From Slave Labor Graphics, written and drawn by Peter Snejbjerg. 48 pages B/W.
A lurking terror has infected the town of Malborg. Madness and death haunt the luminous Scandinavian nights, and the victims all seem to have one thing in common: their lust for the voluptous Marlene. As he investigates, ace detective Michael Joergendsen must navigate a dangerous course between his official duties and his own growing fixation with the young woman. Is he on the trail of a supernatural killer, or is it the other way around? And the beautiful Marlene - is she the innocent victim of an obsessive stalker, or is she something more sinister?
Marlene is an erotic horror story, and that means not for you, junior! Go surf the Disney sites.
I have always had a great love of the American horror comics of the 1970s- not surprisingly, since this came out in Europe ten years later, when I really started noticing comics. And what a great time that was - local Danish publisher Interpresse was putting out all kinds of mind-boggeling stuff, mostly thanks to editor Henning Kure, who no doubt deserves the title of the Godfather of Danish comics. First time I found an anthology of Richard Corben's short stories my brain just fried. "Marlene" is very much the child of those giddy years, when everything seemed posible and you could, well, let anything hang out, so to speak. Nowadays thing seem a lot more restained. Mature, sometimes, but also less anarchic.
Marlene was originally published in Danish by Bogfabrikken as "Mareridt", which is Danish for nigthmare. It has been translated into English by myself, with the graceful assitance of John Tomlinson, of Lords of Misrule fame. The Wikipedia has a neat little article on the word mare.
Marlene is © Peter Snejbjerg
