Lucifera (Fumetti per Adulti)

In the past I have written on this blog about a known fact that Marisa Mell was used as a model for the Chilian erotic spy comic Satanka. So one day while researching the life and work of Marisa Mell for possible entries for this blog I saw this picture of Marisa Mell in a Catholic nuns habit while smoking a cigarette. The picture is a publicity photo from her 1964 only British movie "French Dressing". I archieved the picture for later reference and possible usage on the blog! Months passed. Untill last summer I was reading the dark Italian erotic fumetti "Lucifera" and saw these next two pictures in the comic book.

In this story the devilish Lucifera is trying to steal as a Catholic nun the Holy Grail as a token of her loyality to her master and lover in hell the Devil. And nothing ever goes as planned with Lucifera so troubles arise on the horizon and Lucifera has to master them in her own special way to achieve her goals, meaning a lot of seduction and sex! But that is another story!

While reading this story it hit me! Before my eyes appeared the Marisa Mell picture in her Catholic nuns habit. And the resemblance of both pictures and the drawn Lucifera was remarkable. The features of Lucifera like the shape of her eye brows, eye lashes and lips of her mouth were very Marisa Mell-like! So the question popped up in my head: Could it be that Marisa Mell had been the template for the dark Italian fumetti heroine "Lucifera"? Although it might seem far fetched in reality it was not in my opinion. Why? 

 During the height of the dark Italian fumetti in the 60's and 70's like Lucifera, Jacula, Maghella, Biancaneve, Sukia, Jolanda and their male counterparts the publishers were always trying to make their comic book heroes appealing by giving them often faces of well known people at that moment in time. The classic examples are French actor Alain Delon as the private detective "Playcolt" or again French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo as again private detective "Goldrake". 

So if the Italian comic book artists took well known populair actors as a role model for their heroes, why shouldn't they have taken the face of Marisa Mell as a template for the face of she-devil Lucifera?

Lucifera was published from 1971 to 1980 by Italian comic publishing house "Ediperiodici" running for 170 issues. A French edition of the comic ran from 1972 to 1980 for 99 issues and was pubished by Elvifrance. Some very famous Italian comic book artists worked on the comic like Edoardo Morricone, Tito Marchioro and the best known of them all, Leone Frollo, who created the heroine and gave her, her distinguised looks like her almond shaped eyes, thick eye lashes, the curved eye brows and above all the thick flowing hair split in the middle above her eyes by a triangular pony. In fact, you can regard the she-devil Lucifera as the male version of the other dark fumetti hero "Diabolik". He also has the same almond shaped eyes, thick eye lashes and the curved eye brows.

Marisa Mell came to Rome, Italy in the year 1965 and was a major star in the movies and the yellow press in 1971, the year that Lucifera was created, just after the much publisized romance with film producer and club owner Pier Luigi Torri and his notorius club "Number One", hangout for everybody rich and famous, stars and starlets in 60's Rome. So Leone Frollo was quite familiar with the face and body of Marisa Mell and probably found in her the perfect model for his next creation: Lucifera. And he was not wrong about that. Lucifera became an instand hit among erotic fumetti lovers untill this day and age. Complete collections of Lucifera comic books in prestine condition fetch top money at the moment around 5000 euros. And thanks to the modern means of communications like Ipad and tablets Lucifera or Marisa Mell will live on for generations to come, even in color.

"Les femmes de ma vie" by Alain Delon

On November 8th 2010, the French cult actor Alain Delon became 75 years old. A milestone for the ultimate male sex symbol from France for more than 50 years since his debut on the silver screen at the age of 23. Alain Delon occupies a major place in the history of French and world cinema working with directors among others Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Michelangelo Antonioni and Louis Malle. Contrary to other male sex symbols of that time like Rock Hudson, Richard Chamberlain, Helmut Berger, Jean Marais... Alain Delon was primarely straight loving the most beautiful women of his era. To mark his 75th anniversary Alain Delon has written a book about the 200 (!) most influentual women in his life!

About those women he says:"Je ne serais rien sans les femmes, les actrices, les personnages, les héroïnes qu’elles incarnent. Dans ma vie, comme au cinéma, nous nous sommes aimés. Elles m’ont fait pleurer, elles m’ont fait crier!" Of all those women there are 4 women who became very important. First of all there was the Austrian actress Romy Schneider. “Avec Romy, les souvenirs sont doux et chaleureux. Ce que je garde à jamais dans mon cœur, c’est son sourire. Quand elle souriait, tout s’éclairait, se métamorphosait. En 1958, je suis débutant. Elle est déjà Sissi, star européenne. Elle n’a que 20 ans. Moi, j’étais un jeune loup que l’Indochine avait durci. Tout nous séparait. J’ai fait des essais concluants, et elle m’a choisi pour être à ses côtés dans Christine. Et puis, avec la complicité de mon ami Jean-Claude Brialy qui me manque tant, nous sommes devenus amants.” Then there was the French actress Mireille Darc. “Elle occupe une place à part dans cet album. C’est sans doute, parmi toutes les femmes que j’ai aimées, celle qui me connaît le mieux. Nous nous sommes connus en 1968 pendant le tournage de La piscine. J’étais séparé de Nathalie et je traversais une période compliquée avec des soucis extraprofessionnels. Elle a été là, m’a aimé, m’a soutenu, et ça a duré quinze ans. Et je peux dire que ça dure toujours. Elle reste quelque part la femme de ma vie parce que nos liens, notre complicité, sont inoxydables. Nous avons vécu tant de choses ensemble.”

Or other women like French sexy super star Brigitte Bardot or the Egyptian-French cult singer Dalida. "Nous nous sommes connus dans les années 50. Je vivotais, je travaillais la nuit et au petit matin je m’écroulais dans la petite chambre d’hôtel, rue Jean Mermoz, près des Champs-Élysées. Au même étage, dans une autre mansarde, habitait une certaine Yolanda Gigliotti. Elle venait du Proche-Orient avec, comme seul bagage, un titre de Miss Égypte 1954. Nous rêvions de gloire et de lumière. Dix ans plus tard, elle est devenue Dalida et moi Delon. Nous nous sommes retrouvés à Rome. Nous nous sommes aimés loin des regards et des paparazzis, et les rares témoins de notre liaison restèrent discrets pendant des années. Et quand Eddie Barclay et Orlando, le frère de Dalida, nous proposèrent d’enregistrer le fameux duo "Paroles", paroles, notre complicité était intacte. Je n’ai qu’un regret, qu’un remords, ne pas l’avoir eue au téléphone avant qu’elle ne décide d’en finir avec la vie.” And what about Marisa Mell?

In her own autobiograph "Coverlove" Marisa Mell opens her book with a long first chapter devoted to her liaison with Alain Delon which started in 1962 when both actors where on a plane to Belgrad, Yugoslavia she filming the movie "Dr." while he was on his way to film "La Fabuleuse Aventure de Marco Polo", a movie that he did not finish, and was recast with German actor Horst Bucholz, a main rival to Alain Delon in beefcake department at that time. On first sight Marisa Mell noticed the enormous sex appeal of the French actor and his iron will to seduce all the beautiful women around him. So she was also on his list! At first she tries to resist him but after five weeks even she could not and they became lovers. In her autobiography she then describes in detail her love affair with him, how passionate and animalistic he was in bed. But very soon Marisa Mell discovered that Alain Delon was not an one-women man. Very quickly she was replaced by other famous and non-famous beautiful women who adored him. During the next years they met occassionally during movie premières for movies he played in like "The Yellow Rolls-Royce" with Shirley McLaine in London. Marisa Mell even claims that Alain Delon was in her bed before and after he made a press-conference to announce his marriage to his fiancee Nathalie Barthélemy, later better known as Nathalie Delon. I wonder if there is a photo of Marisa Mell in this book among the 200 other women taken from his private photo archive?

UPDATE July 28th 2011: There are no photos of Marisa Mell in the book "Les femmes de ma vie" by Alain Delon.