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I think you need to write a AE article or a book if you have enough. A WORLD OF MASKED ADVENTURERS.

I think that this was the first American qomic book to deal with the Vietnam War.  Unlike the WWII era, very few mainstream comics mentioned the Vietnam War while it was going on.

Best

Joe

Glad you liked the collection; I'm very proud of the work Yoc and I did assembling it.

And a quick question :  Are you the Peter Gillis who wrote Micronauts and Tailgunner Jo?  I have fond memories of both those series...

I will be out of town starting on the 24th probably late evening and not returning until the following weekend as I go on a short vacation (8 days!). I will not have internet access so nothing new will come from me during that time. Which is fine it will give me time to sort through the covers for my "Tour Of Italy" Zip file I am making for a future Upload, and I will be STILL working on the Bio's for the Italian crime fighters /super heroes. Such a confusion here. Just when I think I have it "nailed" I find more.....sigh.... Now we find Machero Bianca, Furio Almirante, LA PATTUGLIA DEI SENZA PAURA (not really either but still relevant I think), Il Nemico Invisible, *Wriggle The Super Baby*, and a few others......I am making a list and will probably shoot it over to Paw before I leave to see if he can tell if I have missed anyone prior to 1950. Anyways, this is just an FYI and I hope you all like the series so far. I have updated part I of the bio's and have added a whole bunch more to the History of Italian Fumetti. Check it out.

RB @ home

Part 5 (E)

SUMMARY...Part A...<Somewhat>

The first police officer to appear in a comic book was Italian Renato Gallo in "The challenge of the bandit" of Jupiter Toppi, but intrepid hero did not, however, result in serial follow-ons, would have had better luck in time the figure of Joseph Petrosino ("The Sherlock Holmes Italian ") that would have been for a few years involved in some of the most popular Italian magazines followed and would have had the honor to be illustrated by authors such as Tancredi Scarpelli and the aforementioned Giove Toppi. Petrosino would become in the thirties also a darling of the comic book "The Adventurous" thanks to the designs of Ferdinando Vichi. To mention but a real detective series detached from literary influences we get to 1938,
the year in which Vincenzo Baggioli and Carlo Cossio launched their Dick Lightning (character who happily continue his adventures until 1951). This giant, whose face dashed faces boxer Primo Carnera, is an Italian-American cop who works in Chicago at the time. We find him in the throes of terrible bands of gangsters, but also with bad guys like the lone gunman White Mask, or the hypnotist Flattavion, and the gigantic Zambo, two of which he turned. Characters from which promptly Dick defends himself with his fists and slaps. Having to adapt better to the rules and conservative antiesterofile of the fascist regime, with the passing of years the hero will lose to the street its English name, however, and will keep intact to Lightning. In 1940 he joins the market no less herculean Furio Almirante (baptized in its early days as "The boxer mysterious") created in 1940 in the pages of '"Bold" by Gianluigi Bonelli, an author and as we will see in his stories show an eye particularly with regard to issues of the yellow mold adventurous variety. A robust giant Italian who emigrated to the United States in 1920 and that "by dint of sacrifice, was able to purchase a farm in a wooded area of ​​Missouri", Furio is a real bogeyman which acts at the shoulder of no less a brawny gorilla named Serafino, and is drawn over the years by Carlo and Vittorio Cossio, Dino Attanasio, Franco Donatelli, Lina Buffolente and Franco Bigotti. "L' uomo con il pugno di ferro" (the man with the iron fist) in the middle of the adventure, is catapulted by the arrival of a letter from the city of Milan that permanently changes the life and leads him to wander around the world. Thanks to continuous reprints, the character Bonelli created continues his adventures until 1964 and according to the different periods will assume narrative features: for a time during the war we see him wearing the uniform of the soldier and move in contexts of war and at the end of the conflict will occur even in a curious and fascinating disguised version of its businesses. Va revealed that Furio Almirante is however not the first hero detective devised by Gianluigi Bonelli. In 1937, in fact, the future father of Tex Willer had devised Detective John Gable for his novel "The last pirate," published in installments on '"Bold" signed Gino Bonelli (the same story will be reprinted in volume in 1940 protagonist, to avoid problems of censorship, the Italian-American John Mauri and the new title of "The Tigers of the Atlantic"). The author mixes in this gripping novel classic elements of the detective story with inspiration taken from the pure adventure fiction of Conrad, Salgari, London and Verne.
 
Bonelli favored in fact a tight narrative rhythm, made of chases and beatings, rather than evidence and thorough investigation by detectives. "I have always preferred the action to the complexity of the plot - he declared himself in a long interview - My characters are people that move in large wild places and so they necessarily have to be much more dynamic than a Hercule Poirot or Philo Vance ... More than the stories of Van Dine, Christie's and Wallace, I actually prefer the mystery writers of action of the forties and fifties. Two names for: Peter Cheyney and Mickey Spillane (the creators respectively of the hardest private investigators Slim Callaghan and Mike Hammer). " You will then have already figured out that pasta could be the John Mauri, who appeared in "The tigers of the Atlantic": a man in one piece and easy fists, that does not perform sophisticated investigations brain but prefer to take abreast all situations resolve them in an energetic and dynamic way. Mauri must investigate the discovery of a corpse in blue water off of Gibraltar, a place where long runs about a mysterious submarine and finds himself, against his will, to fight a band of modern pirates led by the pirate Han Wolstein (an individual who violently hates the British that led to the
suicide's of his brother). The investigations of the volcanic yellow-literary Bonelli continue in the next "The Brothers of Silence" (published in installments between '37 and '38 and then collected in a volume), this time John Mauri, having married, he must address, amongst dunes and mountains in North West Africa, a tribe of vicious thugs who were Moroccan dedicated to the worship of the god Moloch that recall very losely the terrible Thugs descrittici by Salgari in the cycle of Sandokan. But the verve of Bonelli police in those years is not limited to the sector novel and continues in a dynamic field in comics. This is how two investigators as Giorgio Landi and Marco Villa. The first (an Italian investigator, complete with pipe and mustache, he prefers for his investigations abroad and that sometimes recalling the actor Clark Gable) appears in three stories, "The Mystery of Bridgeword" (cineromanzo designed by Guido Grilli on the "Victorious", 1939), "Raiders of the Thames" (1940) and "The disappearance of the Sacred Grant" (1941). Giorgio Landi in these adventures demonstrates his great talent but also his investigative skills in disguises and an innate ability to act as undercover to thwart criminal plans. In his first story, "The Mystery of Bridgeword" to save you from a vile blackmail the billionaire William Baxter became his personal secretary in order to trap the evil Clavier. In order to entrap the blackmailer, our Landi simulate the disappearance of billionaire so as to act uncovered the criminals. In "Raiders of the Thames," Landi instead infiltrates within the ranks of a gang of thieves operating in the area of ​​the port of London, while in "The disappearance of the Sacred Grant" (designed by the great Walter Molino), during his vacation at the Maharajah of Kapurthala (where it is involved in exotic hunts in the jungle of Salgari memory) must retrieve a precious book "stolen by sacrilegious hands." But now we come to Marco Villa, the other detective comic book created by Gianluigi Bonelli who will make his appearance in "The Enigma of horror Medway" (released in 1940 with art by Angelo Platania): here the Italian detective is in charge by Scotland Yard to catch a gang of counterfeiters but also must solve a strange crime took place in an underground tunnel in the vicinity of horror of Medway. The characterization of these graphic stories at times approaching the imagery of Dick Tracy by Chester Gould and stories of espionage Agent X 9 devised by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond Bonelli but Platania will add their part a personal narrative research and the whole Italian the London setting gives a taste of the exotic in the development of more events. Unfortunately, the lack of recall on the public obtained by the two characters will force Bonelli to invest his energies in genres such as the adventurous and the western, although as we will see later his passion for the police will return frequently to re-emerge. In 1945 he founded the Ace of Spades, intrepid caped crime fighter, created by Hugo Pratt on texts by Mario Faustinelli for the series of "Hurricane Albi." If you should not be overlooked that the first model under consideration as a starting point for those stories is the Phantom of Lee Falk's not forget that Pratt made treasure, to characterize the best the world of the Ace of Spades, also experience graphics authors such as Will Eisner and Milton Caniff. Under the custom of our masked hero hides the journalist Gary Peters who have long vowed to fight crime and specifically the Band of the Black Panthers, the Club of Five and even the Nazis. A Faustinelli and Pratt will support them in their work a close-knit team of authors who are part of the Venetian Dino Battaglia, George Bellavitis and Damiano Damiani. And the latter, before turning to film directing career, will give life to cop bowler Pat La Rocca and reporter Mike moving to the United States in the thirties and face, respectively in New York and New Orleans, ruthless bands of gangsters. Building on the success of the Ace of Spades in 1947 was born Amok (written by Cesare Solini and designed by Antonio Canale) but also Plutos (1949) whose stories are written by Gianluigi Bonelli and are drawn by Leo Cimpellin (who signed for the 'occasion with the pseudonym Alex Lyod). Under the hood and cloak of Plutos (debtor definitely in his clothing to Batman by Bill Finger and Bob Kane) with a splendid mustache Mephistopheles hides Bill Donovan, to avenge his brother's death, he decided to devote his life to Law and dealing guns drawn spies, gangsters and seven Chinese (terrible criminals with whom they will fight long in the slums of San Francisco also has two other Bonelli characters as the ranger Tex Willer and the agent Rick Masters). Special and unique in their kind the colt pistols used by Plutos that discharge projectiles loaded with sleeping gas (a little 'as deadly weapons used by the evil Joker in one of his famous confrontations with Batman) and prevent the bad guys finally put in place their plans criminals. A classic topos of these adventures is the awakening of the bad guys in jail on duty, still sleepy from the terrible gas masked avenger.

As for what concerns the companions of Plutos are certainly mentioned the fascinating Lula Michigan and former boxer Joe who often alongside our executioner during his undertakings. Some time before, in 1948, always Gianluigi Bonelli (under the pseudonym B. O 'Nelly) had given birth to "The patrol without fear," a series that will be drawn by Roy D'Amy, Guido and Franco Donatelli and Zamperoni which also will sign several screenplays Franco Baglioni. They are the protagonists of these stories (some of which recall the
structure of the famous "Radio Patrol" by Eddie Sullivan and Charles Schmidt) police officers Bob and Alan Grey carrying on a relentless struggle against crime, engaging in frequent shootings and performing the their investigations in the worst slums in the America's. The two agents have to deal with from time to time gangsters, bombers, arsonists, killers, robbers, smugglers of alcohol, murder and move against the backdrop of a New York long imaginary protagonist of the American pulp literature. Bob and Alan Grey move the shade of giant skyscrapers, roads are where frantic chases occur, control banks where the robbery is on the agenda, burst into bars that become the place to shop for alcohol, visiting radio studios and film where is the scene of the crime. Ideal for scenes stories weekly strip of only 36 pages, designed to keep the audience in suspense ... Over the years the passion for the police would not have mitigated some of the stories Gianluigi Bonelli and his most popular hero, Tex Willer, he would have had to contend with more than one occasion crimes and mysteries. In particular we would like to mention here a story like "The mysterious voice" (appeared in issue 45 of the series Tex Gigante and designed by Aurelio Galleppini) where we see action in a real forerunner of the serial killer who later become the protagonists of the yellow literature world. The murderess in question with the scimitar behead their victims and performs the ritual and obsessive its terrible murders, wearing the skin of an ape. Tex find that the crowds hide his identity under the clothes, apparently harmless, a wealthy landowner from a long time ago, paralyzed in a wheelchair. These are just some of the Characters to appear in Italy's Golden Age an exciting a place as any to hunt for treasures undiscovered.

(Light Edits by Me)

As a Vietnam Era veteran 1974-1978 this series is one of my favorites. Dell had some excellent war comics. Even the Fraccio/Tallarico team did some of their best work here. Story and art in most issues is good.
Link to the book: Jungle War Stories 01

Fitch wrote some good stories for this series. I am not a fan of Sparling inks of Sparling. His story telling with the pencils is good but never cared for the inks.
Link to the book: Space Man 01 Four Color 1253

Look forward to seeing it pop up here.

Wow,that is good news.

Just bought my first Italian Golden Age Fumetti, Ragar. See my Avatar for what the book looks like. Cost me $16.31 US plus shipping on which I am still waiting on shipping info from the seller. Cheers y'all.

RB @ work.