Goldrake Playboy 72/1970 (cover above) was storywise pretty basic crap, but it had other merits: it was the first Goldrake to advertise the two upcoming letter columns, L'attico Del Playboy (Playboy's Penthouse) and La Sala Di Tortura (The Torture Chamber). The latter was naturally hosted by Madame Brutal, who proudly announced she would only accept torture-related letters. L'attico Del Playboy started in Goldrake 86/1970:
...and La Sala Di Tortura in Goldrake 87/1970:
While the letters Madame Brutal received were mostly from masochists seeking dominatrixes and vice versa, La Sala Di Tortura was a fun read. If you asked a stupid question, Madame's sharp pen would bust your balls blue, she didn't take shit from anyone. While other fumetti bad girls like Lucifera received letters from wimpy young boys who worried about the small size of their penis, none dared to bother Madame with such trivialities. And while other fumetti bad girls answered their readers all too kindly, saying soothing things like "size doesn't matter", Madame stayed at least somewhat in character for the first years. And she was popular, very popular. Here are the turning points in her letter column's history:
1. Goldrake 96/1970
The column changed its name to La Signora Del Male (The Lady of Evil). No biggie.
2. Goldrake 159/1973
From this point on, every published letter started with a miniature picture of Madame Brutal (see below). Meanwhile L'attico Del Playboy remained dull and unchanged, thus readers probably thought they had just witnessed a big victory for Madame.
3. Goldrake 203/1974
Here lies the final letter column of Madame B. No explanation is offered for the cancellation, but clearly the publishers were trying to get rid of Madame completely, as her appearances in the comic had rapidly decreased to nothing.
Madame Brutal revisits us in Goldrakes 247/1976 and 248/1976 (covers below), but so briefly it's almost a bad joke. What the fuck happened? How could they do this? If any of our Italian readers know the answer, please speak up, because I have no effing clue!
Anyway, on this sad note I end my documentary of this wonderful, wonderful lady.
10 comments:
Thanks for the entertaining and informative ride, Jaako. It's been a look into a world I never knew existed... And a wild hoot! Those Italians are CRAZY! And I mean that in the best possible way.
BTW, you should "retire" more often. LOL!
Thanks, Geo :)
I never said I was retiring, though, I just said I'll only do requests from now on ( http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2010/05/future-of-fumetti-posts.html ).
Info about evil women of fumetti was requested by the Groovy Age reader Polaris, hopefully I'll get other requests soon.
I stand corrected.
I don't know enough about fumetti to make an informed request. I will say that I'm a fan of Gothic horror and have liked what I've seen here of "Frankenstein", "Zora", and "Oltretomba".
I've also seen mention of "Terror Blu". Anything there worth checking out, or any others you can recommend? Any of your favorite Gothic covers you'd like to share?
I have a complete collection of FRANKENSTEIN and a fair sampling of ZORA. Given our proximity, I'm sure we can arrange a viewing. ;-)
Hey Jaakko, I always love your Fumetti analyses! In my youth I never read Playcolt because I found it rather dull next to Jacula and Lucifera but am I correct that the face of Playcolt changes from Alain Delon to Jean Paul Belmondo on the covers in the later issues??? BTW I would love to see a series about De Sade and Jolanka! Keep up the good work!
Geo,
this blog already has plenty of posts about Terror Blu and other similar fumetti, just click the "Fumetti posts by Jaakko" label below this post and go to the very beginning.
Curt,
as my collection of Frankenstein is still semi-complete, you're more than welcome to post about it.
Mirko,
no, Playcolt's face remains the same on all the covers. He was indeed a boring character, but at first he had some groovy enemies. Then the publisher for some reason decided to get rid of those enemies, just like with Madame Brutal, and the whole series turned into shit.
And thanks for your suggestions. I might actually be posting about De Sade next, if I can only figure out how to break such a long, continuing series down to blog posts. It might take a while.
Oh, I didn't mean it like that, Jaakko--Geo actually lives quite near me, and what I meant was, maybe I could bring some fumetti along next time I see him. I still plan to leave fumetti posting to you, though, and come to think of it, I would be interested to get your take on FRANK, since I'm sure you could point out things I'm missing, since I can't read it.
Fantastic article...as always! It's a real shame when creators don't seem to understand that quality villains make for great stories, especially when the protagonist is so bland. By having a compelling villain, you automatically make the entire story more interesting, and it can make even an uninspired protagonist look much more heroic and compelling.
Curt,
ok, when I complete my collection of Frankenstein, I'll be sure to post about it :)
Hushicho,
well said. Goldrake minus Madame Brutal = a complete waste of time.
Hello Friends
I would just add a few lines for those wondering why the stupendous Madame Brutal was canceled from the Goldrake episodes.
I'm an Italian collector, I remember having read in those years [I still should have it somewhere] of a sentence against the RG Editors: they had to pay a penalty, and had to publish this officially on some Goldrake numbers. As far as was possible to understand, it was due to some unauthorized extremely bold nudities exposed on one or more volumes, I assume that some stories must have resulted scandalous to certain influent people.
Besides, it's true that the last episodes of Madame Brutal aren't among the best, but let's not forget that all those Goldrake episodes as well [the last two years] weren't really first class. So, the lack of creativity was general, not just specifically related to MB.
I remember having found so many copies of volumes of the last years, in perfect conditions on the 2nd-hand-comix barrows, practically nobody wanted them anymore, while "old" aficionados like me felt simply betrayed.
I used to go to the Edicola, give a quick scroll to the new Goldrake number, and if Madame B wasn't present, I'd just leave the book there.
Anyway, Goldrake wasn't the only one to cease publications, other people diappeared in the same period, IE Zora, Lucrezia, Oltretomba, Horror, Isabella, Playcolt, Jolanka, etc etc
So I guess we should search among the highest spheres of the world of press in order to understand more.
Cheers, V.
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