Rejections: My Almost-Date with Vampirella

Last year, on May 9 and May 10, I told you about a pair of rejections I received in my early years as a wannabe writer: one was from The Twilight Zone Magazine, for a short story I’d submitted; the other came from Archie Comics, turning down a pitch for a comic book backup story starring their superheroine Fly-Girl.

Well, here’s the story of another rejection letter I recently came across in my archives…

In 1982, I decided to try pitching a Vampirella story to Warren Publishing. I’d been a fan of the swimsuited vampire from outer space since for about six years at that point, my horror-fan life forever changed when I stumbled across issue 55 at a mom-and-pop newsstand. That Sanjulian cover certainly got my attention, but it was discovering that legendary comic writer Archie Goodwin had crafted her early adventures that kept me interested—Vampirella 55 was a “Best of Archie Goodwin” collection of stories from the early ’70s. And when Goodwin mentioned in an interview that his Vampirella stories were heavily influenced by the works of H. P. Lovecraft, an author I’d heard of but never read…well, I just had to see what those were about. Thanks for the tip, Mr. Goodwin!

So in ’82 I came up with “Dreamweaver,” which featured the return of a one-off psychic villain from the story “Return Trip” in Vampirella #27. That’s all I remember about the pitch—I lost the one file copy of it long ago—but clearly I thought my idea was good enough for submitting to Warren’s editors. (Ahh, youth.) Surprisingly, as you can see in the letter I got back, so did at least one of them!

What I didn’t know at the time, however, was that while I was waiting for this editorial response to my pitch, Warren Publishing was in the early stages of closing shop—poor sales of their titles and the poor health of publisher James Warren combined to put the company into bankruptcy. By March 1983, Vampirella had been canceled; the rest of the Warren magazines—Creepy, Eerie, The Rook, Famous Monsters of Filmland—either preceded her demise or followed shortly thereafter. So even if “Dreamweaver” had been accepted, it probably wouldn’t have seen print.

So that was my brush with Vampirella, but I never truly abandoned the notion of writing for a horror-comic femme fatale; I just needed to devise one of my own. And in 1989 that’s exactly what I did, creating Lorelei, a succubus inspired in no small part by Vampirella—and who’s currently celebrating her 25th anniversary as StarWarp Concepts’ first leading lady of horror. (Vampi, by the way, is celebrating her 45th anniversary this year as well.)

In fact, if you’d like to see the kind of old-school Vampi adventure that current-day me is capable of writing, then check out Lorelei: Sects and the City, a Mature Readers graphic novel that pits Lori against a cult of Elder God worshipers not unlike Vampi’s old enemy, the Cult of Chaos. How well did I and my artistic collaborators Eliseu Gouveia, Steve Geiger, Neil Vokes, and cover artist (not to mention Vampirella art-legend) Esteban Maroto succeed in our goal to recreate the feel of Warren’s glory days? Just ask these experts:

“Lorelei, you’ve cast your spell o’er this guy!”
—Forrest J Ackerman, creator of Vampirella and Famous Monsters of Filmland

“You sure do pay Warren Publishing a nice tribute. I wish you good luck and good acceptance. I like the graphics, and the story is exciting!”
—James Warren

“Kudos to Roman for capturing the essence of 1970s fare like Vampirella. Filled with ghouls, chicks, and some strong artwork, this is a title that might’ve piqued Hammer Studios’ interest back in the day.”—Dread Central

“A great homage to Warren’s Vampirella magazine. Steve Roman has captured the spirit of the black and white Warrens, especially his female star.”—Vampirella Revealed

Thanks for the inspiration, Vampi!