Germano Ferri, born on the 3rd of December, 1936 in Pesaro, Italy. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in the early 1960s, with inspirations to illustrate movie posters.

His debut in comics came in 1962 with the Italian publishing house owned by the Spada Brothers, Fratelli Spada which at the time held licensing rights to publish a variety of American comic book characters.

Germano initially introduced himself and his work to the Spada Brothers with the thought of working on cover art for their various comics, however they employed him to illustrate full comic strips.

His first work for Fratelli Spada would go to print in L’Uomo Mascherato Super Albo edition number 23, published in Italy in 1962. The title of the story is ‘The Ace of Spades’ which he’s credited as illustrating and also believed to of written (seen on the left). Cover art is by Enzo Carretti.

Germano would go on to work on a further 40 Phantom comic books for Fratelli Spada, with the final story titled ‘The Lightning Egg’, printed in L’Uomo Mascherato Avventure Americane edition number 53, published in Italy in 1973.

Whilst working on Phantom comic strips, he also illustrated on other comic book characters for Fratelli Spada, such as Mandrake the Magician.

Following his time with Fratelli Spada, Germano would go on to teaching, however still working on comic book when the need arose.

In 1990, he would commence work on several Fantomen comic strips for Semic Press, co-illustrating with fellow Italian artist Romano Felmang, with the first story found in edition number 17, published in 1990 titled ‘The Wings of Death’, written by Michael Tierres.

Germano would go on to work on other Fantomen published stories, a total of 26 (all co-illustrating with Romano Felmang), with the final comic strip found in edition number 18-19, published in 2012 by Egmont titled ‘The Curse of Djudju’, written by Tony DePaul. He was also the cover artist for this edition (seen on the right).

He was also commission by Egmont to illustrate the Fantomen Christmas Album covers published in 2012, 2013 and 2014, with his work also found within these editions.

In 2016, Frew Publications in Australia published the Phantom story titled, ‘Expedition in the Jungle’ in a 2 part series which Germano had also written, found in edition numbers 1770 and 1771, which was co-illustrated with Romano Felmang.

Examples of Germano Ferri’s Phantom comic strip work can be seen below.

Germano passed away at the age of 85 on the 19th of December, 2021.

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