Komiks fest 2011 in Prague is now over, it was interesting to meet many international guests, especially a talented Russian comic artist Konstantin Komardin.
During the exhibition "Tigers from East"
of Konstantin Komardin and Jozef “Danglár” Gertli.
Konstantin was really nice taking the time to autograph the Petr Sadecky 1971 book with this Octobriana drawing on the left.
Fixing a 40 years old issue, since there was (paradoxically) no Russian art in "Octobriana and the Russian Underground".
The second photo is a large painting by Jozef “Danglár” Gertli, depicting a jaded blueish Octobriana veteran holding cigar and AK47 and who seemed to have participate in too many revolutionary "coup".
She does look a bit old on that picture, but hey ... 2011 is marking her 40th birthday! and it doesn't look like the world is yet rid of the need of revolution.
Octobriana the "devil-woman" was the subject of a pseudo-scientific study and it has been told in the article that she was derived from no less than six-hundred various sources.
-- Extract from the Book "Octobriana and the Russian Underground"
Really exciting news are coming and while we're struggling to get some more informations, here's a little painting the PPP collective has been working on for the past weeks.
If you know the original source please comment, so I can add it.
Otherwise if you want me to remove a picture, same thing add a comment, and I'll do so.
"The Black Widow of the Amazon" by : Russell Platt, Boo
with additional art by : Noah Whyler, Jason Martin, Dan Taylor, Daniel Mendoza,Konrad Baumheier.
When I first stumbled upon a drawing made by Russ Platt, I instantly liked it ; his efficient (almost surgical) drawing is mesmerizing.
And basically, that was the first reason to purchase the comics above, the second reason is the "Amazon" mentioned in the title - since Octobriana is also known primarly as "Amazona".
The details on the PDF are on the lulu website or on author's deviantArt link.
A little intro about the main character "Black Widow", she is depicted as a topless humanoid with the recognizable orange-reddish bow-tie (or hourglass) on her lower abdomen, it had me research a bit on this lethal spider .. and it's a really scary lady ... if you're not familiar with it, you can check a National Geographic's video here.
Now without further ado, I'll give you a little peak inside the book, there's actually 2 separate tales with full-page illustrations of the lady spider in between.
The first one (called "Deep in the Amazon") is 4 pages long (story and art by Boo) and you will follow the Amazonian black widow as she confronts a Nazi treasure hunter and his goons. The drawings are quite modern, stylish and close the the look of the "Danger Girls" comic book series by J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell.
My feeling is that the author was influenced by Indiana Jones type of adventure, there's a temple (or a sanctuary) a golden idol, etc ... and before that first adventure is either a 5 pages intro, or a different story which starts with the word "My last job", featuring the lady spider and a villain with a skull mask.
The second story (called "To catch a Widow") is 8 pages long (story and art by Russ Platt), and goes in another direction (than the treasure hunt), there's more text, and this time the scenario is more about the origin of the Black Widow, and my feeling here, is that the author may have been influenced (?!) by Sarah Kerrigan the female Terran psychic turned later as a Zerg mutant (from the Blizzard's StarCraft game).
I already mentioned the great quality of the author's art and you won't be disappointed, it looks great, and it's a good finale for the book.
NB : This is my second review (the previous one was about the "Heart of Empire" CD with the Adventures of Luther Arkwright), sorry if my English isn't perfect, I wanted to share a bit of my impressions on this little book.
If you know the original source please comment, so I can add it.
Otherwise if you want me to remove a picture, same thing add a comment, and I'll do so.
PPP Toolkit in Action, last week dices were rolled and the result was 1-4-4-5-3 ; Here is the result :
Returning to the original adventures invented by Petr Sadecky, using more or less the same pattern as 'The living sphinx of the Kamchatka radioactive volcano, 1934' or 'Octobriana and the Living suns of Comrade Mao' - in this 5 pages comics the action takes place in an exotic city were a mummy is rising from her tomb, while Octobriana riding her pterodactyl (nicknamed Pepsi) will save the day.
Hopefully there will be more, maybe a monthly samizdat ?!
PS : The Samizdat "14453" was generated with the PPP toolkit.
Octobriana is a Russian Super Heroine, like the American Wonder Woman but from the Communist era - Well, in fact, this isn't totally what it seems ... because she was the creation of a Czech artist, who was the propagator of a big political mystification.
But nevertheless, Octobriana is a lot more than that, she's the Spirit of Eternal Youth and Revolution ... and the Legend still lives!
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