BIANCANEVE

Why is it that the stories which children enjoy are so often full of horrors? . . . It is not surprising that fairy stories should be both erotic and violent, or that they should appeal so powerfully to children. For the archetypal themes with which they deal mirror the contents of the childish psyche; and the same unconscious source gives origin to both the fairy tale and the fantasy life of the child.

--Anthony Storr (quoted in "Monster Movies: A Sexual Theory" by Walter Evans)

A lot of the adult fumetti series were fairy-tale-themed. Probably the most notable among them was Biancaneve, titled Erotische Vertellingen in the Dutch translations and Contes Malicieux in the French. Biancaneve begins as a sexually explicit retelling of the Snow White story, and carries on from there. As the covers above suggest, it runs the gamut in tone from light, almost innocent eroticism to straight-out horror. Like Maghella, it's a creation of Leone Frollo, and I've been told that the character of Biancaneve is in fact an alternate, fairy-tale version of Maghella. By the way, many of those beautiful painted covers are by noted illustrator Alessandro Biffignandi.

Here's a reprinted collection of some of the first issues, published as a mass market paperback rather than the digest-size format characteristic of fumetti:

I'll be posting more about this series, with interior art, particularly featuring some of the more interesting characters and story arcs. In the meantime, here's a great link about Biancaneve, here's one about Contes Malicieux, and here's one about the movie adaptation (which I've yet to see, but desperately want to!). Actually, I believe these are all parts of the same page. Be sure to click links to find the groovy cover galleries!

Biancaneve, Pt. 2

These little wooden Victory puzzles are one of my favorite childhood memories. Who knows how many times I put them together, only to pore endlessly over every detail? They really put the love of magic in my soul. The idea of a secret, nocturnal fairy ring remains one of the most fascinating imaginary scenes to me. The anthropomorphism of animals is also a very dear fairy tale idea. So fairy tales have always loomed large on the landscape of my imagination. The novel I'm writing takes them as its starting point. For that reason, I was especially curious about the Biancaneve fumetti series, based as it is on Snow White. It hasn't turned out to be my favorite, but there's a lot in it that interests me still, so I'll be devoting a number of posts to it. In this one, I'll be looking at those aspects most familiar from the original story and the "classic" Disney adaptation.

Here we begin with the traditional fairy tale opening . . .

This is Naga, Snow White's wicked stepmother. Though she doesn't play a starring role, she's possibly my favorite fumetti character. I'll be doing a whole post on her later. By the way, she's not to be confused with Naga la Maga, an entirely different character and the star of her own entirely different series.

Here we have the classic scene of wicked-stepmother-as-hag, offering Snow White the poisoned apple.

Snow White, like all fairy tale heroines, has a special friendship with animals. When she shares her apple with this little bird, it dies instantly, alerting her to the witch's ruse.

So Naga goes after Snow White with a dagger, backing her over a cliff.

The seven dwarves happen upon her where she's fallen.

They carry her back to their cottage, and we get an introduction to each . . .

. . . defining them by their sexual predilections.

A sadist, a masochist . . . ah, and there's the cottage. Oddly enough, nothing actually happens between Snow White and the dwarves.

There were actually two (at least) Biancaneve series, and I believe the French Contes Malicieux and the Dutch Erotische Vertellingen just smushed them together, leaving some parts out. I know I've seen a page indexing the Edifumetto series, but can't find it for the life of me now. Here's an Elvifrance index. Anyway, the page above is taken from my Nobel del Fumetto reprint, and it presents an alternate version of Biancaneve's initial encounter with the dwarves. As per the original story, she finds their little cottage when she's out wandering in the woods, goes in, and takes a nap.

That's how the dwarves find her. In this version, we do get the dwarvish gangbang on Snow White that's only to be expected from an adult fumetti. (At first, I meant to call attention to the fact that the dwarves also have different names in this version, but then I realized that this is the Italian edition, and the other version I show above is taken from the Dutch edition, which probably explains it. D'oh!)

And there you have it! Stay tuned, Groovy Agers--there's plenty more to come!

BIANCANEVE, Pt. 3

Presenting . . . NAGA!!!

As I've mentioned, she's the evil queen, Snow White's wicked stepmother, and one of the more interesting fumetti characters.

Transformation into an owl.

This "classic" Disney look is only one of several that she sports in the course of the series.

Here, oddly, she's blonde. We see her sneaking in and kidnapping Snow White's baby son. She gives him to a cannibalistic troll, who eats him!!

Snow White retaliates by cutting out her eyes!!!

Even blind, though, Naga plots her revenge. She turns darker and more evil than ever. She takes her witchiness to new extremes, here arriving on a broomstick to a Black Mass, giving a goat the blasphemous kiss . . .

. . . then engaging in more unspeakable acts with it!!

For all that, she still winds up at Snow White's mercy yet again.

Not that Snow White shows her any! By the way, that's Little Red Riding Hood getting medieval with the whip (more on her in a later post).

This is a fumetti, of course, so little things like that won't stand in the way of lesbian incest. Semi-lesbian, actually, since Snow White has a penis here, thanks to one of Naga's magic ointments!! And that's all for this installment. Next, the Biancaneve version of Cappuccetto Rosso . . . !

Naga Fan Art!

Thanks to Nick Amano for sending me this, with permission to post!