Mandrake - Il Vascello

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Mandrake - Il Vascello was the regular series of Mandrake comic books published by the Italian publisher Fratelli Spada. Being the direct continuation of a similar series previously released by the La Freccia publications, with a total of 474 issues released from 1962 to 1980. Although it was essentially the same publication for the entire run, it was relaunched with restarted numbering several times, dividing the run into four distinctive series.

Issue overview

First series (1962-1967)

The first issue is dated January 5, 1962 and the last (#140) February 19, 1967. The format was 15 × 21.5 cm for generally 32 pages but some issues had 80 pages.

Mandrake being written predominantly as the main title but the numbering are for the subtitle Il Vascello. The with a new layout for the covers for issue 27 the sub-title changed to Albi de Il Vascello. The layout for the covers changes once more from issue 129, but the sub-tile was still Albi de Il Vascello.

The "Mandrake" material was mainly composed of stories drawn by Italian artists but American reprinted material was also published.

As back-up stories the series started to print "Bat Star" (Brick Bradford) by William Ritt and Clarence Gray from issue 84. #102 presents "Judd Saxon" by Ken Bald and #103 present "Juliet Jones" by Stan Drake. The series also printed various series as: "Sub Agent"; "Cheenne Kid" and war stories from Charlton.

In addition there are several one page comic in issues 80 to 90: "Pippo a Lalla" (Hi and Lois) by Mort Walker and Dick Browne; "Il Professor Filippa" (Professor Phumble) by Bill Yates; "Beetle Bailey" by Mort Walker; "Blondie" by Chic Young; "Henry" by Carl Anderson; "Lord Blumm" by Ralston Jones and Frank Ridgeway; "Barney Google" and "Snuff Smith" by Frank Lasswell. And in issues 99 to 102: "Gian Tempesta" (Dennis the Menace) by Hank Ketcham are printed on the two last cover pages, while issues 118 to 120 have "Lulu" by Sixta.

The covers are made by: E. Car, Domenico Mirabella, Germano Ferri and Mario Caria

1962 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26  
1963 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52  
1964 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78  
1965 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104  
1966 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136
1967 137 138 139 140  

Albums

Unsold copies were later glued together and given new covers and sold as Raccolta Mandrake.

Second series (1967-1971)

The first issue of this specific is dated March 4, 1967. The cover layout and format size was kept but the numbering restarted from #1, now with the sub-title Albi de Il Vascello - nouvo serie. The number of pages was also 36 until issue #100. It increased to 56 pages from issue #100 to 110, before having 68 pages for the rest of the series. The sub-title once again changes from issue 171; Albi de Il Vascello. The series ended with the issue #206 dated April 18, 1971.

Once again, it was mainly composed of "Mandrake" stories drawn by Italian artists, but also by Phil Davis and Fred Fredericks.

As back up stories the series printed "Johnny Safari" from #67, issues 85 to 93 printed "Cino e Franko" (Tim Tyler's Luck) by Lyman Young, issues 77 to 89 have "Capitan Baroud" by Carraz and the comic book version of "Bat Star" (Brick Bradford).

"Gordon" (Flash Gordon) by Al Wllliamson, Mac Raboy, Dan Barry and Ric Estrada are printed as back up stories from #97 to 150 and #167 to the end of the series.

In addition from #67 the series reprinted various adventure stories from the archives of "Victorious" including "Gervasio" by Carlo Peroni. And other back up series as: "Agent Sub"; "Merman" by Lee Elias; "Wyatt Earp" by Nicholas Alascia and Sal Trapani; "Furia Nera" (Black Fury) by Mastroserio.

The covers are made by: Mario Caria, Mario Pedrazzi, Nicholas Alascia, Domenico Mirabella, Angelo Todaro Romano Felmang and U. Sam. They sometimes represented others comic characters than Mandrake and were less often painted.

1967 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44  
1968 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96
1969 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144  
1970 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192  
1971 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206  

Supplements

  • Card: C'era una volta in #191.
  • Cards: Le Cartorama in issues 99 to 108.

Albums

Unsold copies of the first and second series were later glued together and given new covers and sold as Raccolta Mandrake.

During this time one also find some Mandrake issues in the Busta Spada series / nb: some similar albums for the "Fratelli Spada" series "Avventure Americane - L'Uomo Mascherato" may also contains a few " Mandrake - Il Vascello" issues. However the issues inside the albums may vary due to how many copies the publisher had of each unsold issue (example : raccolta "Avventure Americane - L'Uomo Mascherato" # 6 may contains Mandrake - Il Vascello nuova serie 76...).

Third series (1971-1972)

Beginning on May 9, 1971 with an issue numbered #1, it stopped on March 15, 1972 with the issue #32. This time the format size was reduced. The sub-title was Il Vascello - nuova serie and below the main title Mandrake one now find e le avventure Flash Gordon.

The Mandrake stories are by Phil Davis, Fred Fredericks, Domenico Mirabella (issues 8 and 11), Angelo Todaro (issues 6 and 12) and Maurizio Santoro (issue 7).

1971 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
1972 26 27 28 29 30 31 32  

Supplements

  • Comic book: La legge del deserto, 16 pgs, 13,8 x 20,3 cm, in #11.

Fourth series (1972-1980)

On April 16, 1972, this new start was founded on a larger format size and with sub-title Albi del Vascello – Serie Cronologica. The Serie Cronologica issues 1 to 8 had a dual numbering; Serie Cronologica #1 was also Mandrake #33, continuing the numbering of the previous third series. From issue 77 the sub-title for the series was renamed to Albi del Vascello and the series continued until #96 on January 1, 1980.

The humorous "Convegno dell'allegria" by Albe was printed on the back cover from #25, and from #41 the back cover figures Jacovitti. As back up series from issue 75: "Flash Gordon" by Dan Barry, "Big Ben Bolt" by John Cullen Murphy, "Johnny Hazard" by Frank Robbins, "Rip Kirby" by John Prentice and Fred Dickenson.

The covers are by Mario Caria.

1972 1 / 33 2 / 34 3 / 35 4 / 36 5 / 37 6 / 38 7 / 39 8 / 40 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
1973 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60  
1974 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70  
1975 71 72 73 74  
1976 75 76  
1977 77 78 79 80 81 82  
1978 83 84 85 86 87 88  
1979 89 90 91 92 93 94 95  
1980 96  

Supplements

  • Sunday pages: Issues 1 to 40 had a separate folded supplement of 8 pages included which reproduced the Sunday stories in chronological order.
  • Poster: Mandrake in #45.
  • Stickers: Billy Sport in #91.

Albums

Collector binder

In 1973 Spada sold two collector binders so the folded supplement inserts could be collected into two hardcover books, both with index pages for the supplement.

Raccolta Super Mandrake

Unsold copies of the fourth series, glued together and given new covers.

Raccolta Mandrake Special
L'epoca d'oro di Mandrake

Reprint of the Sunday inserts, glued together to form a books. At the first inner cover it is an index the 4 issues of this series, similar as for the French L'âge d'or – Mandrake series. But it is uncertain whether issues 2, 3 and 4 were released in Italy.