Barbarella | |||
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Barbarella le Semble-Lune (1977), published by Pierre Horay. Cover art by Jean-Claude Forest.
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Character information | |||
Created by | Jean-Claude Forest | ||
In-story information | |||
Full name | Barbarella | ||
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Formats | Original material for the series has been published as a strip in the comics anthology(s) V Magazine, Evergreen Review and Heavy Metal and a set of graphic novels. | ||
Genre | |||
Publication date | 1962 – 1964 | ||
Creative team | |||
Writer(s) | Jean-Claude Forest | ||
Artist(s) | Jean-Claude Forest | ||
Creator(s) | Jean-Claude Forest | ||
Reprints | |||
The series has been reprinted, at least in part, in English. |
Barbarella is a fictional heroine in a French science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest.
Jean-Claude Forest created the character of Barbarella for serialization in the French V Magazine in spring 1962, and in 1964 Eric Losfeld published these strips as a stand-alone book, titled Barbarella. The book caused a scandal and became known as the first "adult" (pornographic) comic-book, though its eroticism was slight and the American erotic comic-books known as "Tijuana bibles" had long predated it. For her creator, the character embodied the modern, emancipated woman in the era of sexual liberation, and as a result, this literary work has come to be associated with the mid-twentieth-century sexual revolution. The struggle for sexual freedom in comic books was most prominently carried on in France through emancipated female characters like Barbarella (1962), Jodelle (1966), Pravda (1967), Scarlet Dream (1981), Saga de Xam (1967), Wolinski's Paulette (1971). Works in this trend outside France include Phoebe Zeit-Geist (1965) and Vampirella (1969) in the USA; Modesty Blaise (1963) in the UK; and, Valentina (1965) and Angiolini's Isabella (1966) in Italy.
The stories have been reprinted by Dargaud and Les Humanoïdes Associés.