Mandrake - Il Vascello

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.

History

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

Issue overview

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.

Issue overview

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

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.

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.

Issue overview

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

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.

Issue overview

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.
• 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.
• Poster: Mandrake in #45.
• Stickers: Billy Sport in #91.

Albums

• Raccolta Super Mandrake. Unsold copies of the fourth series, glued together and given new covers.
• L'epoca d'oro di Mandrake. Reprint of the Sunday inserts, glued together to form four books.