AH! NANA . Danger: Nazisme Aujourd’hui N°3

Paris: Les Humanoïdes Associés, 1977. 6to (26,5×21,5cm). 66pp. Staple-bound in illustrated wrappers. Text in French. Mild rubbing to spine. Content clean with no markings. Near fine.

Ah! NANA was the first French comics magazine to be drawn almost exclusively by women, at a time when the comics world was still fairly male-dominated.

Published by Humanoïdes Associés and directed by Janic Guillerez, the magazine’s motto was “fait par et pour les femmes” [made by and for women] and fully embraced both the culture of the French women’s movement and the American underground scene.

Only nine issues of the magazine were published between October 1976 and September 1978. Due to its controversial content, it was banned from being sold to minors, which unfortunately spelled the financial end for the magazine.

This third issue, Danger: Nazisme Aujourd’hui [Nazism Today], includes a photo novel by Agnès Varda that is an excerpt from her film L’une chante, l’autre pas. The film was released the same year and describes the lives of two women against the backdrop of the women’s movement in 1970s France.

This issue also includes comics by Chantal Montellier, Florence Cestac, Nicole Claveloux and Trina Robbins. The cover story Nazisme Aujourd’hui was written by Paula Jacques, Jocelyne Signoret, Charlotte R., Sotha Aline Issermann and Myriam Anissimov. Adélaïde Blasquez writes about “Une Plainte Continue Mont du Fond des Ergastules”, and Pierre Couperie about “Histoire de la BD féminine: Grace Drayton”.