book ” costume, something a real woman would actually wear, albeit a kick ass sexy vampire woman. 60s fashions were definitely directly inspirational, I was keen to keep it red, and make it sexy, the previous version is cool, but quite gender neutral, our new Vampy is definitely a gal, sexy, but chic.

And I guess the tomboyish look is something a real woman would actually take up in all instances? Oh, tell us about it. And is he saying the bikini-like outfit is "gender neutral"? If so, it's enough to fall off the chair laughing. Why, even a PC design that was used a year ago didn't look "gender neutral" so much as did look very uninspired. The artwork sample they presented doesn't look particularly appealing either. Interestingly enough, look who's editor now at Dynamite:

DW: How did you guys get involved with the project? Were you approached as a team or was one of you asked and suggested the other? How did the wooing part go? And what was it that made you say yes to the series?

PC: I’m here because Matt Idelson is one of my favourite editors, and I asked for Jimmy because I immediately saw what he could bring. Matt had the setting in mind, and I liked how different it was.

JB: What Paul said! I was asked, and jumped straight in!

Oh, the same Idelson who said he didn't want to allow Clark Kent and Lois Lane to be a couple when he was working for DC several years ago, when they first pulled their New 52 crud! Yeah, I'm sure he'll make a great addition to their staff. Some of the commentors here seem to realize something's wrong with the picture, and one said:

I'll read the first issue but no interest in a politically correct Vampirella. The writers ideas seem stupid and scared.

Yup. And another said:

Didn't they do this already before and failed horribly?

I wouldn't be shocked. Sales figures could bear out this assessment. Another said:

Haven't checked out any of the been Vampi stuff but I have read all of the Master Series and enjoyed them. I don't really dig the new costumes.

And if that's what the contributors are going to concern themselves with, no wonder they're bound to fail. Still another said:

looks like they figured out how to make people care about Vampirella less.

Mm-hmm. If this how they're going to promote the book, they're not making a very convincing case at all. This certainly isn't likely to generate huge sales in pamphlets, and if they keep this up, it'll only make things worse.

Labels: bad editors, dreadful artists, dreadful writers, indie publishers, politics