Cambiotti & Studio Giolitti
Jacula

This review is strictly forbidden to people under ...30 years old!

It would be completely useless to describe today, when computers, adult videos, DVDs, etc., abound, the turmoils and emotional shocks that this comic book—in pocket edition—brought to young minds in the early 70s, who were emerging from the revolution of '68 and similar events.

The comic "Jacula," released in Italy in 1969, was a real upheaval: a strong and brave woman/dame, emancipated and tough, blonde and sexy, heroine and standard-bearer of values that were revolutionary at the time, which inflamed the young minds of boys across half of Europe (it was published in France, Italy, and other countries), fascinated by the soft/porn/gothic adventures of this unrestrained vampire knightess without inhibitions.

Jacula was a strange "acquired vampire" who, thanks to a magic potion, could withstand sunlight but NOT garlic, stakes, or crucifixes. A "fearsome" woman and bloodsucker (as well as other things!) who operated in symbiosis and collaboration with various characters that would regularly take turns supporting her: Frankenstein, the Wolfman, Jack the Ripper, the Zombie, the Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Brunetta, and other characters from the stereotypical horror iconography.

The character's success was tremendous (today, it would be truly impossible to even imagine it). Thousands of letters that arrived at the editorial office decreed unprecedented success and a process of identification not only by men but, and here's the revolutionary and innovative aspect, especially by women who began identifying with the awareness of this uninhibited heroine willing to not suffer the bullying of the villain of the moment. A success that forced the publisher and competitors to release other comics exploiting the same theme, like Vampirella or Messalina.

Jacula was the precursor of a certain type of feminism that was making its way. A female protagonist (after so many men) who carelessly jumped from one bed to another (AIDS was not talked about yet!) and who had no form of deference towards anyone: master of deciding about her body and her sexuality.

It seems like science fiction to say these things now, doesn't it? Yet....

327 issues of Jacula would be published, which are now collectible items hard to find for the fans. It would close in 1986 after the severe global crisis of popular comics and the consecration of a new, more profitable, and fully developing market: the adult video market with turnovers of dozens of zeros.

A market that today is, in turn, in crisis, replaced by the massive offering of free and downloadable adult videos on the internet.

In 1969, Jacula was thought of as "the evil and degradation of society." Today, when thinking of these innocent black-and-white comics, one tends to think of something terribly naive from an era that was all in all dreamy and still romantic.

Times, morals, and means change, but the urges and desire to transgress inherent in humans... well, thank God that will never change.