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Roberto Lemmi (Firenze 1901 – Firenze 1971)

The Phantom and Mandrake

from La tragedia del gnat

In the twenties, Lemmi attends the L’Accademica d’Art in Florence and after graduation began to work with Florentine publishers.

From 1936 (and up to 1971) he started to make covers
issue 2 1963 for a hunting magazine, Diana.

Casa Editrice Nerbini printed a popular weekly magazine L’Avventuroso which in mid-1937 touched the 500,000 copies weekly. L’Avventuroso run several newspaper stips from US, among others also collecting 6 strips on a page every week of Mandrake and L'Uomo Mascherato (The Phantom) and one sunday page of Flash Gordon.

Nerbini collected the publicated strips from L’Avventuroso into albums and they were constantly exhaused, so Nerbini had to reprint the albums periodically. Sample: - 1

One day in 1938 Nerbini received a circular from Ministero della Cultura Popolare; all publishers had to stop the import of US comics and publicationes. It was the years of the Italian facists. When the various stories run out of US strips and ended, the popular characters started to disapair from L’Avventuroso.

Nerbini was in lack of material to print and hired several Italian artists, among them Roberto Lemmi. He illustrated several titles for L’Avventuroso such as Il Segno di Roma, Nel Paese dei Pigmei and La Nave Corsara.

first Logo
from Il ritorno di Diana

In issue 249 of July 1939 one find a story by R Lemmi with a new character, Il Giustizier Mascherato dressed in green tights and a red mask.

And yes, it was L'Uomo Mascherato (the Phantom), in desguise !

Next L’Avventuroso printed a US adventure and then 4 more stories of Il Giustizier Mascherato by Lemmi.

During the last one Lemmi changed the color of the tights, altered the design, replaced the template, changed the name of the character ... After a few months, Phantom was almost back to sneak in Florence, but redesigned with the original.

From issue 333 (23 February 1941) L’Avventuroso re-started the original US publication of the Phantom.

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Casa Editrice Nerbini; L’Avventuroso - Il Giustizier Mascherato

#	Title
1	Il ritorno di Diana
2 a	Barlett, la jena de mare
2 b	I mercanti di schiave bianche
2 c	Il giustiziere all'opera
2 d	Il trionfo della giustizia
3	La bella smemorata
4	Spie sul mare
5	I trafficanti d'armi

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Casa Editrice Nerbini; Collana Grandi Avventure - L'Uomo Mascherato

#	Issue	Year	Title
1 a	48	1947	L'Incognita misteriosa
1 b	49	1947	L'Incognita misteriosa; I prigionieri del conte Pharos
1 c	50	1947	L'Incognita misteriosa; Il romanzo di Merle
2	60	1947	L'Isola dei coralli *
3	89	1948	La follia del dottor Magnus
4	90	1948	La follia del dottor Magnus; La diva dal fascino eterno

Notes:
* Lemmi and Fantoni.

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Casa Editrice Nerbini; Collana Albi Grandi Avventure (Serie 2) - Mandrake

#	Issue	Year	Title
0	85 issue 85	1948	Falco, cavallo da corsa

Note:
This is the last part of Mandrake in Amerika by Phil Davis (dailies from 13 Sept 1937 to 29 Jan 1938). This story starting with the Davis strip from 26 Nov 1937 and end with the strip of 6 Jan 1938. Some panels are a bit edited to fit the pages of the comic book format. In between the Davis strips of the 17th and 18th of Des one find seven new strips made by Lemmi. Two new strips by Lemmi end the story.

↠ Strips by Lemmi:
- 23
strip 23 - 24
strip 24 - 25
strip 25 - 26
strip 26 - 27
strip 27 - 28
strip 28 - 29
strip 29 - - 47
strip 47 - 48
strip 48

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Casa Editrice Nerbini; Albi Grandi Avventure, serie Economicia

#	Issue	Year	Title
1	5 issue 5	1949	La tragedia del gnat
2	6 issue 6	1949	La banda del malese Hamat

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Casa Editrice Nerbini; Mistero, serie nouva

#	Issue	Year	Title
3 a	10 issue 10	1949	Fra uomino monstri di un monde scomparso
3 b	11 issue 11	1949	Nel regno di Astera
3 c	12 issue 12	1949	La fin dell'Atlantide

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Casa Editrice Nerbini; Mistero, serie nouva - Raccolta

#	Issue	Year	Title
3	4	1949	Fra uomino monstri di un monde scomparso

Notes:
This one reprinted the 3 stories from Mistero, serie nouva. In 1963 Domenico Mirabella redraw this story into a new story Un mondo scomparso printed in Il Vascello Mandrake issue 51. It was this Fratelli Spada issue who Romano Felmang bought and started his work on comic books.