SILVER & BRONZE AGE MARVEL COMICS IN ITALY

[XXXPHOENIX]

Did you know that.....

 

HELLO overseas friends!

Few american collectors are aware of how many international editions of Marvel Comics exist...and even less are aware that Italy has been and still is one of the largest comic books markets in the world...

Did you know that comics like Tex and Mickey Mouse still sell 750.000(!!) copies per issue in the Italian version nowadays?!

 

And now ...some MARVEL-IN-ITALY-INFO for dummies!

 

0) The first Marvel comic book was published in Italy only in march 1970 (Spider-Man 1 = Uomo Ragno ). FF appeared in some comic magazine in 1968 but nothing else... A poster (a small size reprint of the mythical 1966 USA Spidey Personality poster) came with the book.

It took 2 decades to reach the american production. In 1984 they were still publishing the Marvel USA 1980 issues!

 

1) MARVEL comics in Italian edition printed in 1970 to 1985 are very very nice collectible items and HARD to find in high grades (according to US standards at least..) especially if complete with their gadgets. Italian collectors are not sophisticated about conditions as US collectors!

It would take too long to explain but in Italy nobody uses the American grading system...

Grades are very unaccurate and superficial and it's VERY hard to find 9.0 or better Italian books from the 60s-80s in accordance with the US grading standards...

Average Collectors just refer to POOR / GOOD / VERY GOOD / FINE / VERY FINE / NEAR MINT / MINT....

 

2) The first Marvel publisher was "Editoriale Corno" from Milan. The company went into bankrupcy in 1984 leaving Italians orphans of Marvel comics 'till 1987...

In 1987 - 1994 plenty of publishers (Star Comics, Play Press....) got the rights to print various Marvel books...at least until Panini/Marvel in 1994 took direct control of any Marvel related publication in Italy...

 

3) The first 50 issues of Uomo Ragno, Devil (Daredevil), Fantastici Quattro (Fantastic Four), Thor were printed half in colour and half in b/w to save on printing costs...

 

4) Many issues from the 70s and 80s had gadgets like posters and stickers...

 

5) The eyes of Spidey were painted in yellow 'till 1987!!

 

6) In Italy the standard "SuperHeroes"-comic book had 2-3 stories per issue from various american series, with very limited ads.

I.E. : UOMO RAGNO 18 - 24/12/1970

Stories:

Amazing Spider Man n.22 (03/65) "La minaccia in agguato" (LEE / DITKO)

Doctor Strange n.180 (05/69)"Eternità" (parte 2 di 2)

Doctor Strange n.181 (07/69) "Se un mondo dovesse morire prima che io mi svegli" (parte 1 di 2)

Cover:

Graphic re-elaboration from Amazing fantasy 15

 

 

AND this is an essential list of Marvel books published in Italy in 1970-1984 by Editoriale Corno...I left some Italian words but if you want I can translate them for you!

 

MARVEL SERIES PUBLISHED IN ITALY IN ITALIAN LANGUAGE (1970-1984) by EDITORIALE CORNO

L'UOMO RAGNO (1a serie) 283 issues (from 30/4/1970 to 6/3/1981)

IL SETTIMANALE DE L'UOMO RAGNO 43 issues (from 17/3/1981 to 5/1/1982)

L'UOMO RAGNO (2a serie) 58 issues (from 4/3/1982 to 9/2/1984)

L'INCREDIBILE DEVIL 126 issues (from 6/5/1970 to 6/3/1975)

I FANTASTICI QUATTRO 259 issues (from 6/4/1971 to 18/3/1981)

IL MITICO THOR 243 issues (from 13/4/1971 to 1/8/1980)

CAPITAN AMERICA 128 issues (from 24/4/1973 to 8/3/1978)

GLI ALBI DEI SUPER/EROI 49 issues (from 2/5/1973 to 5/3/1975)

HULK E I DIFENSORI 44 issues (from 20/3/1975 to 11/11/1976)

L'INCREDIBILE HULK 38 issues (from 4/80 to 11/83)

I DIFENSORI 15 issues (from 5/79 to 7/80)

CONAN & KA-ZAR 44 issues (from 19/3/1975 to 10/11/1976)

GLI ETERNI 29 issues (from 3/78 to 7/80)

SHANG/CHI, MAESTRO DEL KUNG/FU (1a serie) 54 issues

SHANG/CHI, MAESTRO DEL KUNG/FU (2a serie) 5 issues

CORRIERE DELLA PAURA 22 issues (from 6/74 to 3/76)

DRACULA 18 issues (from 4/76 to 9/77)

SUPERFUMETTI 17 issues (from 3/76 to 4/80)

EUREKA POCKET 82 issues (from 12/68 to 1/84) with Marvel Horror stories in issues 8, 14, 19, 25, 30, 38, 43, 50, 55.

 

MARVEL REPRINTS 1970-1984 published by EDITORITOE CORNO:

L'UOMO RAGNO GIGANTE 93 issues - from 7/76 to 3/84

I FANTASTICI QUATTRO GIGANTE 39 issues - from 3/78 to 6/81

DEVIL GIGANTE 40 issues - from 4/77 to 7/80 -

CAPITAN AMERICA GIGANTE 14 issues- from 4/80 to 5/81

I FANTASTICI QUATTRO(2a serie) 16 issues

THOR (2a serie) 42 issues - from 26/5/82

CAPITAN AMERICA (2a serie) 29 issues - from 3/6/82

I VENDICATORI GIGANTE 14 issues- from 4/80 to 7/81

CONAN 9 issues - from 5/80 - to 9/81

 

CIAO!

FEDERICO

 

See more journals by XXXPHOENIX

[Tnerb]

What? No New Mutants? Thank you for the lesson.

[vaillant]

New Mutants was published starting in 1989, actually one of the few titles which got a 32 pages format, which was quickly abandoned in favor of the thicker usual italian formats (usually 48 to 64 pages):

 

[Tnerb]

Now that is cool. Thank you.

[vaillant]

This was the last issue: http://atomik67.altervista.org/COMICS-EDITORI/PLAYPRESS/NUOVIMUTANTI-IMMAGINI/NM23.JPG

 

then the New Mutants were featured on an antologic publication which comprised X-Factor, Excalibur and other titles.

[XXXPHOENIX]

Yeah New Mutants were published during the "chaos" years...

 

One publisher named Star Comics in 1987 took the rights of Spider-Man, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Captain America, X-Men and continued the publications exactly from where they had been interrupted in 1984...instead, another publisher called PlayPress started publishing X-Factor, New Mutants, Thor, Iron Man....practically jumping over 5 years of continuity.

 

We experienced the paradox of reeading contemporarily stories of 1987 and of 1982.

 

If I am not wrong we saw Spidey in black suit on Transformers (Playpress Ita) #8 years before we could read Secret wars....

 

GOSH!

 

FEDERICO

 

[thehumantorch]

Yeah New Mutants were published during the "chaos" years...

 

One publisher named Star Comics in 1987 took the rights of Spider-Man, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Captain America, X-Men and continued the publications exactly from where they had been interrupted in 1984...instead, another publisher called PlayPress started publishing X-Factor, New Mutants, Thor, Iron Man....practically jumping over 5 years of continuity.

 

We experienced the paradox of reeading contemporarily stories of 1987 and of 1982.

 

If I am not wrong we saw Spidey in black suit on Transformers (Playpress Ita) #8 years before we could read Secret wars....

 

GOSH!

 

FEDERICO

 

Tks Federico, this site tends to be US comic centered but there are foreign edition collectors here and many of us appreciate that it isn't all about the US.

[vaillant]

You have forgotten Labor Comics, which is an important "missing link", as the people behind it (Marco M. Lupoi, Sergio Cavallerin) would have ended up in the Star Comics effort later on.

 

There are also some other errors, as the very first Marvel comic published in Italy is Sgt. Fury in a short-lived series, in 1966.

[XXXPHOENIX]

Yeah I know...

but Sgt. fury is not exactly a Superhero title and I thought that mentioning LABOR was not essential for the US readers.

 

I have spotted an error too: Spidey in black costume was published in Transformers #3 and not in #8.

 

Humantorch: Once in a while in my journals I like to post some unusual (for the US collectors) info about Marvel comics in a far country like Italy!

 

I scanned some books for your curious-Collectors-eyes!

 

CIAO

FEDERICO

[lscomics]

Great books!

 

If you haven't seen it there's a thread in Comics General that's frequented by those of us on the boards that collect foreign editions. Here's a link.

 

I just started collecting foreign books about three years ago. Currently I think I have books from at least 20 different countries. Do you only collect Italian editions or ones from other countries as well?

 

Here's a link to my Photobucket with scans of my books. You may have to click on the arrow on the left side for it to display the folders and then on "Foreign Editions" for the sub-folders to appear. After that you can browse each sub-folder by clicking on it, they're arranged by title. (thumbs u

lscomics Foreign Editions

[Chespirito]

Y

 

These two books are sick as all f..................heos yeah!!! (worship) :headbang:

 

 

 

[XXXPHOENIX]

WOW...I did not know about that thread!

 

I own one of the largest Italian Marvel collections (in the italian version)…but I also collect USA books…. 99% are Marvel and all in 9.0 or higher… I also collect Marvelmania/MMMS Items and Marvel posters from the 60s and 70s… and Marvel Cards and Stickers .

 

Take a look at these two journals of mine:

http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/JournalDetail.aspx?JournalEntryID=11676

http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/JournalDetail.aspx?JournalEntryID=11790

 

CIAO!

 

FEDERICO

 

[vaillant]

@Federico: Well, Fury is Marvel Universe, although the stories are set in WW2.

 

And Labor has been very important, IMO: I think that Lupoi and Cavallerin would have not followed in setting up the Star Comics team if the Labor experience proved totally unsuccesful. And it was also the very first attempt to put the X-Men as leading characters for an italian title.