“Before Twilight. Before True Blood. Before Buffy. Before Blade,” said the press release, “there was Vampirella!”

Dynamite Entertainment has acquired the Vampirella property from Harris Publications, the company has announced. The character will join their comic book line-up that already includes Project Superpowers, The Boys, Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger, Zorro, Army of Darkness, Red Sonja and numerous others.

Vampirella and its title character debuted in black and white magazine format in 1969 from Warren Publishing as a companion to Creepy and Eerie. With writers such as Archie Goodwin and many tales illustrated by artist Jose Gonzalez, the character was a hit.

Renowned fantasy artist Frank Frazetta illustrated the cover for Vampirella #1, the first of many top creators to work the series, which ran 112 issues and ended in 1983.

In 1988, Harris Publications acquired the property from publisher Jim Warren and published a one-shot magazine format issue, Vampirella #113.

In 1992, Vampirella relaunched in comic book format. Since then, in a variety of titles and formats, the character has seen work by creators such as Mark Millar, James Robinson, Jeph Loeb, Warren Ellis, Mike Mayhem, Joe Jusko, Joe Quesada, J. Scott Campbell, Michael Turner, Jae Lee, Adam Hughes, and Mark Texeira, among others.

“Vampirella is one of the most well known and longest running comic characters in the history of the business. Outside of Marvel and DC characters, very few comics characters that debuted in the ‘60s still resonate with fans today. Our acquisition of this iconic brand is another step in Dynamite’s exciting growth and builds on the ongoing success of our line,” said Nick Barrucci, President of Dynamite Entertainment.

A tragically bad Vampirella film premiered on Showtime 1996, but we’ve never held it against the character.

Details of Dynamite’s plans for the character are pending.