Enter the Italian adult comic.
Just like their mainstream American counterparts, adult fumetti characters have their own elaborate backstories and wild adventures, but with WAY more boobs, bush and peen, thus marking an evolutionary leap (at least in my mind). Naga la Maga, actually named Natasha Romanoff and inheritrix of the Tsarist bloodline, learned her erotic brand of witchcraft from the fabled Russian mage Rasputin. Accompanied by her lover-cum-manservant Yul (yes, he's the big, bald, liveried "King and I" dude) and a dippy Louise-Brooks-alike named Zita de Tordeville, Naga embarks on a series of adventures that bring her in contact with such characters as the Frankenstein Monster, Rudolph Valentino, and Arsene Lupin. Her exploits are brought to life by renowned illustrator Leone Frollo, whose late-career erotic watercolor pinups may be familiar to US audiences.
In the stories contained in this little paperback, published in the US by a company called Eurocomics, Naga ventures to Tibet to rescue Zita from the Fu-Manchu-ish He-Who-Lives-Without-Pleasure. Her relationship with Yul is pretty strange--he frequently takes the form of an elegant afghan hound, and is willing to pleasure his mistress in man-form or dog-form. Also, we now know how the sound of kicking a submissive in the ribs translates into Italian. The more you know...!
Naga has a zepplin that she pilots. Allow me to repeat for emphasis: NAGA HAS A ZEPPELIN.
More helpful Italian-language onomatopoeia.
After fleeing from He-Who-Lives-Without-Pleasure, Zita is kidnapped by a yeti, who everyone thinks has rapey intentions, but it turns out they're all jerks with unfounded prejudices and the yeti has a much more romantic side.
Also, Yul has sex with a giant bee.
If you ever wondered what on earth those characters were saying in scenes of weird lovin', this is what they're saying. And trust me, the lead-up to this particular coupling doesn't clarify matters. Yul and Naga are strolling through the forest when they are attacked by giant bee that has been sent to kill them by He-Who-Lives-Without-Pleasure. But since the bee is female and it has been kept in a cage for so long, it's overwhelmed by lust for Yul (just like in nature) and he has to sate the creatures desires before they can continue. Yes, you can figure this all out just by looking at the panels--the English translations in the copy I own shed no light on the matter.
12 comments:
I've likely mentioned this, but you might enjoy Frank Thorne's "The Iron Devil" (Thorne of course is the real reason Red Sonja is famous). This is the comic that got some shop owners arrested in the '90s for carrying it, as at one point a devil appears as an infant, and well... You can likely guess what happens. Thorne did a lot of erotic comics, but this was (I believe) his only full-on XXX venture.
Splendid post thank you as this is a comic I hadn't heard of; and by the way you've not done it until you've done it with a giant bee (apparently)!
NAGA HAS A ZEPPELIN! Oh, my!
Had read about Naga, and Frollo's other early work at Groovy Age of Horror, but had resigned myself to the fact that it would never appear in English. This Eurocomics booklet goes straight to the top of my wants list!
hi, sorry for my bad english, I m french .
it' s not really the subject of the post but I would like to know if there are fumettis from Bonelli edition like Dylan Dog and Nathan Never which are published in United States .
Because I would love to read them but there are very few in french and I don' t speak Italian so I thought if there were english traductions that would be interesting ...
I saw Dylan Dog comics with Mignola covers but that' s not what I m looking for .
(well perhaps you don' t know and you don' t care but I try)
The number of translated adult Fumetti seems to be somewhat hit and miss. Always wondered with nearly 30 years of publishing history and hundreds of issues to pick from (about 30% of which have totally excellent art work) there is such a small amount of republished stuff in the USA. Over the last 30 or more years there has been a long growth of adult 'comics' and graphic novels.
Neceros
kaze - Dark Horse translated a series of Dylan Dog fumetti a few years ago (yes, with Mignola covers, but the interior art is original). They were recently compiled as a nice big paperback. They've renamed the Groucho character and airbrushed out his mustache for some reason, but otherwise it's a good way for those of us who don't speak Italian to get a taste of the series.
Neceros > It seems that it' s the same in France (probably worse)
Soukesian > Thanks, I didn' t know it was the original Dylan Dog, I think I m gonna get them, I already wanted to get the Creepy from Dark Horse .
Naga has a zeppelin, and Yul... has sex with a giant bee... and is sometimes a dog?
My brain is broken, but so happily.
p8
Darius, thank you for the reminder! I am adding "The Iron Devil" to the ol' wish list even as we speak, perhaps for ordering later this afternoon. I have this hunt-and-peck "OH SHINY" approach to comix that has led me to a broad but shamefully un-deep interest in that format. I totally appreciate any heads-up towards other kinky/weird/fun titles!
Lost Jimmy, I keep wondering HOW Yul is making it with the bee, and then I get upset with myself for wondering that. But... I mean... the mechanics of that must be difficult, right?
Soukesian, I wish you much luck in finding this title! If you go down the correct series of Google searches, you can find some more PDFs of Naga translated into Spanish, if that's at all helpful.
Kaze, as Soukesian has pointed out, the Dylan Dog titles were indeed translated into English (with the Mike Mignola covers) and put out by Dark Horse. At the same time, editions of Nathan Never and Martin Mystery were published, and those are actually a bit easier to find in their serialized format. Here's a link to that omnibus version of the Dylan Dog stories (there are seven issues total):
http://www.amazon.com/Dylan-Dog-Case-Files/dp/1595822062/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279716562&sr=1-1
I hope that's helpful!
P8, when I grow up, I want to write for fumetti. And I also want to stop trying to figure out where bees keep their vaginas, and if they even HAVE vaginas.
Thorne's "Ghita of Allizar" is fairly good as well. But then, I am a Thorne fan.
>Neceros > It seems that it' s the same in France (probably worse)
Tho I thought in long long bygone days EvilFrance published a wide variety of French translated Italian fumetti.
No only Dylan Dog but also Ramba.
Ramba had some really fine art. Strange thing is I never say the original Italian versions.
It is not odd that a great artist like Milo Manara would find an audience here, but it is a puzzle how little Magnus (Roberto Raviola) there is, some I know, but no where as extensive as Manara.
As far as I know zero Lepori.
Just an FYI - the "kai! kai!" onomatopoeia doesn't refer to the sound of the kick, but to a dog yelping :) (though it's more commonplace to see it written as "cai, cai")
@Neceros - now that you mention Ramba, I remembered that one of my teachers at the comics school I attended used to be one of the artists for that book (then he had moved to more mainstream comics). IIRC, the publisher was actually one of the biggest porn producers in Italy who was then trying to a create himself a niche in the comic business. I think paperback, black and white adult comics in Italy pretty much ended with the 80's - nowadays, it's mostly manga, plus a couple of anthologic magazines (I happen to work with one of those) which don't have the mainstream diffusion of those old booklets from the 70's.
Post a Comment