Italian artist Vladimiro Missaglia (14th May 1933 – 8th June 2008) largely worked with his brother and scriptwrtier Ennio Missaglia (1930-1993) for most of his career.
Among his many credits are a number of “Robot Archie” covers created for the French comic, Archie le Robot.
As we’ve previously noted, the Archie le Robot digest title published by Jeunesse et Vacances, which ran for 54 issues, from April 1968 to July 1981.
While Robot Archie was the main strip of this quarterly title, several other strips, featured in support, including “Tri Man” and a number of western strips.
Several covers were offered on eBay last year by French comic seller Fantasmak, many still available, but a small gallery of Vladimiro Missaglia’s art on 2D Galleries includes further examples.
Vladimiro Missaglia began his career contributing to publishing houses like Bianconi in Italy (1957) and Lug and Aventures et Voyages in France.
Together, the brothers created such series as “Ray Champion” for publisher Aventures et Voyages’s sports digest, Trophée, which also featured British strips, as well as “Brigade OVNI” for the same publisher’s adventure comics, Espace and Sunny Sun.
In addition to writing stories for such as Sergio Bonelli, Bianconi, Mondadori and Disney Italia, Ennio Missaglia created over a hundred stories for the Topolino newspaper between 1960 and his death in 1993. He also wrote comic strips based on the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson series UFO, for Barbieri’s Edifumetto between 1973and 1976.
The brothers’ joint credits also include the heroic humorous comic ‘I Tre Marines’, about three marines in Mexico and the Tarzan-inspired comic character Kali. After Ennio’s death, Vladimiro worked in the animation field, and created the historical comic Venezia: La Storia, la Leggenda, in 1997.
• Lambiek Profile: Vladimiro Missaglia
• 2D Galleries: Vladimiro Missaglia
• Comic Art Fans: Vladimiro Missaglia
• Wikipedia Profile: Ennio Missaglia (in Italian)
• Fantasmak is also online at fantasmak.com. They host the BDoubliees (“Forgotten BD”) database at bdoubliees.com
• On downthetubes: Robot Archie’s Dutch Adventures as “Der Man van Staal”
• On downthetubes: French Robot Archie covers offered on eBay
Robot Archie – Rebellion Collections
Robot Archie’s adventures are now reprinted in English for the first time in over fifty years… (All Links are AmazonUK Affiliate Links)
• Robot Archie and the Time Machine
Originally built by Professor C.R. Ritchie, the mechanical being known as Robot Archie was employed to battle injustices around the world, particularly in the jungles of Africa and South America.
The automated action hero has worked with the Professor to create “The Castle” – a fully-functioning time machine! Together with the Professor’s nephew, Ted Ritchie and his best friend Ken Dale, Archie is ready to embark on a journey through time that will bring him into conflicts with medieval knights and a terrifying, dystopian future where aliens have conquered the Earth!
• Robot Archie and the World of the Future
Together with the Professor’s nephew, Ted Ritchie and his best friend Ken Dale, Archie continue their travels in “”The Castle”. Desperate to get back to their own time, the trio land in the middle of a future alien invasion. Can Archie defeat the sinister Krulls on his own?
This volume also includes a one-off story which finds Archie face-to-face with The Spider, The King of Crime.
• The Sludge – 60th Anniversary
A strange and terrible living jelly-like substance – the product of nuclear weapons testing – emerged from the depths of the sea near Canada in 1965. Known by the human world as ‘The Sludge’, this unique monster posed a threat to anything that stood in its way. Anything it covered became possessed of a frightening, malignant power aimed against Mankind!
Celebrating sixty years since the character first appeared in the pages of Lion, this collection includes all of the Sludge’s appearances from the 60s and 70s, including his crossover into the pages of the Robot Archie strip.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, Comic Art, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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