Francisco Fuentes Manuel

[Phoenix]

I have been contacted by Ramon Garcia, a Spanish comics enthusiast who is particularly keen to get hold of any work in any British comic by Francisco Fuentes Manuel, an artist who sometimes signs his work as Francisco or Franc, Fuentes Man. He is pretty sure that he drew Billy The Kid in Sun 358/364/368/369 (1955/56), Justice Of Justine in Sally (1969), The Khan's Man in The Victor (1974), The Saint (204-211) in TV Century 21 (c1968/1969), Lord Peter Flint : Codename Warlord in Warlord (401 and 408), Canine Corporal (a complete) in Battle Action 1/11/1985), Armando Jaleo, which translates as something like Making A Racket or Causing Mayhem in Western Adventures (somewhere in 1962), and some unknown strips in Hurricane (5/9/64 - ?).

In his most recent email he mentions other serials that translate roughly as Donovan The Useless (or Simple), The Black Falcon, The Black, or Dark, Avenger, Janus The Berber and Aryan Superman. He thinks the last named appeared in Warlord. He also included scans of Armando Jaleo, The Two Faces Of Janus, A Short Cut Home! (from Smash it would appear), The Incredible Adventures Of Janus Stark, and Justice Of Justine. If any of these might prove useful I will upload them.

As I know very little about artists I told him that I would not personally be able to help him, but I said that there were many other members of this forum who might very well be able to. So, if you can help Ramon, who doesn't seem to have access to any reference material over there in Spain, will you please get back to me with anything relevant, and I will pass it on to him.

[colcool007]

I will be honest and say that I regard Francisco Fuentes Manuel as the definitive Peter Flint artist.

A good site about Francisco is the Deskartes Mil website

I must admit that I cannot think of a serial that ever appeared in Warlord called Aryan Superman. I think that I would have remembered that one! If he needs any more help that I can provide, let me know and I will see what I can do.

[Phoenix]

Thank you for that information, Colin. If we are to judge from the scans on the link you posted it seems possible that Ramon has accessed it already, as some are the same as the ones he let me have. If there are other members with more information, and surely there must be several, I would be grateful if they could pass it on to me by the end of this week. I really do need to get back to him. Thank you in anticipation.

[paw broon]

These wont be of interest to Ramon Garcia but there might be something here for you, Phoenix:-
http://joannavarrobadia.blogspot.co.uk/ ... NTES%20MAN
and this:-
http://detebeos.blogspot.co.uk/2007/06/ ... perar.html
also:-
http://comicscompartidos.blogspot.co.uk ... -1968.html
Somewhere have a digital file of a Dark/Black Avenger story but I can't find it.
Apologies if you already have all this info.

[Kashgar]

This is one of those situations where the 'scatter-gun' involvement of an artist with a wide array of different comic titles makes it very difficult to create much of a stripography of his work. He seems to pop up here and there but not for consistent periods of time. Some more precise dating of the work already known could probably be accomplished fairly easily but additions to the list would be more difficult.
It's interesting that Ramon thinks that Francesco Fuentes Manuel may have drawn those early 'Billy the Kid' strips in the Sun comic as a perusal of the Sun index reveals gaps where the artist or artists respnsible for the Billy the Kid strips in Nos 358, 364, 368 and 369 are concerned. So no confirmation but no other claimants to their artistic authorship either.
It is also interesting that Billy the Kid, when his adventures were reprinted in Hurricane in the 1960's, went under the title 'The Black Avenger'.

[Kashgar]

Another small point. Where does Ramon get some of his info from? In particular where does his cryptic reference to Hurricane and the date 5th Sept 1964 originate. It would be nice to know as it's common to have a stray strip title recorded without a date but rarely a date without a strip attached. There is a reprinted Billy the Kid/Black Avenger strip in that issue but it doesn't seem to be by him.
When I have the time I'll check out the precise dates of some of the items mentioned and, who knows, I may come across another FFM piece or two in the process.

[paw broon]

Re. my post above, I think I have made a bit of a horlicks with it as I am conflating 2 different Dark/Black Avenger strips. But I still cannot find the strip. Frustrating.

[Phoenix]

I'd like to thank Paw and Kashgar for the information on Fuentes Manuel that they've posted today. I was beginning to despair but now I can get back to Ramon with details and websites that he may not know about. Thanks guys. I'll actually wait until the weekend in case any other members can add anything more.