On Alien Wings

Vampirella #2

by Ron Goulart, Gino D'Achillle (Illustrator)

HER NAME IS VAMPIRELLA. SHE LUSTS FOR BLOOD!Beautiful. Sleek. Deadly. An animal of prey she stalks the streets hunting a victim. She comes frtom the blackness of Space itself. Pulled from her native planet by a secret Earth space probe, she is Earth's first extra-terrestrial visitor. Trapped by accident on a world far from her own, VAMPIRELLA must drink blood to survive. She must kill - or adapt - or die!#2 ON ALIN WINGS follows Vampirella from a Hollywood estate to the decks of a ship in the Caribbean to a tropic island. Beset by beats that are loosed upon her by the Cult of Chaos and the vampire-obsessed Conrad Van Helsing who wants to plunge a stake into her heart, with only the bumbling magaician Pendragon to help her, VAMPIRELLA must fight her own bloodlust as she fights her enemies!(back cover copy)

Genres: Horror, Fantasy

Paperback

First published December 1, 1975

About the author

Pseudonyms: Howard Lee; Frank S Shawn; Kenneth Robeson; Con Steffanson; Josephine Kains; Joseph Silva; William Shatner.
Ron Goulart is a cultural historian and novelist. Besides writing extensively about pulp fiction—including the seminal Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines (1972)—Goulart has written for the pulps since 1952, when the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his first story, a sci-fi parody of letters to the editor. Since then he has written dozens of novels and countless short stories, spanning genres and using a variety of pennames, including Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, and Con Steffanson. In the 1990s, he became the ghostwriter for William Shatner’s popular TekWar novels. Goulart’s After Things Fell Apart (1970) is the only science-fiction novel to ever win an Edgar Award.

In the 1970s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom, and in 1980 he published Hail Hibbler, a comic sci-fi novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx. Having written for comic books, Goulart produced several histories of the art form, including the Comic Book Encyclopedia (2004).

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vampirella is an alien brought to Earth by forces beyond her control, and has to drink blood in order to survive. She falls in with Pendragon the magician, who becomes her (alcoholic) mentor, and eventually forms a romantic relationship with monster hunter Van Helsing. They are in continuing conflict with the evil Cult of Chaos, and have to face all manner of monsters, both human and supernatural and all stops in between. The stories are fast-paced fun, and never boring or offensive. Based on the famous comics character, the first couple of books more or less follow storylines from the magazines, but Goulart soon goes off into his own continuity. The books were obviously very hastily written, but are great quick, fun reads. There's no erotic content, despite the look of the covers, but considerable description of her appearance would no longer be accepted as correct. I bought the whole series at a science fiction convention one fine summer afternoon a decade after they were published from Rusty Hevelin, a friendly, lovely man who was a book dealer and well known as a fan, and that probably influences my memory of the series. The Vampirella books are elegant trash, and the first thing I think of when I hear the phrase "guilty pleasure."

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ao vasculhar as estantes atulhadas da Castro e Silva na Almirante Reis, não estava à espera de encontrar uma edição portuguesa de Vampirella. A capa não engana, e tive de o trazer para experimentar a leitura. Não é, claro, literatura pesada. É romance a metro onde Vampirella se mete em aventuras com os seus companheiros, o ilusionista decadente e amante de whisky Pendragon, e Adam Van Helsing, filho do perseguidor figadal da vampira do planeta Drakulon.

O que podemos esperar daqui? Puro divertimento na estética nos anos 70. Mete magnatas do cinema que se querem tornar vampiros para atingir a imortalidade e escapulir-se assim de pactos com demónios, um cruzeiro fatal cujo armador o organiza como sacrifício dos passageiros a entidades demoníacas, e um casal amaldiçoado numa ilha deserta. É bizarro, um pouco pateta, e não pretende mais do que entreter. Um tipo de leitura que de vez em quando sabe bem fazer.

[Mikel Pfeiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm being generous with 4 stars but it was a fun read and what I was looking for in a book for a few days in late October.

[Leila Anani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This second vampirella pulp novel is much more episodic than the first, which fits the comic book origins, and makes for a lightening pace but lacks any real depth. The stories are all set around Vampirella's mission to stamp out all enclaves of the Cult of Chaos.

The first adventure has a Cultist who has made a devilish pact and now searches for a vampire to turn him and make him immortal so the demons can't claim him and take his soul.

We then meet another cultist who has sold his soul to an aquatic demon and lures a cruise ship staffed by zombies, full of passengers to sacrifice to the deep.

The final adventure takes Vampirella and Pendragon to an island like that of Moreau where genetic experiments have created a werewolf and beast men to terrorize anyone who lands there.

I like the budding romance between Vampirella & hunter Adam Van Helsing and the demon worshipping cult stuff is fun, but I found this one a bit fragmented. Still it's Vampirella - camp vampire pulp fiction at its most trashy.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main heroine is an alien, from a planet of vampires, that dresses like a stripper and fights monsters.

If that doesn't convince you, then you might want to move along and read some reviews of Anne Rice or Catherine Harris novels instead.

This is sheer unashamed cheesy pulp, as Vampirella wanders around, trying to avoid a father/son vampire hunting duo and at the same time constantly stumbling into adventures/mysteries involving various supernatural monsters.
Half the characters think she's beautiful and immediately fall in love with her, the other half end up trying to kill her.

Fun stuff. Amazes me somebody hasn't scooped up the movie rights.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although Vampirella is a vampire, these books are probably more fantasy than horror. The character is interesting and the book is fairly well written. I would have probably really loved these books if I'd have found them when I was a teenager. This one is not bad, though