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[crashryan]

This strip is irritatingly familiar. From the signatures and copyright it's clearly of Spanish origin. However I'm sure I've seen it in English under the title "Drake and Drake." Could it have been picked up by an English newspaper or reprinted in a picture library?

Link to the book: Steve Drake - 01 Het Verdwenen Lijk

[paw broon]

Yes, it's bugging me too.  I'm sure it didn't appear in a picture library.  So much material by Spanish creators appeared in or was reprinted in British comics - pocket libraries and weekly anthology titles.  I'll send some samples to my knowledgeable pal Colin and let him go to work on it.

[colcool007]

There are times when I could cheerfully throttle you! 

Now, this is not one that I have come across before, so let's look at the evidence that we have.

This was published in the Netherlands as The Vanished Corpse.

The artist was signing the frames every third or fourth panel which normally indicates the start or the end of the episode for that day's newspaper.

The story has the copyright of Ibergraf on it which indicates that it was created by a Spanish company.

On balance, I would guess that this was first published as a serial in a Spanish paper and the company then tried to make a little more money by selling a reprint license to different companies such as Nooitgedacht.

If it was reprinted in the UK as a Picture Library, I would put money on Pearson's, World Distributors, Micron or Fleetway.  The problem is that it would have been in a spy one such as S.A.T.A.N or Top Secret and I don't know of any that were going in the early 1960s when this was first published.  Although it would not be much of a stretch to think that it could have been reused in the late 1960s.

I doubt that it would have been published in a UK paper as it would have only run for a maximum of seven weeks assuming three panels a day, but I have been wrong before so I am happy to be proven so again. Now here is a thought, could it have been printed as a filler story in the Lion or Tiger or equivalent annuals?

Even if I have added nothing to your thoughts, hopefully I have helped someone spark a dim and distant memory.

[crashryan]

I found the place where I'd seen this strip before. However it wasn't in English. It was in a Dutch magazine, Alle Menn, described several years ago in cartoonist Mike Lynch's blog:

http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com/2011/08/alle-menn-april-1962.html

I did some digging on Google and turned up a Spanish historical site with a (very) little information. Ibergraf started as Historgraf, a Madrid-based comic art agency founded by Francisco de la Fuente Amo and Manuel L

[paw broon]

Colin, crash, what a fast turnaround of info. 
Jose Mallorqui was responsible for the fabled Spanish strip, El Coyote.
I hadn't considered the smaller pocket library publishers.  Need to have a poke around them, although there isn't a lot of info on content available.
Well done lads.

[colcool007]

Colin, crash, what a fast turnaround of info. 
Jose Mallorqui was responsible for the fabled Spanish strip, El Coyote.
I hadn't considered the smaller pocket library publishers.  Need to have a poke around them, although there isn't a lot of info on content available.
Well done lads.

You're still a git for getting me interested!