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Romano Felmang (1941 - )

Mandrake and the Phantom

from Il nouvo vicino

One morning at the end of 1963 Felmang noticed issue 51
issue 51 of Il Vascello Mandrake at the newsstand. It was the Un mondo scomparso made by the Italian artist Domenico Mirabella. He bought it and found that Fratelli Spada Publications were produced in Rome.

He considered the possibility of pursuing a cartoonist's career. After telephoning the next day after he went to via Enea 77, offices of the Fratelli Spada press, and presented himself as an illustrator of comics with zero experience.

Daniela, a young woman working there gave him two issues of L'Uomo Mascherato from the American Adventures Series. One was issue 60 Le mani sull'isola (Sy Barry's The Island of the Dogs) - saying:

These are recent stories of the Phantom from the United States; the production is syndicated, but it's not enough to cover our weekly requirement. For this we need illustrators who imitate Sy Barry, the leading artist of the American comic-strips. Make us a couple of trial panels in this style!

from Sabotaggio aereo

During the following days he tried several times to draw The Phantom of Sy Barry, but the results were very poor. He could not confront such a demanding character tout de suite and succeed in imitating an artist, whom he considered the best at that time. So he had to practice and wait for a later opportunity.

In 1966 he made his first 8 pages Phantom story Kaniska and next made his debut as a comic book artist drawing a full length Phantom story called I Ladri della tomba del Gran Re for the Italian publishers Fratelli Spada. He followed with some more Phantom stories and did the pencil work for A Todaro on two Mandrake stories. Felmang made about 30 covers for Fratelli Spada and Editions des Remparts for Mandrake, The Phantom, Rip Kirby and Secret Agent X-9.

He married in 1980 and have two children, the twins Giada and Daniele.

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Fratelli Spada - Mandrake

#	Title	Issue	Date	Italian Mandrake Series	Artist
1 French	Il nouvo vicino	108 issue 108	1969	Il Vascello Mandrake	Angelo Raffaele Todaro (*)
2 French	Suspence a sud-ovest delle Caroline	195 issue 195	1971	Il Vascello Mandrake	Angelo Raffaele Todaro (*)
3	The Tunnel of Love	[-]	1972	Never printed	Felmang

Notes:
(*) Script: Giovanni Fiorentini, Felmang helped with the pencil work.

Covers - Mandrake
For the Italian Mandrake published by Fratelli Spada.
↠ Samples: - 91
issue 91 - 95
issue 95 - 96
issue 96 - 98
issue 98
For the French Mandrake published by Editions des Remparts.
↠ Sample: - 200
issue 200
For the American Comics Revue magazine.
↠ Sample: - 232
issue 232

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Fratelli Spada - The Phantom

#	Title	Issue	Date	Italian Phantom Series	Assistant
0 El Diablo	Kaniska (*)	[-]	1966	Newer printed	[-]
1 first page	I Ladri della tomba del gran re	134 Mario Caria	1967	I Classici dell'Avventura	[-]
2	Corsa infernale	15 Mario Pedrazzi	1967	Avventure Americane Nuova Serie	[-]
3	L'invasione dei mercenari	23 Sy Barry	1967	Avventure Americane Nuova Serie	[-]
4	Chi scherza col fuoco	90 Angelo Todaro	1968	Avventure Americane Nuova Serie	[-]
5	Sabotaggio aereo	104 issue 104	1969	Avventure Americane Nuova Serie	[-]
6	Smeraldi irrangiungibili	113 USam & A.Todaro	1969	Avventure Americane Nuova Serie	Angelo Raffaele Todaro (ink)
7	Un mistero da svelare	183 issue 183	1970	Avventure Americane Nuova Serie	Mario Pedrazzi (inks)

Notes:
(*) Felmang wrote and drew his first Phantom story, Kaniska, in 1966. The story ran for 8 pages and was never published in it's original form. It did appear in an Italian pocket magazine called Sylvie
issue 1 ( from June 1971), and was recently reprinted in Svint Comics. However, the central character was changed from The Phantom to El Diablo.

Fratelli Fabbri - The Phantom
Felmang drew another Phantom story which ran for 30 pages near the end of 1974. This story was created for the Italian publisher Fratelli Fabbri, but was never published because the rights could not be obtained.

Team Fantomen - The Phantom
Since 1987 Felmang have done the pencil work for about 90 Phantom stories for the Team Fantomen. A collective term for the artists and writers, responsible for the Scandinavian production of stories about the Phantom, closely tied with the production of the Swedish Fantomen magazine. In about 22 of these stories he also have done the ink work.

Covers - The Phantom
For the Italian L'Uomo Mascherato published by Fratelli Spada.
↠ Samples: - 93
issue 93 - 94
issue 94 - 96
issue 96 - 99
issue 99 - 100
issue 100
For the French Le Fantôme published by Editions des Remparts.
↠ Samples: - 231
issue 231 - 232
issue 232
For the Swedish Fantomen magazine published by Egmont.
For the Australian Phantom magazine published by Frew.
↠ Samples: - 1080
issue 1080 - 1152
issue 1152
For the American Comics Revue magazine.
↠ Samples: - 75
issue 75 - 88
issue 88 - 105
issue 105 - 138
issue 138