I thought it might be a nice idea, what with next weekend's release of Volume Three of Beyond Traditional Recognition (which contains The Natasha X Show), to have a bit of a look at the potted history of this amazing Australian icon. Hopefully this whets your appetite for the forthcoming CD, and the graphic novel from Eclectica Press due out this Christmas. The following article was written by Darran Jordan, and although now a little inaccurate on the BTR dating front (having been originally written last year), it still works brilliantly in giving you enough background material on the characters and the universe of Natasha X.
It was May 1924 when Australia first beheld the character that was to become an international legend. Sydney newspaper The Daily ran a new comic strip in their funny pages, simply titled Fun with Family X. Featuring characters Harry X and his wife Jacqueline, it was largely a family sitcom style humour, with episodes centred around the married couple trying to fix their broken oven, or getting invited out to dinner and not knowing what to wear. It also featured the Xs daughter Natasha, a mischievous young girl who always seemed to be getting her parents into trouble. Only nine months into the run and it was already apparent who the real star of the comic was, none other than young Natasha herself. Readers couldnt get enough of her and, at reader behest, The Daily chose to change the title from Fun with Family X to Lil Nat. The first Lil Nat feature also introduced a playmate for the young scamp, a surgically altered talking dog affectionately called Doggy X. Thus was a legend born.
The Lil Nat strip is fondly remembered by many long time comic readers, but it was not in this form that Natasha found her prime appeal. It wasnt until 1938, when Syndications Syndicated bought out the now almost bankrupt Daily newspaper, that Natasha was reborn for a new age. Discarding the format of the now defunct newspaper, Syndications Syndicated relaunched their own range of publications, based solely on the widely known comics from the funny pages. Suddenly full length comic books were in fashion, and Natasha X was right at the vanguard of the new appeal. Four full length books featuring reprints of the old Lil Nat strips were big sellers for SS and proved they were moving in the right direction, but they knew they needed something more, something different, something that would grab readers in a big way. So it was that the character was reinvented, made over to meet a new age. Lil Nat grew up overnight, from a troublesome toddler into the spandex clad adventurer the world now knows as Natasha X, science fiction superhero. She was an immediate success.
Each new Natasha X book seemed to be more popular than the last, and the rise in popularity of other comic book superheroes at the time only served to enhance the X appeal. Soon there were Xs everywhere. Six feature films, four of them animated, and two live action, wowed 1940s audiences all over the world. An ongoing radio program became one of Australias favourite shows, and Doggy X even got his own spin off program, Battle Dog from Beyond. It was a golden age - but it didnt last. The propagandist nature of these early comics, with Natasha X beating up Nazis and smashing spy rings, was one of the key crowd pleasers in the war years, but in the aftermath of WWII it was only natural for her appeal to lessen. As depression struck and a staunch conservatism entered society it seemed there was no longer a place for Natashas wacky antics. And so she was forgotten, and might well have remained so forever.
However, in 1966 things were very different. Rediscovered by a generation of drop outs and hippies, Natasha X became a poster child for psychedelia. Her own strange blend of loopy disillusion made her the perfect role model for a social group reacting against authority. Suddenly T-Shirts, posters and album covers were plastered with images of Natasha. It was only a matter of time before her return became official. Syndicated Syndication had long since gone defunct, but popular womens magazine Baking for love and profit had acquired the rights to all of their long out of print characters. Realising the money to be made they relaunched the Natasha X comic book, keeping it very much the same as when Natasha had last been seen, but occasionally throwing words like far out and whoah man into her dialogue. The success was immediate, and suddenly Natasha was a force to be reckoned with. Crowds of protesters to the Vietnam War turned up at Parliament House clad in Natasha X outfits, and one memorable incident had the Prime Minister mobbed outside his home by a man dressed up as Doggy X. The attacker apparently shouted: och, yer a wee mad fool and urinated on the Prime Minister, although some reports claim that the whole story was in fact a hoax drummed up in order to put pressure on the publishers of the comic. By 1969 it was too much, and the publishers gave in to government pressure and stopped publishing Natasha X. Once again, it looked like the end for the character, despite her obvious ongoing popularity.
Indeed it would have been the end had not Murray Burger, a small time television producer, not been too lazy to think up his own ideas. Late for a meeting at the television studio where he worked, suffering from a hangover and needing to present an idea to the station bosses or face being fired, Murray dashed into a second hand bookshop, bought the first thing he stumbled across, and promptly presented it at the meeting, claiming we should adapt this for tv before passing out and drooling on the floor. Murray was fired, but his idea was taken on, and the 1970s debut of the campy Natasha X Show became a major hit. Doggy X was brought back as Natashas sidekick, and given such memorable lines as Holy Xylophone Natasha!! But despite the shows success (leading up to the 1974 release of feature film Natasha X the Movie) public appeal waned quickly, and by 1976 the show was axed, its rating barely a quarter of what they had been at its peak. The comic, which had begun publication again following the success of the television program, was once more cancelled, and this time it seemed it truly was the end for Natasha X.
Indeed, apart from comic fans still searching out old classic copies of the original publications (now worth millions of dollars on the collectors market) not many people knew about Natasha X, her long history and the vast impact she had had. It was only by chance that Script Editor Witold Tietze stumbled across an oblique reference to her while researching old radio programs. Witold, curious about the character, sought further information, and brought what he found to the attention of producer Matthew Kopelke. Together the two of them decided to relaunch the character for a new age and, reinventing her for a new century, they released an all new audio play from Back to Reality Productions in 2002 titled simply The Natasha X Show. Soon after Eclectica Press released an all new comic, paying homage to the character and all the many eras of her publication history. Due, in no small part, to the fact that any comic with an X in the title seems to sell well these days, it looked like the Natasha craze was set to start all over again. A new beginning, a new direction, but still the same old Natasha, still ready to save the world after all these years. It just goes to show, with a little X appeal you can go a long way, and as they say, Nats entertainment.
It was May 1924 when Australia first beheld the character that was to become an international legend. Sydney newspaper The Daily ran a new comic strip in their funny pages, simply titled Fun with Family X. Featuring characters Harry X and his wife Jacqueline, it was largely a family sitcom style humour, with episodes centred around the married couple trying to fix their broken oven, or getting invited out to dinner and not knowing what to wear. It also featured the Xs daughter Natasha, a mischievous young girl who always seemed to be getting her parents into trouble. Only nine months into the run and it was already apparent who the real star of the comic was, none other than young Natasha herself. Readers couldnt get enough of her and, at reader behest, The Daily chose to change the title from Fun with Family X to Lil Nat. The first Lil Nat feature also introduced a playmate for the young scamp, a surgically altered talking dog affectionately called Doggy X. Thus was a legend born.
The Lil Nat strip is fondly remembered by many long time comic readers, but it was not in this form that Natasha found her prime appeal. It wasnt until 1938, when Syndications Syndicated bought out the now almost bankrupt Daily newspaper, that Natasha was reborn for a new age. Discarding the format of the now defunct newspaper, Syndications Syndicated relaunched their own range of publications, based solely on the widely known comics from the funny pages. Suddenly full length comic books were in fashion, and Natasha X was right at the vanguard of the new appeal. Four full length books featuring reprints of the old Lil Nat strips were big sellers for SS and proved they were moving in the right direction, but they knew they needed something more, something different, something that would grab readers in a big way. So it was that the character was reinvented, made over to meet a new age. Lil Nat grew up overnight, from a troublesome toddler into the spandex clad adventurer the world now knows as Natasha X, science fiction superhero. She was an immediate success.
Each new Natasha X book seemed to be more popular than the last, and the rise in popularity of other comic book superheroes at the time only served to enhance the X appeal. Soon there were Xs everywhere. Six feature films, four of them animated, and two live action, wowed 1940s audiences all over the world. An ongoing radio program became one of Australias favourite shows, and Doggy X even got his own spin off program, Battle Dog from Beyond. It was a golden age - but it didnt last. The propagandist nature of these early comics, with Natasha X beating up Nazis and smashing spy rings, was one of the key crowd pleasers in the war years, but in the aftermath of WWII it was only natural for her appeal to lessen. As depression struck and a staunch conservatism entered society it seemed there was no longer a place for Natashas wacky antics. And so she was forgotten, and might well have remained so forever.
However, in 1966 things were very different. Rediscovered by a generation of drop outs and hippies, Natasha X became a poster child for psychedelia. Her own strange blend of loopy disillusion made her the perfect role model for a social group reacting against authority. Suddenly T-Shirts, posters and album covers were plastered with images of Natasha. It was only a matter of time before her return became official. Syndicated Syndication had long since gone defunct, but popular womens magazine Baking for love and profit had acquired the rights to all of their long out of print characters. Realising the money to be made they relaunched the Natasha X comic book, keeping it very much the same as when Natasha had last been seen, but occasionally throwing words like far out and whoah man into her dialogue. The success was immediate, and suddenly Natasha was a force to be reckoned with. Crowds of protesters to the Vietnam War turned up at Parliament House clad in Natasha X outfits, and one memorable incident had the Prime Minister mobbed outside his home by a man dressed up as Doggy X. The attacker apparently shouted: och, yer a wee mad fool and urinated on the Prime Minister, although some reports claim that the whole story was in fact a hoax drummed up in order to put pressure on the publishers of the comic. By 1969 it was too much, and the publishers gave in to government pressure and stopped publishing Natasha X. Once again, it looked like the end for the character, despite her obvious ongoing popularity.
Indeed it would have been the end had not Murray Burger, a small time television producer, not been too lazy to think up his own ideas. Late for a meeting at the television studio where he worked, suffering from a hangover and needing to present an idea to the station bosses or face being fired, Murray dashed into a second hand bookshop, bought the first thing he stumbled across, and promptly presented it at the meeting, claiming we should adapt this for tv before passing out and drooling on the floor. Murray was fired, but his idea was taken on, and the 1970s debut of the campy Natasha X Show became a major hit. Doggy X was brought back as Natashas sidekick, and given such memorable lines as Holy Xylophone Natasha!! But despite the shows success (leading up to the 1974 release of feature film Natasha X the Movie) public appeal waned quickly, and by 1976 the show was axed, its rating barely a quarter of what they had been at its peak. The comic, which had begun publication again following the success of the television program, was once more cancelled, and this time it seemed it truly was the end for Natasha X.
Indeed, apart from comic fans still searching out old classic copies of the original publications (now worth millions of dollars on the collectors market) not many people knew about Natasha X, her long history and the vast impact she had had. It was only by chance that Script Editor Witold Tietze stumbled across an oblique reference to her while researching old radio programs. Witold, curious about the character, sought further information, and brought what he found to the attention of producer Matthew Kopelke. Together the two of them decided to relaunch the character for a new age and, reinventing her for a new century, they released an all new audio play from Back to Reality Productions in 2002 titled simply The Natasha X Show. Soon after Eclectica Press released an all new comic, paying homage to the character and all the many eras of her publication history. Due, in no small part, to the fact that any comic with an X in the title seems to sell well these days, it looked like the Natasha craze was set to start all over again. A new beginning, a new direction, but still the same old Natasha, still ready to save the world after all these years. It just goes to show, with a little X appeal you can go a long way, and as they say, Nats entertainment.
