Review: Barbarella

Barbarella by Jean-Claude Forest
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Barbarella is one of my favorite movies. After reading the comic, I realize it's pretty similar in tone and aesthetic to its source material, and lifts heavily from this volume to create its plot. The comic stands well on its own, too. The book takes the form of four or five chapters, each detailing a series of somewhat connected events and generally telling a self-contained story. Its lovely artwork - lots of stylized shots of the alien world, and each chapter using only black and one jewel-tone color - pops right off the page. Jane Fonda is the spitting image of the illustrated Barbarella, which is neat. Like the movie, there's lots of sex, and the abruptness with which it starts and ends is played for laughs (a feeling I get at the beginning and end of each chapter, too). The comic shows us a little more of the world, but the movie definitely uses the most compelling parts of the comic. All in all, it's a pretty, fun classic, and while the characters and stories are rather bare-bones, the artwork and humor make up for it.

View all my reviews