History Sandbox / Druuna

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6879951_morbus_gravis.png]]

''Druuna'' is an Italian sci-fi erotic graphic novel series written and drawn by Paolo Eleutieri Serpieri.

Its protagonist Druuna, a beautiful woman with a Mediterranean appearance, is living amidst the ruins of a post-apocalyptic city that is being wrecked by a viral plague as she tries to save her beloved Shastar and reach the mysterious levels above. While the erotic content is an integral part of the comic, it's pretty {{Troperiffic}} as well.

The released albums, in order, are:

* ''Morbus Gravis, Part 1'' (1985)
* ''Morbus Gravis, Part 2'' (1987)
* ''Creatura'' (1990)
* ''Carnivora'' (1992)
* ''Mandragora'' (1995)
* ''Aphrodisia'' (1997)
* ''The Forgotten Planet'' (2000)
* ''Clone'' (2003)
* ''Anima: Origins of Druuna'' (2016)
* ''Came From The Wind'' (2018)

It also received an obscure videogame adaptation in 2001, ''VideoGame/DruunaMorbusGravis'', and has been featured in ''Magazine/HeavyMetal'' magazine.

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!!This comic provides examples of:

* AuthorAvatar: Paolo Serpieri has inserted himself into his ''Druuna'' comics in the form of a character called The Doctor. Since Druuna is basically his idealized woman, it's more or less an extensive [[PygmalionPlot Galatea fantasy]] on his part. [[spoiler:In ''Anima'', Serpieri adds another avatar in the character of an artist painting a mural of Druuna.]]
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Although many other characters may suffer horrible injuries or mutations, Druuna herself never loses her stunning looks. In ''Morbus Gravis'', a doctor wonders if she has some sort of [[TheImmune genetic immunity to the viral plague]]. In ''Clone'', she starts off with the disease having negatively affected her appearance, such as losing all of her hair, but her mind is then uploaded into a healthy version of her old body.
* TheBusCameBack: The Doctor and a woman named Terry reappear in the tenth album, ''Came From The Wind'', both having last appeared in the sixth, ''Aphrodisia''.
* CoolOldGuy: In ''Morbus Gravis'', Druuna runs into a loony old hermit who protects her from various dangers, being crazy wicked with a knife. In the last few albums, he returns to accompany Druuna in the form of an android. [[spoiler:In the final album, the android puts on a mask that makes him look exactly like the old hermit.]]
* CloningBlues: In the last album, ''Clone'', Druuna herself is cloned by a group of machines residing on Earth AfterTheEnd who are trying to understand humanity. The clone [[TomatoInTheMirror discovers the truth by the end]], and immediately starts angsting about whether or not she's really human.
* DeathSeeker: The entire plot of ''Morbus Gravis'' is initiated because Captain Lewis is sick and tired of being unable to die and existing as nothing more than [[ManInTheMachine a disembodied head plugged into the ship's systems]]. He tricks Druuna into believing that deactivating the MasterComputer responsible for running the massive city-ship, which has gone rogue, will solve the ViralTransformation plague that is wrecking it. It instead triggers the self-destruct, but Lewis ultimately can't bring himself to let Druuna die along with the rest of the human race simply because [[ThePowerOfLove he loves her so much]].
* DistractedByMyOwnSexy: In ''Clone'', Druuna emerges from a pool when she notices her reflection in a nearby mirror. She stops to admire herself before making out with her own reflection (metaphorically, note--her reflection doesn't jump out or anything).
* DreamApocalypse: In ''Aphrodisia'', a mental clone of Druuna is created by Captain Lewis when she travels into his mind to find a cure for the ViralTransformation. She tries to overwrite the original Druuna and [[GrandTheftMe steal her body]] since she doesn't want to cease existing.
* EarthAllAlong: The setting of ''Clone'' may or may not be Earth, eons after humans have gone extinct on the planet.
* EarthIsYoung: Discussed in the series. However, while it turns out to be true that Earth is young, it also turn out that [[spoiler: It's not really Earth! In the first album, the humans have forgotten that they are aboard a spaceship, and in later albums Druuna keep forgetting that she's trapped in a DreamWithinADream which is trapped in a telepathic HiveMind which is trapped inside a crazy computer. The third album starts with the words "In the beginning there was chaos. Then God created the supreme being... first among all creatures: Himself." This turns out to have happened quite recently, but one need to question the concept of "universe" anyway.]]
* EthicalSlut: Druuna is an incredibly erotic character who either initiates passionate sex on her own accord or is cajoled into it, but underneath her sex goddess exterior is very much a NiceGirl. The author specifically stated that he wrote her cavalier attitude to lovemaking to "challenge [[MadonnaWhoreComplex conventional notions of female sexuality]]".
* FanDisservice: It's mostly about the adventures of the self-confident and driven Druuna...ending up in sci-fi-ish sexual situations. Unfortunately, half the time she's being raped by all sorts of disgusting mutants and monsters.
* FanServicePack: Druuna started out as a very beautiful but fairly lithe young woman. Over the course of the series, her figure became increasingly more voluptuous, perhaps because of in-story aging.
* FauxlosophicNarration: Some of the more elaborate philosophical meanderings of various characters can come across as overwraught attempts to pad out the more action- or sex-focused parts of the comic.
* GeniusLoci: In the third album, the crew of a spaceship runs into an asteroid entirely covered by some sort of organic lifeform, which turns out to be sentient when it variously traps them or gives them free passage to different locations on the asteroid. It turns out to be the city-spaceship that Druuna's people used to live on, and the VirtualGhost residing in the ship's computer, Captain Lewis, is controlling the organism to allow the visitors to rescue Druuna.
* GirlOfMyDreams: Commander Will starts to have prophetic dreams about Druuna wherein he has passionate sex with her before he actually meets her in real life. It turns out that these visions were sent by the VirtualGhost protecting Druuna specifically so that the Commander and his crew would rescue her from her centuries-long stasis on an artificial asteroid.
* GratuitousLatin: Most of the albums in the ''Druuna'' series are subtitled with Latin terms: ''Morbus Gravis'', ''Creatura'', ''Carnivora'', ''Mandrogora'', ''Aphrodisia'', and ''Anima''.
* {{Hermaphrodite}}: In ''Clone'', Druuna encounters a bio-robot who is trying to understand human nature through experiments in pain and pleasure. It's somehow able to change into both female and male forms to pleasure Druuna.
* {{Homage}}:
** Much of ''Carnivora'' (see KillAndReplace below) appears to have taken heavy influence from the 1982 film ''[[Film/TheThing1982 The Thing]]''.
** In ''Anima'', [[spoiler:Druuna flies on a giant bird/pterodactyl-type mount]], which seems to homage both the work of French graphic-artist Creator/{{Moebius}}, and also [[WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal Taarna]], another cult-favorite, erotic sci-fi female-character (itself inspired from Moebius).
** In ''Came From The Wind'', [[spoiler:Druuna encounters Native Americans on horses,]] making this a Meta-homage and a CallBack to Paolo Serpieri's own early work creating [[Main/TheWestern Western comics]].
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: The fifth album "Mandrogora" is all about Druuna going inside the dreams of [[ManInTheMachine Lewis]], whose mind still exists buried deep within the ship's computer, to find the cure to TheVirus that he inadvertently brought with him. A lot of these are distorted re-enactments of scenes from her earlier adventures.
* KillAndReplace: ''Carnivora'' revolves around a malevolent HiveMind lifeform infecting the crew of a ship traveling in deep space and replacing them with replicants that are so real that [[TomatoInTheMirror they forgot that they were even fakes]].
* KissMeImVirtual:
** Captain Lewis is, in reality, a disembodied head connected to the ship's systems, but he maintains a psychic link to Druuna. At one point he projects an image of his handsome young self to her on a beach he used to visit, where they proceed to make love.
** Played with in a later album where Druuna is trapped inside the remnants of [[VirtualGhost Captain Lewis' half-lucid post-mortem mind]], and a middle-aged version of Lewis observes Druuna having sex with another man on the same beach.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The Doctor, who is the writer's AuthorAvatar, tells Druuna that "if you weren't real, I would have to invent you".
* LeftHanging: Druuna's ultimate fate is never resolved. The last reliable thing we see of her, she's still trapped inside a dream inside a dead person's mind inside a computer onboard a spaceship adrift in the cosmos. Everything that happens afterwards, including the whole clone story, is probably part of the LotusEaterMachine, given how various elements from her past make unexplained reappearances.
* TheLostLenore: Druuna's lover Shastar is infected by TheVirus and she manages to temporarily cure him in the first album, but when it returns he chooses to kill himself to protect Druuna. Throughout the rest of the series, his disembodied mind or spirit continues to guide her from time to time and she frequently reminisces about him.
* LotusEaterMachine: A number of ''Druuna'' comics deal with human characters being trapped in a lifelike simulation so real that at some point they forgot that they were even in one to begin with. For example, Druuna is placed inside an endless dream of her old ruined city by the mind of the ship's former captain for ''centuries'' after he put her body into stasis until another ship would pick up his distress signal.
* LustObject: Pretty much the whole point. Druuna exists to be the subject of other characters' lust-filled fantasies and is an EthicalSlut.
* ManInTheMachine: In ''Morbus Gravis'', it is revealed that the entire city is actually a giant spaceship fought over by a malfunctioning A.I. and its former Captain Lewis, who is nothing more than a head floating in a box that is plugged into the ship. Whenever he wants to talk with Druuna, he does assume AFormYouAreComfortableWith by projecting an image of his younger, handsome self directly into her mind.
* MergerOfSouls: After the demise of Shastar and Captain Lewis, their spirits continue to live on as a VirtualGhost, with their minds folded into each other in transient stages of consciousness.
* MindScrew: The albums became increasingly convoluted, until the last one, ''Anima'', is virtually devoid of dialogue and largely runs on RuleOfSymbolism.
* MsFanservice: Druuna is an idealized dark-haired Mediterranean woman with a curvy body who is either naked or wearing a skimpy tank-top-and-thong combo roughly ninety percent of the time. The highly detailed renderings drawn by her creator have been widely distributed as pin-ups.
* NoDeadBodyPoops: A variant in the album ''Mandragora''. During her JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind, Druuna has sex with several men at the behest of a mutant tribe who are then [[OutWithABang killed in the moment of climax]]. This is because of an old myth about hanged men experiencing the most intense orgasms of their lives.
* ThePlague: The Morbus Gravis is the horrible degenerate mutant version. There's no known cure, although certain medicines can slow down the mutation or temporarily reverse its progress.
* ProtagonistTitle: Druuna, of course, is the main character. However, in the third album Commander Will can more accurately be described as the viewpoint character.
* PuppeteerParasite: In ''The Forgotten Planet'', Druuna runs into a group of OctopoidAliens who control human corpses to move around. They appear to save her from a bunch of malfunctioning killbots, but actually want to bring her to their HiveQueen so she can suffer a FaceFullOfAlienWingWong.
* ResetButtonEnding: ''Carnivora'' concludes with the entire crew of the spaceship having been [[KillAndReplace killed and replaced by clones]], minus the Doctor. He saves the ship by piloting it into a mirror dimension where time runs backwards, which somehow resets everything to several months before all the bad things started happening. As a consequence he is [[RippleEffectProofMemory the only person with any recollection of what happened]], though it's implied that Druuna might have too.
* SeekerWhiteBloodCells: A variation in ''Aphrodisia'' where Commander Will goes into a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind to find Druuna, but runs into antibodies which manifest themselves as insectoid monsters crawling out of the ground. He injected himself with a serum that causes them to ignore him at first, but later on it loses its effect and he has to make a break for it.
* SexForServices: In ''Morbus Gravis'', the protagonist Druuna has to endure the SexualExtortion variant: Her boyfriend is very ill, and in her desperation for medication she begs a disgusting old doctor to have sex with her.
* SexSlave: In part 2 of ''Morbus Gravis'', Druuna and a young BaldWoman are "rescued" from the wastelands by the fascistic soldiers who police the ruined city. Druuna wakes up in the commander's bed, and after asking him what happened to the girl she was with, is shown evidence that the girl has been forced into sexual slavery. Meanwhile, Druuna herself is offered "protection" by the commander in exchange for sexual services – [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse the alternative being death]].
* ShootTheShaggyDog: In some of the later albums, Druuna spends a lot of time inside the disembodied HiveMind of Captain Lewis to find a cure for the mutant disease. She eventually discovers that [[spoiler:there is no cure, as the disease is tied to the human genome itself. She wakes up with everyone else on board either dead or in hyperstasis in hopes that somebody will save them someday. Druuna chooses to go into an endless dream to forget about it.]]
* ShoutOut:
** A panel in ''Creatura'' has Commander Will enter an area designed like Creator/MCEscher's ''Relativity''.
** In ''Came From the Wind'', a loony, helmet-wearing monk resembles the character played by Creator/KlausKinski in the film ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod''.
* SpoilerCover: The cover of ''Anima'' spoils the last-page reveal that the main character is actually [[spoiler:Druuna in a blonde wig]].
* ThongOfShielding: Druuna is often dressed in just a red thong and a white tank top while navigating the post-apocalyptic world around her.
* TomatoSurprise: [[spoiler:In the first album, ''Morbus Gravis'', Druuna seems to be living in some sort of post-apocalyptic city, but at the end this is revealed to be a massive spaceship that left Earth centuries ago.]]
* TransformationHorror: The "Morbus Gravis" is a viral disease that turns people into horrible mutants and has no known cure. Even worse, some people who are affected by it are still completely lucid after the transformation, human souls trapped in a monster's body.
* TraumaticCSection: In ''Carnivora'', Druuna has a nightmare where she's heavily pregnant and trying to run away from a bunch of scary monsters before being rescued by a sinister group of {{Mad Doctor}}s who proceed to cut open her belly.
* UndressingTheUnconscious: Towards the end of the first album, Druuna is rescued from the wastes by a patrol after she becomes unconscious, then wakes up in the captain's bed stripped of her clothes. He's intending to make her his concubine, so he'd obviously do this, and also to make her try on lingerie that he kept in storage.
* ViralTransformation: There are diseases that change people into tentacled monsters. But, this being a PornWithPlot comic, you can probably guess what happens next.
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* BiTheWay: Druuna has taken female lovers on various occasions.

** A loony monk wearing a helmet in ''Came From The Wind'' resembles the character played by Creator/KlausKinski in the film ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod''.

** A loony priest in ''Came From The Wind'' resembles the character played by Creator/KlausKinski in the film ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod''.

** A panel in ''Creatura'' has Commander Will enter an area designed as Creator/MCEscher's ''Relativity''.

* ShoutOut: A loony priest in ''Came From The Wind'' resembles the character played by Creator/KlausKinski in the film ''Film/AguirreTheWrathOfGod''.

* CallBack: ''Came From The Wind'' [[spoiler:has Druuna seemingly encountering Native Americans on horses,]] reminiscent of Paolo Serpieri's early work creating [[Main/TheWestern Western comics]].

** In ''Came From The Wind'', [[spoiler:Druuna encounters Native Americans on horses,]] making this a Meta-Homage to Paolo Serpieri's own early work creating [[Main/TheWestern Western comics]].

** Much of ''Carnivora'' (see KillAndReplace below) took heavy influence from the 1982 film ''[[Film/TheThing1982 The Thing]]''.

* KillAndReplace: ''Carnivora'' revolves around a malevolent HiveMind lifeform infecting the crew of a ship travelling in deep space and replacing them with replicants that are so real that [[TomatoInTheMirror they forgot that they were even fakes]].

** Captain Lewis is in reality a disembodied head connected to the ship's systems, but he maintains a psychic link to Druuna. At one point he projects an image of his handsome young self to her on a beach he used to visit, where they proceed to make love.

* {{Homage}}: In ''Anima'', [[spoiler:Druuna flies on a giant bird/pterodactyl-type mount]], which seems to homage both the work of French graphic-artist Creator/{{Moebius}}, and also [[WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal Taarna]], another cult-favorite, erotic sci-fi female-character (itself inspired from Moebius).

* TheBusCameBack: The Doctor and a woman named Terry reappear in the ninth album, ''Came From The Wind'', both having last appeared in the sixth, ''Aphrodisia''.

Its protagonist Druuna, a beautiful woman with a mediterranean appearance, is living amidst the ruins of a post-apocalyptic city that is being wrecked by a viral plague as she tries to save her beloved Shastar and reach the mysterous levels above. While the erotic content is an integral part of the comic, it's pretty {{Troperiffic}} as well.

* ''Venuta dal Vento'' (2018)

* AuthorAvatar: Paolo Serpieri has inserted himself into his ''Druuna'' comics in the form of a character called The Doctor. Since Druuna is basically his idealized woman, it's more or less an extensive [[PygmalionPlot Galatea fantasy]] on his part.

* CallBack: ''Venuta dal Vento'' [[spoiler:finds Druuna seemingly encountering Native Americans on horses,]] reminiscent of Paolo Serpieri's early work creating [[Main/TheWestern Western comics]].
* CoolOldGuy: In ''Morbus Gravis'', Druuna runs into a loony old hermit who protects her from various dangers, being crazy wicked with a knife. In the last few albums, he returns to accompany Druuna in the form of an android.

* {{Homage}}: In ''Anima'', [[spoiler:Druuna flying on a giant bird/pterodactyl-type mount]] seems to be this to both the work of French graphic-novel artist Creator/{{Moebius}}, and to [[WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal Taarna]], another cult-favorite, erotic sci-fi female-character (which was inspired from Moebius' work).

* MsFanservice: Druuna is an idealized dark-haired mediterranean woman with a curvy body who is either naked or wearing a skimpy tank-top-and-thong combo roughly ninety percent of the time. The highly detailed renderings drawn by her creator have been widely distributed as pin-ups.

* SeekerWhiteBloodCells: A variation in ''Aphrodisia'' where Captain Williamson goes into a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind to find Druuna, but runs into antibodies which manifest themselves as insectoid monsters crawling out of the ground. He injected himself with a serum that causes them to ignore him at first, but later on it loses its effect and he has to make a break for it.

''Druuna'' is an Italian erotic graphic novel series written and drawn by Paolo Eleutieri Serpieri.

Its protagonist Druuna, a beautiful woman with a mediterranean appearance, is living amidst the ruins of a post-apocalyptic city that is being wrecked by a viral plague as she tries to save her beloved Shastar and reach the mysterous levels above. Despite featuring a fair amount of erotic content, the series makes use of numerous sci-fi tropes.

* AltumVidetur: Most of the albums in the ''Druuna'' series are subtitled with Latin terms: ''Morbus Gravis'', ''Creatura'', ''Carnivora'', ''Mandrogora'', ''Aphrodisia'', and ''Anima''.

* ShoutOut: In ''Anima'', [[spoiler:Druuna's bird/pterodactyl-type flying mount]] is one to [[WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal Taarna]], another cult-favorite, erotic sci-fi female-character.