Barbarella (comic book)
Encyclopedia
Barbarella is a fictional heroine in the French
science fiction
comic book
created by Jean-Claude Forest
. He created the character for serial
isation in the French magazine V-Magazine in spring 1962
, and in 1964
Eric Losfeld
later published these strips as a stand-alone book, under the title Barbarella. The stand-alone version caused a scandal and became known as the first "adult" comic-book, despite its eroticism being slight and the existence of the Tijuana bible
s well before this date. Although published by a traditional company, the book anticipated the sexual revolution
.
Barbarella is a young woman who travels from planet to planet and has numerous adventures, often involving sex
(the aliens she meets often seduce her, and she also experiments with a "machine excessive" or "orgasmotron"). The original comic book version of Barbarella was probably modelled on Brigitte Bardot
, who was once married to the director of the 1968 film
, Roger Vadim
. Vadim's third wife, Jane Fonda
, starred as Barbarella in the 1968 movie based on the character
. For her creator, the character embodied the modern woman in the era of sexual liberation.
takes its name from a character in the 1968 film Barbarella: Barbarella's mission in the film is to find a scientist named Durand Durand . In addition, one of the band's hit songs is entitled "Electric Barbarella".
The British band Jamiroquai
mentions a "baby Barbarella" in their hit song Cosmic Girl
.
Barbarella is also mentioned in Serge Gainsbourg
's song "Qui est In Qui est Out".
The British Funk band Capri recorded the song "Barbarella" in 2000, releasing it four years later on the Boogie Man album. Although titled Barbarella, it was an original song and not a cover of the song used in the 1968 film.
"Barbarella as a Boy" is the title of a song by Devil May Cry, a former project of singer-songwriter Izzy Novak.
An aged Barbarella appeared in Forest's Mysterious Morning, Noon and Evening.
The electronic music
group Matmos
and the Lava Lamp
manufacturer Mathmos
are named after the lake of evil goo beneath the city of Sogo.
Czech comic illustrator Kája Saudek
has used Barbarella as a model for the main character of his comic albums Muriel and Angels and Muriel and the Orange Death.
The Character played by Michelle Chong
, a Sarong Party Girl
, in The Noose
is named after her.
The character is mentioned in the MIA song, Bamboo Banga.
Barbarella is a fictional heroine in the French
science fiction
comic book
created by Jean-Claude Forest
. He created the character for serial
isation in the French magazine V-Magazine in spring 1962
, and in 1964
Eric Losfeld
later published these strips as a stand-alone book, under the title Barbarella. The stand-alone version caused a scandal and became known as the first "adult" comic-book, despite its eroticism being slight and the existence of the Tijuana bible
s well before this date. Although published by a traditional company, the book anticipated the sexual revolution
.
Barbarella is a young woman who travels from planet to planet and has numerous adventures, often involving sex
(the aliens she meets often seduce her, and she also experiments with a "machine excessive" or "orgasmotron"). The original comic book version of Barbarella was probably modelled on Brigitte Bardot
, who was once married to the director of the 1968 film
, Roger Vadim
. Vadim's third wife, Jane Fonda
, starred as Barbarella in the 1968 movie based on the character
. For her creator, the character embodied the modern woman in the era of sexual liberation.
takes its name from a character in the 1968 film Barbarella: Barbarella's mission in the film is to find a scientist named Durand Durand . In addition, one of the band's hit songs is entitled "Electric Barbarella".
The British band Jamiroquai
mentions a "baby Barbarella" in their hit song Cosmic Girl
.
Barbarella is also mentioned in Serge Gainsbourg
's song "Qui est In Qui est Out".
The British Funk band Capri recorded the song "Barbarella" in 2000, releasing it four years later on the Boogie Man album. Although titled Barbarella, it was an original song and not a cover of the song used in the 1968 film.
"Barbarella as a Boy" is the title of a song by Devil May Cry, a former project of singer-songwriter Izzy Novak.
An aged Barbarella appeared in Forest's Mysterious Morning, Noon and Evening.
The electronic music
group Matmos
and the Lava Lamp
manufacturer Mathmos
are named after the lake of evil goo beneath the city of Sogo.
Czech comic illustrator Kája Saudek
has used Barbarella as a model for the main character of his comic albums Muriel and Angels and Muriel and the Orange Death.
The Character played by Michelle Chong
, a Sarong Party Girl
, in The Noose
is named after her.
The character is mentioned in the MIA song, Bamboo Banga.
Barbarella is a fictional heroine in the French
science fiction
comic book
created by Jean-Claude Forest
. He created the character for serial
isation in the French magazine V-Magazine in spring 1962
, and in 1964
Eric Losfeld
later published these strips as a stand-alone book, under the title Barbarella. The stand-alone version caused a scandal and became known as the first "adult" comic-book, despite its eroticism being slight and the existence of the Tijuana bible
s well before this date. Although published by a traditional company, the book anticipated the sexual revolution
.
Barbarella is a young woman who travels from planet to planet and has numerous adventures, often involving sex
(the aliens she meets often seduce her, and she also experiments with a "machine excessive" or "orgasmotron"). The original comic book version of Barbarella was probably modelled on Brigitte Bardot
, who was once married to the director of the 1968 film
, Roger Vadim
. Vadim's third wife, Jane Fonda
, starred as Barbarella in the 1968 movie based on the character
. For her creator, the character embodied the modern woman in the era of sexual liberation.
takes its name from a character in the 1968 film Barbarella: Barbarella's mission in the film is to find a scientist named Durand Durand . In addition, one of the band's hit songs is entitled "Electric Barbarella".
The British band Jamiroquai
mentions a "baby Barbarella" in their hit song Cosmic Girl
.
Barbarella is also mentioned in Serge Gainsbourg
's song "Qui est In Qui est Out".
The British Funk band Capri recorded the song "Barbarella" in 2000, releasing it four years later on the Boogie Man album. Although titled Barbarella, it was an original song and not a cover of the song used in the 1968 film.
"Barbarella as a Boy" is the title of a song by Devil May Cry, a former project of singer-songwriter Izzy Novak.
An aged Barbarella appeared in Forest's Mysterious Morning, Noon and Evening.
The electronic music
group Matmos
and the Lava Lamp
manufacturer Mathmos
are named after the lake of evil goo beneath the city of Sogo.
Czech comic illustrator Kája Saudek
has used Barbarella as a model for the main character of his comic albums Muriel and Angels and Muriel and the Orange Death.
The Character played by Michelle Chong
, a Sarong Party Girl
, in The Noose
is named after her.
The character is mentioned in the MIA song, Bamboo Banga.
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
created by Jean-Claude Forest
Jean-Claude Forest
Jean-Claude Forest was a writer and illustrator of comics and the creator of character Barbarella.-Biography:...
. He created the character for serial
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
isation in the French magazine V-Magazine in spring 1962
1962 in comics
-January:*Amazing Fantasy #8 – Marvel Comics*Fantastic Four #2 - Marvel Comics*Journey into Mystery #76 - Marvel Comics*Kid Colt: Outlaw #102 - Marvel Comics...
, and in 1964
1964 in comics
See also:1963 in comics,other events of 1964,1965 in comics,1960s in comics and thelist of years in comicsPublications: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December-January:...
Eric Losfeld
Eric Losfeld
Eric Losfeld was a French publisher who had a reputation for publishing controversial material with his publishing imprint Éditions Le Terrain Vague....
later published these strips as a stand-alone book, under the title Barbarella. The stand-alone version caused a scandal and became known as the first "adult" comic-book, despite its eroticism being slight and the existence of the Tijuana bible
Tijuana bible
Tijuana bibles were pornographic comic books produced in the United States from the 1920s to the early 1960s. Their popularity peaked during the Great Depression era...
s well before this date. Although published by a traditional company, the book anticipated the sexual revolution
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...
.
Barbarella is a young woman who travels from planet to planet and has numerous adventures, often involving sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
(the aliens she meets often seduce her, and she also experiments with a "machine excessive" or "orgasmotron"). The original comic book version of Barbarella was probably modelled on Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
, who was once married to the director of the 1968 film
Barbarella (film)
Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
, Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim was a French screenwriter, director, and producer as well as a journalist, author and actor, who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman.-Early life:...
. Vadim's third wife, Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, starred as Barbarella in the 1968 movie based on the character
Barbarella (film)
Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
. For her creator, the character embodied the modern woman in the era of sexual liberation.
Other characters
- Duran: A one-eyed old man who helps Barbarella.
- Pygar: A blind 'angel' guided by Barbarella, he is the last of the ornithanthropes (bird-men).
- La Reine noire (The black queen): A villainess who reigns in the town of Sogo, surrounded by a maze, on the planet Lythion.
- Lio: A brown-haired teenage girl saved by Barbarella who must save the town governed by her father in Les Colères du mange-minutes. (The chanteuse LioLioLio is a singer and actress who was a pop icon in France and Belgium during the 1980s.- Biography :...
drew her stage name from this character.) - Mado: Female prostitute robot (gynoïdeSex dollA sex doll is a type of sex toy in the size and shape of a sexual partner for aid in masturbation....
), whose "breakdown" Barbarella repairs. - Narval, an "aiguiote" (aquatic man) who comes from Citerne IV to complete his scientific research in Les Colères du mange-minutes.
- "L'artiste", a self-portrait of Jean-Claude ForestJean-Claude ForestJean-Claude Forest was a writer and illustrator of comics and the creator of character Barbarella.-Biography:...
. Named Browningwell in Semble Lune, he and Barbarella have a child together.
Popular culture
1980s pop band Duran DuranDuran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
takes its name from a character in the 1968 film Barbarella: Barbarella's mission in the film is to find a scientist named Durand Durand . In addition, one of the band's hit songs is entitled "Electric Barbarella".
The British band Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai is a British jazz funk and acid jazz band formed in 1992. Jamiroquai were initially the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the James Taylor Quartet, and the Brand New Heavies. Other Acid Jazz artists such as...
mentions a "baby Barbarella" in their hit song Cosmic Girl
Cosmic Girl
"Cosmic Girl" is the second single from British Acid Jazz band Jamiroquai's third studio album, Travelling Without Moving. Released in November 1996, it achieved great chart success, peaking at #6 on the UK Singles Chart.-Background:...
.
Barbarella is also mentioned in Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
's song "Qui est In Qui est Out".
The British Funk band Capri recorded the song "Barbarella" in 2000, releasing it four years later on the Boogie Man album. Although titled Barbarella, it was an original song and not a cover of the song used in the 1968 film.
"Barbarella as a Boy" is the title of a song by Devil May Cry, a former project of singer-songwriter Izzy Novak.
An aged Barbarella appeared in Forest's Mysterious Morning, Noon and Evening.
The electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group Matmos
Matmos
Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore signed to the Matador Records label. M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances, including...
and the Lava Lamp
Lava lamp
A lava lamp is a decorative novelty item that contains blobs of colored wax inside a glass vessel filled with clear liquid; the wax rises and falls as its density changes due to heating from a incandescent light bulb underneath the vessel. The appearance of the wax is suggestive of pāhoehoe lava,...
manufacturer Mathmos
Mathmos
Mathmos is a British company that sells lighting products, most famously the lava lamp invented by its founder Edward Craven Walker. It is headquartered in its factory in Poole, Dorset.-Company History:...
are named after the lake of evil goo beneath the city of Sogo.
Czech comic illustrator Kája Saudek
Kája Saudek
Kája Saudek is a Czech comics illustrator. He is one of the most important exponents of the Czech comics since the late 1960s. He is the twin brother of the photographer and painter Jan Saudek.- Biography :...
has used Barbarella as a model for the main character of his comic albums Muriel and Angels and Muriel and the Orange Death.
The Character played by Michelle Chong
Michelle Chong
Michelle Chong is a Singaporean host, actress and film director .- Biography :Michelle Chong is bilingual, and appears on variety shows and dramas on Singapore's Channels 5 and 8....
, a Sarong Party Girl
Sarong party girl
Sarong Party Girl is a derogatory term used in Singapore and in Peninsular Malaysia.It describes a local, solely Asian woman who usually dresses and behaves in a provocative manner, and who exclusively dates and prefers white men. This can be considered a variant of the Pinkerton Syndrome...
, in The Noose
The Noose (TV series)
The Noose is a Singapore comedy TV series produced by MediaCorp Channel 5 which has aired in Singapore for four seasons in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011. Although the name of the show plays on the word The News, the literal gallows humor of the program's name is unlikely to be missed by viewers in a...
is named after her.
The character is mentioned in the MIA song, Bamboo Banga.
Adaptations
- A Barbarella film adaptationBarbarella (film)Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
was made in 1968. - A Barbarella musicalBarbarella (musical)Barbarella is a musical based on the film Barbarella, which in turn was based on a French science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest...
based on the film was produced in 2004.
Barbarella is a fictional heroine in the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
created by Jean-Claude Forest
Jean-Claude Forest
Jean-Claude Forest was a writer and illustrator of comics and the creator of character Barbarella.-Biography:...
. He created the character for serial
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
isation in the French magazine V-Magazine in spring 1962
1962 in comics
-January:*Amazing Fantasy #8 – Marvel Comics*Fantastic Four #2 - Marvel Comics*Journey into Mystery #76 - Marvel Comics*Kid Colt: Outlaw #102 - Marvel Comics...
, and in 1964
1964 in comics
See also:1963 in comics,other events of 1964,1965 in comics,1960s in comics and thelist of years in comicsPublications: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December-January:...
Eric Losfeld
Eric Losfeld
Eric Losfeld was a French publisher who had a reputation for publishing controversial material with his publishing imprint Éditions Le Terrain Vague....
later published these strips as a stand-alone book, under the title Barbarella. The stand-alone version caused a scandal and became known as the first "adult" comic-book, despite its eroticism being slight and the existence of the Tijuana bible
Tijuana bible
Tijuana bibles were pornographic comic books produced in the United States from the 1920s to the early 1960s. Their popularity peaked during the Great Depression era...
s well before this date. Although published by a traditional company, the book anticipated the sexual revolution
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...
.
Barbarella is a young woman who travels from planet to planet and has numerous adventures, often involving sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
(the aliens she meets often seduce her, and she also experiments with a "machine excessive" or "orgasmotron"). The original comic book version of Barbarella was probably modelled on Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
, who was once married to the director of the 1968 film
Barbarella (film)
Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
, Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim was a French screenwriter, director, and producer as well as a journalist, author and actor, who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman.-Early life:...
. Vadim's third wife, Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, starred as Barbarella in the 1968 movie based on the character
Barbarella (film)
Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
. For her creator, the character embodied the modern woman in the era of sexual liberation.
Other characters
- Duran: A one-eyed old man who helps Barbarella.
- Pygar: A blind 'angel' guided by Barbarella, he is the last of the ornithanthropes (bird-men).
- La Reine noire (The black queen): A villainess who reigns in the town of Sogo, surrounded by a maze, on the planet Lythion.
- Lio: A brown-haired teenage girl saved by Barbarella who must save the town governed by her father in Les Colères du mange-minutes. (The chanteuse LioLioLio is a singer and actress who was a pop icon in France and Belgium during the 1980s.- Biography :...
drew her stage name from this character.) - Mado: Female prostitute robot (gynoïdeSex dollA sex doll is a type of sex toy in the size and shape of a sexual partner for aid in masturbation....
), whose "breakdown" Barbarella repairs. - Narval, an "aiguiote" (aquatic man) who comes from Citerne IV to complete his scientific research in Les Colères du mange-minutes.
- "L'artiste", a self-portrait of Jean-Claude ForestJean-Claude ForestJean-Claude Forest was a writer and illustrator of comics and the creator of character Barbarella.-Biography:...
. Named Browningwell in Semble Lune, he and Barbarella have a child together.
Popular culture
1980s pop band Duran DuranDuran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
takes its name from a character in the 1968 film Barbarella: Barbarella's mission in the film is to find a scientist named Durand Durand . In addition, one of the band's hit songs is entitled "Electric Barbarella".
The British band Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai is a British jazz funk and acid jazz band formed in 1992. Jamiroquai were initially the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the James Taylor Quartet, and the Brand New Heavies. Other Acid Jazz artists such as...
mentions a "baby Barbarella" in their hit song Cosmic Girl
Cosmic Girl
"Cosmic Girl" is the second single from British Acid Jazz band Jamiroquai's third studio album, Travelling Without Moving. Released in November 1996, it achieved great chart success, peaking at #6 on the UK Singles Chart.-Background:...
.
Barbarella is also mentioned in Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
's song "Qui est In Qui est Out".
The British Funk band Capri recorded the song "Barbarella" in 2000, releasing it four years later on the Boogie Man album. Although titled Barbarella, it was an original song and not a cover of the song used in the 1968 film.
"Barbarella as a Boy" is the title of a song by Devil May Cry, a former project of singer-songwriter Izzy Novak.
An aged Barbarella appeared in Forest's Mysterious Morning, Noon and Evening.
The electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group Matmos
Matmos
Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore signed to the Matador Records label. M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances, including...
and the Lava Lamp
Lava lamp
A lava lamp is a decorative novelty item that contains blobs of colored wax inside a glass vessel filled with clear liquid; the wax rises and falls as its density changes due to heating from a incandescent light bulb underneath the vessel. The appearance of the wax is suggestive of pāhoehoe lava,...
manufacturer Mathmos
Mathmos
Mathmos is a British company that sells lighting products, most famously the lava lamp invented by its founder Edward Craven Walker. It is headquartered in its factory in Poole, Dorset.-Company History:...
are named after the lake of evil goo beneath the city of Sogo.
Czech comic illustrator Kája Saudek
Kája Saudek
Kája Saudek is a Czech comics illustrator. He is one of the most important exponents of the Czech comics since the late 1960s. He is the twin brother of the photographer and painter Jan Saudek.- Biography :...
has used Barbarella as a model for the main character of his comic albums Muriel and Angels and Muriel and the Orange Death.
The Character played by Michelle Chong
Michelle Chong
Michelle Chong is a Singaporean host, actress and film director .- Biography :Michelle Chong is bilingual, and appears on variety shows and dramas on Singapore's Channels 5 and 8....
, a Sarong Party Girl
Sarong party girl
Sarong Party Girl is a derogatory term used in Singapore and in Peninsular Malaysia.It describes a local, solely Asian woman who usually dresses and behaves in a provocative manner, and who exclusively dates and prefers white men. This can be considered a variant of the Pinkerton Syndrome...
, in The Noose
The Noose (TV series)
The Noose is a Singapore comedy TV series produced by MediaCorp Channel 5 which has aired in Singapore for four seasons in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011. Although the name of the show plays on the word The News, the literal gallows humor of the program's name is unlikely to be missed by viewers in a...
is named after her.
The character is mentioned in the MIA song, Bamboo Banga.
Adaptations
- A Barbarella film adaptationBarbarella (film)Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
was made in 1968. - A Barbarella musicalBarbarella (musical)Barbarella is a musical based on the film Barbarella, which in turn was based on a French science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest...
based on the film was produced in 2004.
Barbarella is a fictional heroine in the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
created by Jean-Claude Forest
Jean-Claude Forest
Jean-Claude Forest was a writer and illustrator of comics and the creator of character Barbarella.-Biography:...
. He created the character for serial
Serial (literature)
In literature, a serial is a publishing format by which a single large work, most often a work of narrative fiction, is presented in contiguous installments—also known as numbers, parts, or fascicles—either issued as separate publications or appearing in sequential issues of a single periodical...
isation in the French magazine V-Magazine in spring 1962
1962 in comics
-January:*Amazing Fantasy #8 – Marvel Comics*Fantastic Four #2 - Marvel Comics*Journey into Mystery #76 - Marvel Comics*Kid Colt: Outlaw #102 - Marvel Comics...
, and in 1964
1964 in comics
See also:1963 in comics,other events of 1964,1965 in comics,1960s in comics and thelist of years in comicsPublications: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December-January:...
Eric Losfeld
Eric Losfeld
Eric Losfeld was a French publisher who had a reputation for publishing controversial material with his publishing imprint Éditions Le Terrain Vague....
later published these strips as a stand-alone book, under the title Barbarella. The stand-alone version caused a scandal and became known as the first "adult" comic-book, despite its eroticism being slight and the existence of the Tijuana bible
Tijuana bible
Tijuana bibles were pornographic comic books produced in the United States from the 1920s to the early 1960s. Their popularity peaked during the Great Depression era...
s well before this date. Although published by a traditional company, the book anticipated the sexual revolution
Sexual revolution
The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...
.
Barbarella is a young woman who travels from planet to planet and has numerous adventures, often involving sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
(the aliens she meets often seduce her, and she also experiments with a "machine excessive" or "orgasmotron"). The original comic book version of Barbarella was probably modelled on Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
, who was once married to the director of the 1968 film
Barbarella (film)
Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
, Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim was a French screenwriter, director, and producer as well as a journalist, author and actor, who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman.-Early life:...
. Vadim's third wife, Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, starred as Barbarella in the 1968 movie based on the character
Barbarella (film)
Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
. For her creator, the character embodied the modern woman in the era of sexual liberation.
Other characters
- Duran: A one-eyed old man who helps Barbarella.
- Pygar: A blind 'angel' guided by Barbarella, he is the last of the ornithanthropes (bird-men).
- La Reine noire (The black queen): A villainess who reigns in the town of Sogo, surrounded by a maze, on the planet Lythion.
- Lio: A brown-haired teenage girl saved by Barbarella who must save the town governed by her father in Les Colères du mange-minutes. (The chanteuse LioLioLio is a singer and actress who was a pop icon in France and Belgium during the 1980s.- Biography :...
drew her stage name from this character.) - Mado: Female prostitute robot (gynoïdeSex dollA sex doll is a type of sex toy in the size and shape of a sexual partner for aid in masturbation....
), whose "breakdown" Barbarella repairs. - Narval, an "aiguiote" (aquatic man) who comes from Citerne IV to complete his scientific research in Les Colères du mange-minutes.
- "L'artiste", a self-portrait of Jean-Claude ForestJean-Claude ForestJean-Claude Forest was a writer and illustrator of comics and the creator of character Barbarella.-Biography:...
. Named Browningwell in Semble Lune, he and Barbarella have a child together.
Popular culture
1980s pop band Duran DuranDuran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
takes its name from a character in the 1968 film Barbarella: Barbarella's mission in the film is to find a scientist named Durand Durand . In addition, one of the band's hit songs is entitled "Electric Barbarella".
The British band Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai
Jamiroquai is a British jazz funk and acid jazz band formed in 1992. Jamiroquai were initially the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the James Taylor Quartet, and the Brand New Heavies. Other Acid Jazz artists such as...
mentions a "baby Barbarella" in their hit song Cosmic Girl
Cosmic Girl
"Cosmic Girl" is the second single from British Acid Jazz band Jamiroquai's third studio album, Travelling Without Moving. Released in November 1996, it achieved great chart success, peaking at #6 on the UK Singles Chart.-Background:...
.
Barbarella is also mentioned in Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...
's song "Qui est In Qui est Out".
The British Funk band Capri recorded the song "Barbarella" in 2000, releasing it four years later on the Boogie Man album. Although titled Barbarella, it was an original song and not a cover of the song used in the 1968 film.
"Barbarella as a Boy" is the title of a song by Devil May Cry, a former project of singer-songwriter Izzy Novak.
An aged Barbarella appeared in Forest's Mysterious Morning, Noon and Evening.
The electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
group Matmos
Matmos
Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore signed to the Matador Records label. M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances, including...
and the Lava Lamp
Lava lamp
A lava lamp is a decorative novelty item that contains blobs of colored wax inside a glass vessel filled with clear liquid; the wax rises and falls as its density changes due to heating from a incandescent light bulb underneath the vessel. The appearance of the wax is suggestive of pāhoehoe lava,...
manufacturer Mathmos
Mathmos
Mathmos is a British company that sells lighting products, most famously the lava lamp invented by its founder Edward Craven Walker. It is headquartered in its factory in Poole, Dorset.-Company History:...
are named after the lake of evil goo beneath the city of Sogo.
Czech comic illustrator Kája Saudek
Kája Saudek
Kája Saudek is a Czech comics illustrator. He is one of the most important exponents of the Czech comics since the late 1960s. He is the twin brother of the photographer and painter Jan Saudek.- Biography :...
has used Barbarella as a model for the main character of his comic albums Muriel and Angels and Muriel and the Orange Death.
The Character played by Michelle Chong
Michelle Chong
Michelle Chong is a Singaporean host, actress and film director .- Biography :Michelle Chong is bilingual, and appears on variety shows and dramas on Singapore's Channels 5 and 8....
, a Sarong Party Girl
Sarong party girl
Sarong Party Girl is a derogatory term used in Singapore and in Peninsular Malaysia.It describes a local, solely Asian woman who usually dresses and behaves in a provocative manner, and who exclusively dates and prefers white men. This can be considered a variant of the Pinkerton Syndrome...
, in The Noose
The Noose (TV series)
The Noose is a Singapore comedy TV series produced by MediaCorp Channel 5 which has aired in Singapore for four seasons in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011. Although the name of the show plays on the word The News, the literal gallows humor of the program's name is unlikely to be missed by viewers in a...
is named after her.
The character is mentioned in the MIA song, Bamboo Banga.
Adaptations
- A Barbarella film adaptationBarbarella (film)Barbarella is a 1968 Franco-Italian science fiction film based on Jean-Claude Forrest's French Barbarella comics. The film was directed by Roger Vadim and stars Jane Fonda, who was Vadim's wife at the time.-Plot:...
was made in 1968. - A Barbarella musicalBarbarella (musical)Barbarella is a musical based on the film Barbarella, which in turn was based on a French science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest...
based on the film was produced in 2004.