La Raccolta De La Grande Avventura Dei Fumetti (which translates to The Collection of The Great Adventure of Comics) is published by Istituto Geografico De Agostini in Italy from 1990 thru till 1991. The series contains 50 comic books plus 50 informative booklets, which were released on a weekly basis, featuring a large number of comic book characters.
La Raccolta De La Grande Avventura Dei Fumetti edition number 4 features the Phantom on the cover, containing 32 color pages measuring 22cm x 28.6cm, released in March 1990. Published within this edition is the Lee Falk and Ray More classic story, ‘The Fire Goddess’. Below we see edition number 4 which features the Phantom.
La Raccolta De La Grande Avventura Dei Fumetti seen above came accompanied with ‘Gli eroi – La storia – I segreti’, which translates to ‘The heroes – The story – The secrets’. Written information is provided in these booklets, which form a comic book character ‘encyclopedia’ once the full 50 editions are collected.
Istituto Geografico De Agostini sold the La Raccolta De La Grande Avventura Dei Fumetti comics and Gli eroi – La storia – I segreti booklets wrapped in clear plastic. Below we see edition number 45, an example of how the books were originally sold.
The 50 comics found in the series are: 1 – The Origins of Superman / Flash Gordon – The Cursed Monster 2 – Mandrake the Magician / Li’l Abner 3 – The Legend of the Batman / Spirit / Dobald Duck 4 – Wonder Woman / Phantom – The Story of the Masked Man 5 – Prince Valiant / Steve Canyon 6 – Secret Agent X-9 7 – The Flash / Tex / Pogo 8 – The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer 9 – Lucky Luke 10 – Garth / Snoopy and the Peanuts 11 – Diabolik 12 – The De’ Guai Family / Jeff Hawke 13 – Coccobill / Mary Perkins 14 – Bristow / Asterix 15 – Totò Tritolo / Michel Vaillant 16 – Andy Capp / Dan Dare 17 – Mort Cinder / Beetle Bailey 18 – Cisco Kidd / Gaston Le Gaffe 19 – Nightmare in the Jungle (Hugo Pratt) / BC / The Wizard of Id 20 – The Spider-Man / The Fantastic Four 21 – Spider-Man 22 – The Adventures of Lieutenant Blueberry 23 – Modesty Blaise / Valentina Green Apple 24 – Doctor Oriole / Captain America 25 – Alan Ford and the TNT Group / Conan 26 – Origins of the Doctor Blak / Lupo Alberto 27 – Dracula / Uncle Boris and the Monsters / Altai & Johnson 28 – Valentina Pirate (Guido Crepax) / The Aristocrats 29 – The Golem / Mafalda / Sturmtruppen 30 – Alak Sinner – The Webster Case / Sam’s Strip 31 – Ken Parker / Big Sleeping 32 – Thorgal! / Hagar the Viking 33 – Petra Chérie – The
Presentation Storage Folders were also sold by Istituto Geografico De Agostini, specifically created to house the La Raccolta De La Grande Avventura Dei Fumetti collection. An example of this folder can be seen below, which have an appearance of a hardcover album style book..
A promotional pack was released by Istituto Geografico De Agostini containing La Raccolta De La Grande Avventura Dei Fumetti edition number 1. Action Comics #1 featuring Superman is seen on the front of the green fold-open cardboard pack. The front cover of the pack can be seen below, alongside the open pack.
La Raccolta De La Grande Avventura Dei Fumetti and Gli eroi – La storia – I segreti editions number 1 can be seen below, found in the promotional pack above. The pack also gives the reader additional information on the encyclopedia function of the collection.
Also found within the promotional pack is a fold-out color poster measuring 86cm x 114cm. The poster features a profile image of all 138 comic book characters found in the La Raccolta De La Grande Avventura Dei Fumetti collection. On the reverse, the reader is provided with information on the encyclopedia collection and what they can expect over the proceeding 49 editions. The Phantom is found on both the front and back of the poster.
The two profile image of the Phantom seen on the front of the poster can be seen below. The images are illustrated by Sy Barry and Roy Felmang.
The Phantom 