L'Avventuroso

L'avventuroso was a weekly Italian magazine, published from 1934 to 1943 by the editor Mario Nerbini.

History

L'avventuroso was the first comics magazine to release "Mandrake the Magician" in Europe with an appearance in the issue #15 dated January 20, 1935. "Mandrake" continued to appear until issue #375 in 1941. At the time, the large format (32×43.5 cm until the issue #304 and 25×35 cm from #305 to the end) as well of the attractive colors of the magazine and its innovative contents, partly based on American comics of a period which is now called "the Golden Age of Comics" with such classicals as "Flash Gordon", "The Phantom","Prince Valiant", "Red Barry", "Secret Agent X9", "Jungle Jim", "Brick Bradford", "Terry and the Pirates" and so on came to a great success with a frequent publishing of 500.000 or 600.000 copies sold each week. Unfortunately, the Fascist Regime of Mussolini considered all non-Italian material bad, and due to new laws it was banished. During the Second World War, there were more and more difficulties to maintain the publication and in spite of the popular success of the magazine amongst the young readers, the last issue of L'Avventuroso was released on May 16, 1943 (#450).

Issue overview

Mandrake stories

• "Mandrake l’uomo del mistero" ("The Cobra") / issues # 15 to 43 (1935)
• "Il mistero della casa da gioco" ("The Hawk (Mandrake Meets Narda)") / issues # 44 to 59 (1935)
• "Il mostro di passo Tanov" ("The Monster of Tanov Pass") / issues # 59 to 78 (1935-1936)
• "Il cammello d’argilla" ("Saki, the Clay Camel") / issues # 85 to 108 (1936)
• "Il fenomeno da circo" ("The Werewolf") / issues # 109 to 128 (1936-1937)
• "L’enigmatico Davos" ("The Return of the Clay Camel") / issues # 129 to 152 (1937)
• "La mummia vivente" ("The Slave Traders of Tygandi") / issues # 153 to 169 (1937-1938)
• "Il mago 900" ("Mandrake in America") part 1/ issues # 301 to 310 (1940) Note:Il mago 900 (Mandracke)
• "L'uomo dal viso pantera" ("Mandrake and the Haunted House") / issues # 311 to 318 (1940) Note: title started in #315
• "Falco, cavallo da Corsa" ("Mandrake in America") part 2 / issues # 319 to 328 (1940-1941)
• "Il gozzo del diavolo" ("Mandrake in Love") / issues # 329 to 339 (1941)
• "I misteri del museo" ("The Museum Mystery") / issues # 340 to 354 (1941)
• "Nel covo delle spie " ("The Octopus Ring") incomplete / issues # 355 to 375 (1941)