Zora The Vampire
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Zora (Italian: Zora la Vampira) is an Italian comic book erotic character from the 1970s. Zora la Vampira ("Zora the vampiress") is one of many such characters from the Italian fumetti tradition. Other figures from the same era, and with similarly violent or erotic preoccupations, include Maghella, Lucifera, Biancaneve, Vartan, Jacula, Sukia, and Yra.[1][2]
The first comic book was published in 1972.[3][4] Zora la vampira was published from 1972 to 1985 and featured a blond female protagonist who, on some covers, resembles French actress Catherine Deneuve. The series was published by Edifumetto. The cartoonists were Renzo Barbieri and Giuseppe Pederiali as writers and Birago Balzano as artist.[1][5] Emanuele Taglietti[6] and Alessandro Biffignandi[7] painted the majority of the covers for the series.
Together with the original series, stories of Zora were published also in the comic magazines Orror, I Notturni and Fasma.[1] The series was also published with some success in France, where new stories were produced even after the closing of the series in Italy.[1] A new 13 episodes miniseries of Zora, renamed as "Lady Vampyre", was published in 2001; cartoonists were Paolo Puccini and Daniele Statella.[1]
The character's real name is Zora Pabst, a 19th-century aristocrat who has been possessed by the spirit of Dracula. She travels her way around the world and even into outer space, satisfying her sexual desires and her lust for blood.[8] Her adventures are a mixture of horror, eroticism, and pornography.
Zora was an ancient vampire, who had been burned at the stake as a witch around 1744, but survived due to her supernatural abilities. She was in love with a soldier named Rollo, and spent 200 years looking for a way to complete his transformation into a vampire, since he had died of a gunshot wound before the transformation was complete. She managed to revive him with a ritual. After encountering Frankenstein, Zora put the creature under her power and took him to her home, a spooky old mansion, to add him to her brood of ghouls. While Zora delighted in drinking blood and being a creature of darkness, Frankenstein displayed distaste for her ways, and after he ate garlic bread, Zora and Rollo were forced to abandon their ancient manor. Homeless, they went to New York where they took over an apartment building. There, Zora invited two additional vampires to join her brood. These vampires held an undertaker's convention at the building, and hired one of the undertakers to stay and take care of them during the day. With the help of the caretaker, Frankenstein was no longer needed, and was released from Zora's power.
Zora was long lived, and seemed to posses all the standard abilities and weaknesses of a typical vampire. Unlike some vampires, she was also skilled in mesmerism and demonstrated the ability to summon and control bats.
Maria Swan was a very rich woman whose wealth runs out. When she learns that another member of her family, a man named Johannes Gotenburg, is set to receive a large inheritance, she hires assassins to kill him. Johannes survives the attempts on his life, which provokes his lover, Frau Murder, to track Maria down.
With the help of Lona, a servant girl of Maria's who despises the woman, Frau Murder and Zora make their way to the villainess's bedroom. However, Maria manages to ambush them, as she had heard their conspiring earlier. Lona is shot and killed, and Frau Murder is knocked unconscious. Zora is then taken to the dungeon where the sadistic woman proceeds to torture her. Frau Murder manages to wake up sooner than the villainess had expected, and upon rescuing Zora, puts Maria into an iron maiden with short spikes. The two vampire heroines would love nothing more than to watch her bleed out, but because the sun will soon rise, they remove Maria prematurely and strangle her to death.
Zara (ou Zora) Bapst, puis Lady Norton aprs son troisime mariage, est une jeune aristocrate anglaise du milieu du XIXe sicle possde par l'esprit de Dracula. Tantt l'acolyte de ce dernier, tantt son ennemie mortelle selon les facties du scnario, elle devient la servante de Satan au ct de son amie, Frau Murder, et seule ou accompagne, elle tente d'assouvir sa soif de luxure et de sang. Elle prsente galement un ct humain qui fait d'elle un personnage attachant et ambivalent. Elle aura deux enfants aux cours de ses aventures, une fille Aline, qui deviendra reine de Pologne, un fils Gregory dont le pre est le roi des Incas et un beau-fils, Edward, lors de son quatrime mariage avec le duc de Hasting.
Frau Murder finira transforme en statue d'or et, dans le 288e pisode de la srie italienne, Zara se noie. Birago Balzano la "ressuscitera", ainsi que Frau Murder, en 1999 dans un numro spcial (Il Ritorno). Cependant, en France, la popularit du personnage tait dj telle l'poque qu'elle incita Elvifrance modifier la dernire page du numro 288 dans l'dition franaise pour publier quelques pisodes supplmentaires, dessins par un autre dessinateur. Elvifrance publiera ainsi cent quarante-deux numros des aventures de la clbre vampire et de sa complice, s'autorisant mme de faire passer l'intrigue du XIXe sicle au XXe sicle.
La version franaise des pisodes de Zara la vampire fut extrmement censure dans les cent premiers numros, au point parfois de rendre l'histoire incohrente. Ainsi, les vignettes reprsentant dans la version italienne des sexes en rection ou des vagins en gros plans furent soit limines, recadres, redessines ou obscurcies par Elvifrance aux endroits par trop licencieux. Des pisodes entiers furent mme limins, car jugs trop choquants pour le got franais. Il en fut ainsi par exemple d'un nain qui voulait agrandir son sexe pour plaire Zara ou d'un noir manchot[7], qui se servait du sien, dmesur, pour tuer ses victimes[8].
Notons encore que si l'homosexualit fminine est prsente trs avantageusement dans la srie, les homosexuels de sexe masculin sont par contre tourns systmatiquement en drision, assumant toujours un rle ngatif et mprisable dans l'intrigue.
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