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Barbarella #1

Barbarella

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Barbarella, with her long hair and sonorous name, her baby face and disdain for needless clothes, finds herself on the planet Lythion, where she has made a forced landing while traveling alone through outer space in her rocket. She is a creature of the future who is confronted with the monsters and robots of the strange planet, and she is put to one test after another. She vanquishes evil in whatever form she finds it, and rewards, in her particular fashion, all the handsome men that she meets during her adventures. And, whether battling sadists or turning her ray gun on gelatinous monsters, she cannot seem to avoid losing all or part of her skin-tight space suit.

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

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About the author

Jean-Claude Forest

73 books10 followers
Historietista francés.

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5 stars
50 (16%)
4 stars
67 (22%)
3 stars
115 (37%)
2 stars
56 (18%)
1 star
16 (5%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
Profile Image for Rishindra Chinta.
216 reviews9 followers
August 28, 2014
The 1968 film starring Jane Fonda is one of my favorite movies of all-time. It really didn't make much sense, though, and not in the way 2001: A Space Odyssey (which was actually released in the same year) is confusing. That story of 2001 makes sense, especially if you've read the book (which I have). What are more confusing are some small details, for example, the meaning of those seven crystal things in the middle of the Star Gate sequence. Anyway, Barbarella doesn't make much sense because the rules of the universe aren't explained very well. This doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the movie, of course.

The comic book, on which the film is based, makes a slightly more sense and is entertaining enough. There's no overarching plot. It's more of a collection of stories about Barbarella's adventures on the planet Lythion. The first few adventures are kind of too simplistic but by the time the drawings turn yellow the book gets more interesting (the drawings are black, white, and shades of a different color in each chapter). The drawings are alright.

I did like how the book had a few of the best lines of the movies like:

Barbarella: "A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming."
*****
Slupe (the Great Tyrant in the movie): "Vade retro Earth girl."
*****
Barbarella: Why did you save her [Slupe]?
Pygar: An angel has no memory..."

And there was the part with the twin girls and the biting dolls, the part with the birds, and the "Room of Dreams." And I'm glad the Excessive Machine was here.

I kind of wish Barbarella was a five-star, double-rated astronavigatrix in the book. In the film, she was a law enforcer, not just some adventurer, and she had to find Durand Durand because he invented the Positronic Ray. Actually, there are quite a few differences between the comic book and the film. I know the book came first but I liked some things that were added in the movie, like the exaltation transference pills, and some things that were changed in the movie, like Durand Durand being a mad scientist instead of an ally of Barbarella and Dildano becoming a more comic character.

So, overall, the comic book isn't bad but I'd say I liked the movie more.
Profile Image for Alexander Peterhans.
Author 2 books244 followers
February 21, 2020
The story is ridiculous (in a fun way). Barbarella's clothes must be lined with velcro, the alacrity with which she gets naked. But the art is pretty good, and the overall inventiveness of the world is impressive.
Profile Image for Leigh Anne.
933 reviews33 followers
February 2, 2015
Once upon a time there was a comic book which spawned a movie that gave five young men the name of their band. So, as you can imagine, I'm a teensy bit focused on Jean-Claude Forest's work.

This volume is gorgeous. It's also huge, so either carry a big bag when you check it out, or be prepared to carry nothing else. It's worth lugging it home, though, and not just because it's got a lovely blue satin bookmark. The adventures are cheeky, kind of like a "Perils of Pauline" serial, in space, if Pauline were a sexually liberated woman with zero fucks to give (metaphorically, my dears - metaphorically). But it's the colors that left me breathless here. It's a very simple scheme, but the blue they chose is so amazing - I want all my scarves and accessories/jewelry, etc. in that color from now on. Seriously.

Good fun, and gorgeous to look at. You cannot lose.
Profile Image for Dave Lefevre.
148 reviews9 followers
March 4, 2013
Might be groundbreaking because it was an "adult" comic strip, but while some of the content might have seemed scandalous when it was new these days you'll see sexier situations on the Disney Channel. On top of it the stories barely make any sense when taken from a "strip" format to a graphic novel format.
Profile Image for C. Varn.
Author 3 books313 followers
April 9, 2020
Much more tame than one would expect of European erotic comics now but it is as madcap and cheesecake filled as the Jane Fonda Film, Jean-Claude Forest's Barbarella is a paean to the more seemingly innocent side of the swinging 60s put in a far future. Kelly Sue DeConnick's adaptation does make Barbarella's visit to Lythion and her episodic adventures here. Yes, there are seemingly more rules than the largely unexplained movie, but not a lot more rules to flesh out the world. The humor does seem a bit juvenile. Still, the nostalgic feel probably does shape if one likes this or rejects it as past-future-kitsch.
Profile Image for Al Capwned.
1,601 reviews10 followers
April 14, 2019
I liked the artwork a lot but the story (or I should say "stories", because it's more of a collection, despite the supposed continuation) is quite peculiar. I know it's one of the first adult comics etc. and it was probably a huge thing when it was first published but still, it lacks in many aspects.
Profile Image for Przemysław Skoczyński.
1,188 reviews35 followers
January 17, 2020
Ramotka. Źle się to zestarzało, więc polecam tylko amatorom dobrego rysunku i tym, którzy interesują się historią komiksu czy samą - dosyć znaczącą dla popkultury - bohaterką.

(opinia dotyczy całego cyklu)
Profile Image for StrictlySequential.
3,299 reviews13 followers
January 1, 2020
Goofy can be pure gold when the author isn't trying otherwise and creates just for fun rather than sales which was the case here. The back of the book reveals its genesis as a party game for friends. The only problem with my lovely 1960s Grove Press edition is a lack of introduction(s) and such. When a character has become so widespread I savor the "making of" prose pieces AND the anecdotes.

My favorite look is LANGUID BARBARELLA (especially post-coital)- her squinty eyes with the puffy wrinkles below seduce me lasciviously!

The way he brushes her is scintillating- the... EVERYTHING. Even to a guy that's not into hulking chests I'm mesmerized by their loosely rendered subtle hang and the way he exclamation marks their tips.

When I animate her hips in my mind's eye I imagine a grace that could lead me into anything and she has such a irresistibly biteable butt- sinking my teeth into the meat of her taut left cheek would be worth ANY reprisal.


I love when an artist numbers pages the right way- by hand. It's not time consuming and it's pretty useful for an art-form that causes mention of specific panels. Page 53 was the catalyst for Lorna (and her Diktorbot)- wasn't it Alf Azpiri?
Profile Image for Brandon.
2,114 reviews32 followers
March 19, 2021
I get the feeling that Barbarella was more progressive in its time. Reading it in 2021 it feels way too sexual and kind of exploitative- the story is basically one woman travelling to so many different places and fucking new people, stripping, having her clothes torn off, or flirting with whoever comes by. There's some fantastic artwork and incredible world-building that supports this flimsy story but I have to believe that Barbarella's ownership of her sexuality, her confidence in the face of adversity, and her willingness to fight back makes her a stronger character than I'm currently reading. Compared to many other comics of its era, the character of Barbarella has more agency and nuance. But even then, this comic is still smut. It's erotic sci-fi with a feminist progressivism that would have stoof out in the Silver Age.

I think it's worth checking out, but you need to know what you're getting into and keep an open mind.
Profile Image for Anthony.
Author 2 books7 followers
October 4, 2017
Classic Sexy Sci-Fi

Barbarella is a space age Gulliver in a tank-top and yoga pants. She's confident, competent and lives for new adventures. This book didn't quite match the movie storyline, but jt was a good read.
Profile Image for Zak Webber.
75 reviews4 followers
March 27, 2022
"Your hardware and my software interface perfectly!"

... so says travelling space adventurer Barbarella after making love to a robot in the original 1962 comic strip. That's after dallying with several men, women and an angel...

If you are familiar with the movie adaptation staring Jane Fonda in 1968 you will already know the tone: camp titillating high jinks bordering on soft porn. The titular heroine is a sexy young hedonistic astronaut who finds herself tumbling into one compromising situation after another, invariably losing most or all of her clothing in the process.

Sexploitation? Perhaps a little, but the lewedness here is too mild to be offensive, certainly by today's standards. Barbarella is an object of desire, yes, but she is also a fully autonomous agent, not a vacant bimbo.

What we have here is an embodiment of 1960s sexual liberation ('free love' as a personal and political statement against a conventional Western society that frowned upon any expression of sexuality that did not conform to the missionary position within wedlock). Our heroine also embodies women's liberation, quite at home with a raygun and ready, willing and able to battle the forces of evil alongside the boys.

This is perhaps also a reflection of the specific culture of her creator; this femme fatale is an emancipated free spirit with more than a passing resemblance to the legendary Brigitte Bardot...

Written and drawn by Jean-Claude Forest, Barbarella begins with the leading lady crashing her rocketship into a greenhouse on the planet Lythion. She stumbles from the wreckage only to be lashed by the thorns of giant roses caught in the winds of the escaping atmosphere, her clothing torn to shreds...

Various adventures follow as she travels to different locations on the planet, encountering a variety of exotic characters and landscapes. She finds herself in a desert, an underwater kingdom and the snow-covered city Yesteryear where the people have adopted the fashions and architecture of 1880s Europe (proto-steampunk?). Eventually she ends up in the Labyrinth of Sogo, the setting for the Jane Fonda film.

Forest's drawings are charming with suitably sensual lines and an art nouveau flavour to each surrealist tableau. This edition is dichromatic; black and white panels with additional blue shading. This reflects the comic printing techniques of that era. As this edition was adapted in 2014 they could have added full colour but I'm glad they didn't, as this is a nice nostalgic touch.

There have been many feisty female space heroes in the decades since Barbarella first launched, and the later incarnations are certainly more politically correct, but the original still has an enchanting power all of her own. She was probably the first to exemplify a heroine who stood alongside the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordons of the galaxy as equal but different... and Vive la différence!
Profile Image for Paul Spence.
1,265 reviews66 followers
December 14, 2023

Being a long-time fan of the campy 1968 film with Jane Fonda as the titular character I was happy to finally read the source comic book. What might strike some right off is the artwork and its very simplistic and almost primitive quality. I quite like it. It never gets graphic in its nudity or sexuality. It was about halfway through that the story became recognizable and began seeing characters and scenes that would be adapted for the film. The story doesn't make a whole lot of sense but a comic book of this nature loses its weird charm and whimsy if over analyzed. Like the film it is campy fun and certainly a product of its time period. It's worth reading for fans of the film.

When you stand her artwork next to Modest Blaise , for example - well, it looks a bit sketchy, I mean as in MB being carefully drawn and inked, and B-girl more dashed-off. And, although their eras overlapped, MB took a serious approach to characters, as much as the daily strip format allows. A few of B's characters seem to have her logo on their shirts, and look like Tele-tubbies, or Zika microcephali. And really, how serious can it be when she's sitting starkers under a chicken with a bunch of others dressed the same, and receiving the mailman. This lived within a year or so of The Prisoner and shared some of its deadly serious nonsense, but mixed in a big bit of the "Summer of Love." You know, the era when women could take charge of birth control, but before AIDS and drug-resistant STDs.

I got this because of the movie's cheerful goofiness, but like it for itself. It's not a must-have.
Profile Image for Tony Calder.
599 reviews11 followers
December 10, 2017
This recent English translation (from 2015) collects all of the first series of Barbarella comic strips (originally published in V magazine between 1962 and 1964). Considered daring and erotic at the time (although daring, it isn't really erotic, and underground American comics of the time were much more graphic), this is the series that inspired the movie Barbarella, starring Jane Fonda.

The artwork is simple but good and the story is somewhat disjointed - most likely a product of being a serial. Those expecting a lushly illustrated sci-fi epic may be somewhat disappointed, but this is a somewhat culturally significant graphic novel and certainly worth reading for anyone interested in the history of comics.

There is a second volume of Barbarella, originally released in 1974, but that doesn't seem to be available in electronic format at the moment.
Profile Image for Marcelo Soares.
Author 2 books10 followers
December 20, 2023
Sim, eu sei. Gibizinho de putaria, né?
Não.
Quer dizer, não muito.
Na honestidade, eu não entendi muito bem o que acontece, há alguns diálogos interessantes no meio da história, mas eu não saberia explicar isso nem com gráficos do Power Point.
Basicamente, Barbarella chega em algum lugar, conhece um cara gostoso, tira a roupa, algo inesperado acontece e interrompe a função toda, Barbarella precisa fugir, chega em algum outro lugar aleatório, conhece um outro cara gostoso, tira a roupa de novo, algo ainda mais inesperado acontece e, bom, vocês entenderam.
Enfim é um épico da ficção científica barata com uma mina gostosa em situações sexualizadas que, talvez, tenha algum insight sobre a condição humana que eu não percebi direito, ou seja, é o suco da ficção científica dos anos 70; exatamente isso.
E isso funciona muito bem.
Profile Image for Gregory Freeman.
147 reviews
April 26, 2020
A fun read

Being a long-time fan of the campy 1968 film with Jane Fonda as the titular character I was happy to finally read the source comic book. What might strike some right off is the artwork and its very simplistic and almost primitive quality. I quite like it. It never gets graphic in its nudity or sexuality. It was about halfway through that the story became recognizable and began seeing characters and scenes that would be adapted for the film. The story doesn't make a whole lot of sense but a comic book of this nature loses its weird charm and whimsy if over analysed. Like the film it is campy fun and certainly a product of its time period. It's worth reading for fans of the film.
Profile Image for Nicholas Whyte.
4,914 reviews191 followers
January 15, 2022
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3845542.html

Famous French comic of the 1960s, on which the cult film of 1968 was based. Barbarella is a leader of men and women who biffs as much as she bonks. Her clothes do have a tendency to come off, voluntarily as often as not. Kelly Sue DeConnick has now given us an updated translation, which reads a lot more smoothly and wittily than the long-standing text by Richard Seaver. It's not deep, but it is fun.
Profile Image for Mer.
598 reviews
January 19, 2024
I think this is the earliest confident, intelligent female who's comfortable with her body that I've come across.

Images are easy to understand due to simple coloring and the text is pretty tiny [thank goodness for 2-finger zoom]. Although there's not a visual clue that you're looking at the next issue in the series, the fact that people come and go, do.

I wonder if the artists for the movie Heavy Metal got their female body shape from Barbarella? Maybe the creators of Barbie, the doll, did too?
Profile Image for L..
1,399 reviews74 followers
October 16, 2018
I don't know when it was I first saw the movie but I found myself highly entertained by the crazy costumes, psychedelic colors and groovy soundtrack. Don't judge me!

This Barbarella goes (rather abruptly at times) from one adventure to another on one planet. Her main weapons are her perky breasts which she whips out when the occasion calls for it. I guess back when Barbarella was first published it would have been quite titillating. Nowadays it just seems quaint.
Profile Image for Nate Deprey.
1,114 reviews8 followers
August 12, 2019
This giant (16 by 12) book is a great way to read a 1960s Barbarella comic. The text and art are sexy and campy and strange but it feels joyful and fun all the way through. This is probably the oddest and best coffee table book a comic book fan could hope for but fair warning, the hard cover format makes reading this beast a bit of a challenge and you will almost certainly look like a little kid while doing it.
Profile Image for Patrick.
89 reviews14 followers
April 20, 2020
My first dive into French Comics, and BOY was this a weird one. Barberalla is an interesting character. She goes on wacky insane adventures that feels like Journey to the Center of the Earth meets Star Trek.

This' definitely not one for the kids, and I don't know how I feel about all of the sex in the book, given it was written by a man, I'm not sure how that codes the book, but I don't regret reading this book.
7 reviews
March 5, 2023
Imaginative adventures

I've never actually read the original Barbarella before this, but have been a fan of hers since the movie came out back in 1968. I love the loose flow of the stories, and the artwork. It fit with the time that it came out, and satisfies still today. Probably not to everyones tastes, but who cares? I'm so happy this was made available to us. I bought vols.1 & 2 sight unseen, and now I want more.
482 reviews
August 27, 2019
Amusing old French comic book

It's a fun little French graphic novel. Dialogues are a bit silly but still entertaining. The artwork's pretty good. The whole story of Barbarella's misadventures are weird but is very Roger Vadem's Barbarella starring Jane Fonda. The difference in that comic's titled character is that she's no bimbo. As I said, it's a fun graphic novel.
Profile Image for Gonzalo Oyanedel.
Author 21 books67 followers
October 30, 2023
El giro erótico que Jean-Claude Forest dio a la space opera hizo de Barbarella un clásico instántaneo de la historieta adulta al remeció el panorama convencional de su época. Y si bien no puede decirse que el conjunto ha envejecido bien en términos artísticos (tanto el guion como el dibujo denotan sus fallos), su valor rupturista e innovador sí se mantiene intacto.
Profile Image for Tom Gaetjens.
789 reviews2 followers
December 30, 2023
Feels very much like pasted-together serialized content. The pacing is completely off. It's interesting to see how the elements from this were rearranged into the movie, ultimately, I think for the better. That said, the elements of the fantastic are fun and fanciful, there's just no structure to hold it all together.
Profile Image for Dubzor.
807 reviews9 followers
January 16, 2021
Full disclosure, I didn't actually finish it. To be fair though, with these kinds of comics you get the gist pretty quickly and unless you are really into the whole pulp comic thing there's not much there to keep you reading. It's not bad, it's just very much what you would expect.
Profile Image for Kris.
1,292 reviews
April 6, 2023
In 60s US superhero comics there would be contrived excuses for two superheroes to fight in the middle of the narrative.

This is a fun space adventure where Barbarella gets naked or into sexual situations for more and more ridiculous reasons. Fun SF but tedious titillation.
Profile Image for Paul.
Author 1 book4 followers
December 4, 2016
A freakin good book. Great stories and images very well published. (I have number 46 of the run of 1200.)
Profile Image for William Ramsey.
146 reviews
August 1, 2017
Read this graphic novel if you're a third wave feminist trying to reclaim the sexploitation of the 1970s
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews

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