Johnny Galaxy and the Space Patrol by James Zee
A Gionni by any other name
In another radical name change, the series was published as Alan Ford in Italy, reportedly to avoid confusion11Reported from a conversation by Alfredo Castelli with Luciano Secchi on 31 October 2009. See freeforumzone.leonardo.it.... with the existing comic strip Gionni Galassia22This name seems to be incorrectly reported at lambiek.net as "Gionni Glassia" (Johnny Glass). The more common version is... (Johnny Galaxy).
This alternative "Johnny Galaxy" is a science-fiction parody created, written and drawn by Benito Jacovitti (1923-1997)33Benito Jacovitti, born 9 March 1923, is a famous Italian satiical cartoonist but is largely unknown in the English speaking... and published in the weekly Il Giorno dei Ragazzi44Il Giorno dei Ragazzi was created as an adaptation the weekly UK Eagle, with the addition of some Italian stories.... ("The Day for Children") from November 6 1958 at 28 May 1959.55Jacovitti's Gionni Galassia was reprinted in Eureka Vacanze 1970 (Editoriale Corno, Italy). See www.dimensionedelta.net.... Gionni is a boy known for telling fantastic tales who is not believed when he comes across aliens. After amazing adventures, including a Martian invasion, everyone but Gionni has their memory wiped and still no one believes him.66See it.wikipedia.org....
This Jacovitti version predates the Selecciones Ilustradas series, suggesting the possibility that the well-travelled Toutain may have been aware of Jacovitti's work when he suggested the name to Bea.
The Italian version of Selecciones Ilustradas' Johnny Galaxia was only briefly published by Editoriale Corno as part of a set of inter-linked comics with the overarching title, I Classici Del Fumetto (The Classic Comic).
Six issues of Series IV: Spatial Modern featuring Alan Ford were published monthly from November 1961 to April 1962. Among the backup stories were Blackhawk by Charles Cuidera (DC, 1960), Samson by Ken Battefield (Ajax, 1955) and Wonder Boy (Ajax, 1955).77See www.lfb.it....
Confusingly, the name "Alan Ford" was later recycled by Luciano Secchi (Max Bunker) for a satirical story about secret agents from May 1969.88See en.wikipedia.org.... The series is also published by Editoriale Corno and Secchi is reported as reusing the name because he liked the sound of it. This later Alan Ford was popular in Italy and eastern Europe (Macedonian, Serbian and Slovenian), but is largely unknown internationally and was only briefly published in France, Portugal and Brazil.
The covers for the 1961/62 comic with Johnny Galaxia stories are attributed to italian artist Paolo Piffarerio (b. 1924),99Milanese artist Paolo Piffarerio (b. 1924) began comics work while still at school, but left the field in 1953 for... who later worked on Max Bunker's Alan Ford.