NY: Harper & Row, 1971. First American edition. 128pp; b&w illus; 4 color plates at center. 4to. Illustrated wraps. Mild corner wear, light toning to textblock edges. Near fine.
Nice copy of this book purporting to document the history of a satirical Soviet comic book character, Octobriana, works about whom Sadecky claims were used as a vehicle for subversive political commentary, and distributed, largely in samizdat, by a publisher known as Progressive Political Pornography (PPP). Sadecky's account, however, was in fact an elaborate, opportunistic hoax. The character in question was originally developed by Sadecky in Czechoslovakia for a comic book to be known as Amazona, with the art drawn by Bohumil Konečný and Zdeněk Burian. After failing to find a publisher for Amazona, Sadecky altered the original art by adding red stars to the character's forehead and inventing the elaborate historical backstory found here, all without the knowledge of his original co-creators. The hoax was eventually revealed, though incompletely enough that confusion still reigns about the origins of the character; originally marketed by Sadecky as a public-domain emblem of revolutionary ideals, Octobriana continues to be featured in new comics adaptations to this day.
