Wicked Wanda

Oh, Wicked Wanda!
Wicked Wanda on cover of Penthouse by Ron Embleton
Publication information
Publisher	Penthouse
Genre	satirical adult comic strip
Publication date(s)	1969-1979
No. of issues	Oh! Wicked Wanda
Main character(s)	Wanda Von Kreesus Candyfloss Homer Sapiens J. Hoover Grud German Grrrr (a parody of Germaine Greer)
Creative team
Written by	Frederic Mullally
Artist(s)	Ron Embleton, Brian Forbes

Oh, Wicked Wanda! was a British full-colour, satirical adult comic strip, written by Frederic Mullally, and drawn by Ron Embleton. The strip regularly appeared in Penthouse magazine from 1973 to 1980. In the 1960s, Ron Embleton, already a veteran comic book artist, had worked extensively for TV Century 21 comic, illustrating stories based on the television programmes Stingray, Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, amongst others. For Wicked Wanda Embleton painted the panels in watercolour. Frederic Mullally began his career in the 1940s as a journalist, and by the time of Wicked Wanda he had already become a successful novelist.

Prior to the illustrated strip format, the character of Wanda appeared as an illustrated story in Penthouse, from September 1969 through to October 1979. This was written by Mullally and illustrated by Brian Forbes.

The strip's characters appeared naked or partially clothed, and great care was given to the female form, especially the breasts and buttocks. In line with the relatively explicit direction that Penthouse had taken following the "pubic Wars", the strip featured pubic hair.

Although male characters occasionally appeared nude, their genitals were not often shown and they were shown mostly in the background, with none of the sometimes gratuitous appearances that often was true with regard to female characters.

A running gag in several of the early comic strips features a pastiche of Little Annie Fanny (published by Playboy, Penthouse's main competitor) in which the character is found out to have fake breasts or buttocks which deflate when popped.

A beautiful black-haired heiress to a multi-million-dollar fortune, 19-year-old Wanda Von Kreesus was a “man-hating” lesbian. She lived in an old castle called the Schloss (the German word for 'castle') on Lake Zurich, Switzerland, and ran a bank which, among other things, contained secrets that could bring down world governments.