"The Black Widow of the Amazon"

"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.