OCTOBRIANA: The Underground History

I'm a sucker for books on the history of comics, particularly those that cover an area of comics unfamiliar to me. British indie publisher Kult Creations have recently published Octobriana: The Underground History, wherin author John A. Short tells us the story of a mysterious character that has been around for years but has never really been covered in such depth before.

Octobriana, we are told, is "the Russian Devil-Woman. A free-thinking Communist superhero with a red star tattooed on her forehead". Apparently in the public domain, the savage Octobriana has appeared in numerous comics and various pop culture over the years. A version of her even cropped up in the Nikolai Dante series in 2000AD. 

In his 120 page book, John A. Short delves into the rich history of the character, starting with the 1971 book that introduced her, Octobriana and the Russian Underground. It's quite a journey, and full of twists and turns including one major twist that I won't spoil here. 

John has clearly spent an amazing amount of time and research in producing this book. It's extremely thorough and must be the definitive tome on the character. Not only that, but he adds to the history himself by including an all-new 34 page full colour Octobriana strip illustrated by Gabrielle Noble. There are also guest art illustrations from Vincent Danks, Neil Edwards, Hunt Emerson, and myself.

Octobriana: The Underground History is a fascinating, well illustrated, thoroughly researched book that is a fine addition to the history of comics. An absolute bargain at just £9.99. You can find out more, and order your copy, from the Kult Creations site here:
http://kultcreations.blogspot.co.uk/