Octobriana: Good news everyone

Always scanning for upcoming news related to Octobriana - I just found this fantastic news :

An upcoming 4 issue mini-series from Atomic Pop Art Entertainment is in preparation as we speak - and will be ready in October 2009 (good choice).

Yes, Octobriana is back!

The story will take place in 1968 (again). And will involve a "plague" that turn lovers into deadly zombie, and Octobriana (here depicted as a "sex Goddess") will save the day - bottom line, this comic will be for a mature audience.

The authors are Steve Orlando of Outlaw Territory and Chaz Truog of DC/Vertigo's Animal Man (I like his drawing style - he's good, check his drawing of Red Sonja)

The tag line : "She fights for her birthright. She fights for your heart."

Read more in About Octobriana - Forums
And you can already enjoy a 4 pages of the comic Preview [NSFW]

Octobriana : August 21, 41 years ago

A few days ago, I was joking about the Russian army that was getting sexier, but today 21st August is indeed a sad anniversary :

1968 – Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring

see August 21 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for more detail on this.

Which reminds me of Karel Jerie's comics starting precisely during this event - when Octobriana looking for her father, would be captured and tortured by Petr Sadecky and his henchman ... I think it symbolizes the Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) being forced to become Russian - with a red star not a tattooed on her forehead but burned into her flesh by a Russian tortionner, while Petr Sadecky is watching (being the guy who escaped to the west with Czech artist's work in his luggage, pretending later that this work was made by a Russian underground party (PPP) and selling the whole thing to a British editor ...) - there's only 4 pages, but crammed with lots of historic facts ...



Anyway, there's a happy ending to Karel Jerie's comic - and that is my conclusion for tonight. Everybody loves happy ending!

Elizabeth Berkley as Octobriana

Maybe you didn't notice but there's a poll on the upper right of the blog, the question is quite exciting -

I know that Noora Piili has played the role of Octobriana in the movie "Octobriana & the Finger of Lenin" (posted here) - and also that Amanda Lear was also asked to be Octobriana in a movie that was never done (unfortunately)...

But let say that another movie would be made - who would be (or would have been) the best actress for the role of Octobriana ?

I have voted for Elizabeth Berkley - if you have seen her in "Showgirls" you probably understand why I voted for her ;)

And one last interesting fact : Octobriana is spelled "Oktyabrina" in Russian - Credits to Rockambole for this information.

Remembering Woodstock

Exactly 40 years ago about 400,000 people were having the time of their life at Woodstock.
The Eternal Spirit of Youth at his best.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Audio slideshow: Remembering Woodstock

Also in Russia, a couple of years ago there was a similar festival ; but less music and more motors.

In Russia, the Army joins you!

Let's have a wonderful dream tonight, by imagining an army of sexy female soldiers marching and chanting "Make love, not war!" ... Oh Yeah, let's dream, of a time when the Russian Federation would raise an army of sexy female soldiers, just like below ...

And there's more because the sexy soldiers come in different flavors, as you can see ...

source : New Russian Military Uniform - EchoPic

(Bonus song "Make Love Not War" by John Lennon)

Octobriana: Does she looks like a bolshevik?

Since there are many versions of Octobriana out there, I figured it would be funny to go back to her origin and with a little drawing put some of her characteristics.

Octobriana is blonde with massive hairs arranged vertically, more importantly she has a red star tattooed on her forehead, (I guess if there is only one thing to represent her it has to be this Red Star) - she also have a large eyebrow (because of her Mongolian/Amazonian descent - her father was a shaman from the Amazon/Mongolia, and her mother a Russian scientist?!) ; then optionally a very tight bra, a chain across her body, a bracer in a shape of a snake (maybe alive?), a green snakeskin pants, cowboy leather boots and pistol, also finally a primitive necklace with dozen of large sharp teeth (which I think is also a device to detect atomic radiation ...)

Octobriana: Don’t Mess with Russian Girls

GORBACHOV: THE MUSIC VIDEO - BIGGER AND RUSSIANER from Tom Stern on Vimeo.




Well, this is definitely Russian ... no doubt about that!
And the underlying message is that Gorbatchev saved the day of many young Russian women who were presumably attacked by Stalin look alike zombies

Oh, and one more thing ... this article Don’t Mess with Russian Girls
Just in case you were thinking that those Russian women were helpless - well, think twice before you jump into conclusion.

They're not as weak as you might imagine. But, if you know Octobriana (and you should by now, since you are reading this blog ;)) you already were well aware of the fact, that Russian women can kick serious butt and they rock.

Octobriana: SF4 Anime (Cammy is back)

Everyone know that I'm a big fan of Octobriana, but only a few that I'm also a fan of the Street Fighter character "Killer Bee" Cammy White. I wonder what these two ladies would do together, if they met ... would they work as allies, or more likely be enemies ?!
Since Octobriana (Red) represents revolution and Cammy (White) the institution ... I figure a serious ass-kicking would follow.

In the meantime, here's a little treat for you dear reader, found on RuTube

Street Fighter IV: Aratanaru Kizuna / Уличный боец 4 :: Видео на RuTube

I'm sure you will enjoy the Russian "voice over" of this 1hour video ;) but unfortunately I couldn't find another version ... Anyway Russian isn't it Octobriana's native tongue ?!

NB : This video is originally from the SF4 movie 'The Ties That Bind' included with the Collectors edition of Street Fighter 4.
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC & Arcade
Published by: Capcom
Developed by: Capcom / Dimps

There also a 5mn youtube video of the epic fight between Viper / Ryu and Cammy (of course)
here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIag3-8yhIw (make yourself a favor and press HD)

Octobriana : 100% Czech - but she's Russian right ?

Above is the back cover of the Aargh! Magazine (mentioned in the previous post) - and this page symbolizes pretty much Octobriana's background story - the upper left picture is from Bohumil Konecny, and the others are from Zdenek Burian - the guy who took credit for this work was Petr Sadecky, the publisher is/was Tom Stacey (hence the below copyright).

All these artists are 100% Czech, and Octobriana (formerly Amazon[i]a?!) is Russian ... I told you already ... Those people from Czech Republic have the creativity and the talent!

This article on Stripburek - Czech Comics by Tomas Prokupek is giving a nice overview of the Czech comics (komiks) in general, and a paragraph about Octobriana, very insightful.

NB : Art in this post is (c) Tom Stacey and also (c) Aargh! www.motkomiks.cz

Octobriana - Aargh! Magazine number 4

As promised in the last post, the focus is back to Octobriana with the Czech komiksovy casopis "Aargh!" number 4 (Summer 2003 Edition) that I received today (it has been quite difficult to find this 6 years old mag ; I must have been lucky to get one of the last issue available...)

So without further ado, here's my little review : it's about a hundred page - First impression "Very nice cover by Miroslav Schonberg" I was hoping there would be more Octobriana "komiks" material inside the magazine, unfortunately - just the 4 pages from Karel Jerie (posted in English on this Polish website here)

Another nice surprise, there is a long article on Petr Sadecky, but since it's in Czech - I will have to decipher it, before writing about it (but from the pictures, he seems to have been in Africa ?!).

Those people from Czech Republic have talent!

NB : Arts in this post are (c) Aargh! www.motkomiks.cz

Mosquito Coast, tale of a genius inventor

Another post, not directly related to Octobriana, (but I promised the next one will definitely be about her - In fact, I have one surprise for you readers coming soon next week - a comic magazine I've been looking for, is on his way).

Anyway, back to my current post, the movie "Mosquito Coast" based on the book by Paul Theroux (which I had read long time ago, but never had seen the movie).

The movie is very close to the book (to what I remembered from the book) the selection of actors is brilliant (River Phoenix and Harrison Ford, what a treat!) - I won't tell the whole story here, but it's a very interesting subject, about a genius (and stubborn) Allie Fox unable to accept to follow the crowd, will go against all odds, to build his own vision of a perfect society in South America (acting a bit like a selfish bastard toward his family in the meantime).

The only thing, that puzzle me is the giant fridge (?! that supposed to represent the ultimate invention...) ; but I guess this fridge is just a symbol. This story, somehow reminded me of El Che Guevara (see previous post), fighting with his small group of soldier in the Bolivia's jungle ... maybe that's because it ends badly for both.

• The movie has been posted on youtube here
• More information on the movie can be found on wikipedia here
• Paul Theroux's book can be found on Amazon here

El Che Investigating a Legend

Exceptionally today, this post won't be directly about Octobriana, but to a very real man representing the spirit of Revolution with a big R (and also controversy).

A man that is too often only a mono chromatic face on a t-shirt and unfortunately not well known, so if you have 1hour 35mn to spare, I would recommend you to watch this video retracing his life, and discover what means integrity in a man, a true believer of freedom.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8008270432750882980

You can also have a look afterward, to this Top 10 things people don't know about El Che.

I didn't know he was suffering from asthma, and went to Ireland and later to Prague (so in theory, he could have met Octobriana's spiritual father (Petr Sadecky)).

Also as a side note, (I wonder how El Che would react to this) his grand daughter Lydia, made the headline recently by posing naked for Peta.