Satanik – woman antihero Magnus & Bunker's fumetti and gender issues

Abstract

The paper will focus on the analysis of female characters in the art of famous Italian duo of artists Magnus & Bunker that reflected the cultural freedom and loosening of the moral grip of the Catholic Church. The aim is to study the concept of women representation in Italian adult comic books of the era with attention to different aspects of their visual and narrative presence and with the support of feminist and psychoanalytic issues to offer new insight into the portrayal of women. As the object of study, will be used by female antihero Satanik, a character created by Magnus & Bunker in 1964. Satanik is distinguished from the others of the genre by the massive presence of horror and erotic tones. Running for 10 years it ended in 1974 with 231 issues. The study will include the following selection of books from the series: N1 “La legge del Male” (literally The law of harm), N185 “Le Origini di Satanik” (The origins of Satanik), N47 “Il Faro del Golfo Nero” (The Farol of Black Gulf) and N62 “La vita sbagliata di Mae Wildt” (Wrong life of Mae Wildt). These books are not randomly selected but there´s a connection between them in terms of narrative. The character of Satanik will be analysed in terms of her role as a mirror of society and judged in sexual and non-sexual context. The analysis will be narrowed to the artist´s narrative and graphic approach to women representation and explore whether Satanik represents a reflection of her author´s fantasies, created for pleasure of male audience, or she can be seen as liberated empowered figure, a Beautiful lady without mercy”16 and a nemesis against men and society. Furthermore, it is argued that this power was transmitted to actual women readers and their empowerment have an influence on today's visual communication.

Keywords: Magnus & Bunker, fumetti neri, women representation, feminism, comic books

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