Octobriana

Octobriana
"Octobriana and the Russian Underground" by Petr Sedecky (1971).
Real Name	Unknown
First Appearance	Octobriana and the Russian Underground (1971)
Original Publisher	Unknown
Created by	Petr Sadecky, Bohuslav Konecny, Zdenek Burian & Milos Novak

Origin

Her name means "The Spirit of October." She is the Russian she-devil, the Soviet Wonder Woman. She embodies the ideals of the October Revolution that were betrayed by the Soviet government.

In one of her original stories, titled "The Living Sphinx of the Kamchatka Radioactive Volcano 1934," she swam into a radioactive volcano, killed a giant walrus with her blade, and then brought the tribesmen of the Koryaks home using a giant flying ball. She also appeared in a story was titled: "Octobriana and the Atomic Suns of Comrade Mao."

Appearances

Among others, Octobriana has notably appeared in issues of

• 2000 AD
• The Adventures of Luther Arkwright

She has also appeared in live action films:

• Octobriana is played by Jolene M. Aldus in the Legacy of the Masque web series. She appears to be a villain in the series, working with Iron Jaw.
• Noora Piili stars as Octobriana in the 2003 film Octobriana: The Finger of Lenin.

Webcomics:

• Third Aged Mutant Ninja Turkeys by James Lichtenberg.

Notes

Allegedly created in Russia in the late 1960s, Octobriana is one of very few non-Golden Age Public Domain comic characters. Her actual creation is highly-contested. Petr Sadecky, in his book Octobriana in the Russian Underground, claimed her to be the creation of a group of dissident creators of samizdat comics called the PPP (the Peoples' Pornography Party) who, in accordance with the ideals of Communism, made the character freely available to everyone. In fact, this was all a hoax and Octobriana was based on a previous character called Amazona with no political overtones (No relation). However, it appears that Octobriana was indeed created almost exclusively for the Public Domain and to allow anyone to tell stories featuring the character. Her look is fairly distinctive - blonde with a red star tattooed on her forehead, a silk scarf top that barely conceals anything, tight, snakeskin pants, cowboy boots and a sharktooth necklace.

The combination of sex appeal and vague revolutionary politics made Octobriana something of a minor pop culture icon in '70s and '80s Britain. She was to star in a movie produced by David Bowie but, nothing came of it. Billy Idol tattooed Octobriana on his arm. Bryan Talbot gave her a major role to play in The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, and she has appeared in a number of other British comics since. The concept of Octobriana was part of the inspiration for Jenny Everywhere.

See Also

• Wikipedia
• Comic Vine