SK1 AMONG THE DINOSAURS (1935)

Above scan (taken from outducks archive) is of the cover of no. 154 (dated Dec. 8th, 1935) of Italy's Topolino comics weekly, featuring the fourth installement of 'S.K.1.' by Italian artist Guido Moroni Celsi (1885-1962). 'S.K.1' lasted till (including) no. 184 (dated July 5th, 1936).

THE GREEN MEN (1935)

In this post, I present select images (uploaded last month to the outducks archive by user Mankkop) from a great-looking Italian comics set in Atlantis: 'Gli uomini verdi [The Green Men'], which had started to be serialized in the back cover of Topolino no. 139 (dated Aug. 25th, 1935); the above installement is from no. 142 and the two below ones are from no. 146 and no. 148:

After no. 150, 'Gli uomini verdi', unfortunately was shifted to the interior b&w pages till it ended at no. 155 (dated Dec. 12d, 1935); the below installement is from no. 153:

'Gli uomini verdi' was the work of Yambo (Enrico Novelli, 1876-1943). Apart from his comics work, he was also apparently a prolific writer of adventure books. Soon after his retirement, he died of a heart attack during an air raid in the 2d World War.

MACISTE IN VINTAGE COMICS ADAPTATION OF CABIRIA (UPDATED WITH NEW INFO)

Maciste is the most prominent hero of Italian popular cinema and also probably the oldest recurring character in world cinema. He was featured in a long-running series of Italian films from mid-1910s to late 1920s in the era of silent cinema and was revived in Italy in the 1960s with more than a dozen further Maciste films in the first half of the decade (Since most of the 1960s movies were re-named as Hercules movies when released in the US, he is not as well known in the English-speaking lands).
Maciste had actually made his first appearance as a side character (and a black-skinned one) in the seminal Italian silent film Cabiria (1914) before rising to hero status in the follow-up series. Cabiria tells the story of the misfortunes of a Roman maiden, the title heroine, abducted to Cartagha. Maciste is the side-kick of the hero who rescues her from ritual sacrifice.
A comics adaptation of Cabiria, co-illustrated by Raffaele Paparella and Antonio Canale, was serialized in the Italian weekly comics magazine Topolino no.'s 527-554 in 1943 which was later reprinted in Turkish comics weekly 1001 Roman in 1945-46 (no.'s 306-337) under the title 'Kabria'. The above panel (all scans in this post are from the Turkish edition) is the first appearance of Maciste (spelled as 'Masist') in this comics adaptation. The plot synopsises of Cabiria refer to Maciste as the lead protagonist's slave, but the Turkish text refers to him as his servant. Below is another panel with Maciste, breaking his chains a la Hercules:


The comics appear to be a pretty faithful adaptation of the movie, as witnessed in the below panel and its corresponding still from the movie:



Below is another impressive panel, depicting the march of Hannibal's war elephants, reprising another scene reportedly in the film ('though I couldn't find any stills of it on the net):

UPDATE: Armando Botto from Italy kindly informs that the Turkish edition in 1001 Roman has been re-colored as the original Italian edition in Topolino was in black and magenta; he also adds that some panels in 1001 Roman have been re-formatted together with some other changes such as "while your "temple" panel is just a part of the original one, the"elephants" one has had some details added (part of the mountains in the background,and also a few elephants)." Thank you once again, Armando..

GIOVE TOPPI'S GOLDEN CAGE (1938)

Gabbia d'oro (Golden Cage) is a pre-war Italian jungle perils comics album published in 1938 by Nerbini which is of interest due to both the name behind it and also for its disreputable content.

Both the art and the story are credited to Giove Toppi (1888-1942). Toppi was initially an illustrator for the Florence-based publisher Nerbini. When Nerbini started publishing comics, Toppi joined in the staff of this craft as well. He single-handedly earned his name a permanent place in the history of European comics by making a gag-comics featuring Mickey Mouse for the cover of the first issue of Nerbini's Topolino comics weekly in 1932:

However, Topolino had been started without license from Disney and from the 3rd issue onwards, Mickey Mouse proper would have to be dropped from the magazine upon Disney's legal intervention until Nerbini would get the rights of Disney comics for the Italian market. In the meantime, Toppi made gag-comics featuring another (non-Mickey) mouse for Topolino:

When Nerbini became the legal publisher of Disney material, it would be Toppi who would illustrate most of the covers of the first series Italian Disney comics albums in 1935, such as the below cover:

Another retrospectively interesting episode in Toppi's career came when he collaborated with Federico Fellini in the comics field! In 1937, long before he would embark on a famed career in cinema, then 17 years-old Fellini had moved to Florence and began working for Nerbini as a writer. When Italy's fascist government banned the import of American comics in 1938, Nerbini would begin producing local-made versions of these popular comics and Fellini was among the script writers of this obligatory fad with Toppi at the art chores. The fruits of the collaboration between Fellini and Toppi reportedly include one Flash Gordon comics.

Gabbia d'oro, on the other hand is a solo effort by Toppi. It was published in Turkey as no. 22 (Oct. 1941) of 1001 Roman's monthly special issues. The Turkish edition might be slightly abridged as there are some unresolved sub-plots. Nevertheless, the main plot appears complete in its essentials. The hero is an Italian named Mario who is accompanying a British archeolog and his daughter Alice in an expedition in black Africa. Despite Mario's objections, Alice secretly joins a research party to locate the treasures of a "savage" tribe and eventually gets captured. The natives see in her the return of their divine Daughter of the Sun (Alice had landed in an aeroplane). She demands to be released, even calling the natives' chief as an "ape-man". The chief says that the "civilization has made her rebellious", but that he "knows how to tame her." Consequently, she is locked up in a golden cage to stay there "till her nerves calm down." Mario saves her by massacring the whole tribe with a machine gun and the archeolog confiscates the natives' treasure, including the golden cage. The comics end by Mario warning Alice that he will lock her up in the golden cage whenever she makes him angry and she submissively replies as "understood, love".

The obvious colonialist trajectory of Gabbia d'oro need no elaboration as it is apparent from the above plot summary. It suffices to add that the portrayal of one non-savage black character, "a faithful servant", is also very derogotary as his 'foolish' amazent at the westerners' technology such as aeroplanes and radio is depicted as a matter of ridicule, as in the below panel:

And yet, it shouldn't be missed that this colonialist/white-supremacist context also serves as a background for another dynamic in Gabbio d'oro, that is the fantasy for the subordination of 'rebellious' women. It is ironic that in that case, the 'savages' serve as a double for Mario himself.

APPENDIX: (SPECULATIVE) TRIVIA

'Women in cages' is an iconic image in sado-erotic imaginary and it is naturally very recurrent in exploitation cinema as well. It is also a matter of fact that comics in general has served as inspiration for many filmmakers. Jesus (Jess) Franco is one prominent European exploitation filmmaker with a professed devotion to comics. Franco has made several 'women in cages' films, but one of his more obscure movies include one episode which apparently has some semblance to Gabbia d'oro in particular. Franco's Sex Charade (1970) feature one scene where a white woman is held in a cage in what appears to be a jungle setting (see above still). Though the natives holding her captive are not African but Indian and the cage is not golden, the concomittance of 'woman in cage' and jungle natives tentatively reminds Gabbia d'oro, esp. given the fact that Franco is known to be well versed in European comics. Franco would later be involved (as assistant director) in another movie titled Une cage doree (1976) without any natives but with a golden cage holding captive women.

SOURCES:
http://www.papersera.net/
http://coa.inducks.org/
The Films of Federico Fellini by Peter E. Bondanella
'Manacoa Files' by Alain Petit in Cine Zine Zone