Gordon Jim

I'm hoping that one of our Italian readers will be able to help out with this query. In 1956, the British weekly Knockout reprinted Rinaldo (Roy) D'Ami's "Gordon Jim" strip. I believe this first appeared in 18 issues of its own title between 31 May and 28 September 1952 in Italy; the strip was originally published in a landscape format, so there must have been some rejigging of the strip to fit the portrait page of the UK weekly. If I'm right, each issue was 32 pages and—not a coincidence, I'm sure—the British run also lasted 32 pages. But did the British strip reprint only one issue, or possibly two issues once the pages had been reworked to fit the new format?

Perhaps someone can identify the origins of the story from the two pages reproduced here: at the top, the first page which appeared in Knockout, below the last. And can anyone confirm whether this was D'Ami working on his own? It's around that time (1952) that he began using assistants but I've seen some episodes credited to Gino D'Antonio (or maybe I'm misreading the Italian website I spotted that on)... but it seems too early for D'Antonio who, as far as I'm aware, didn't join D'Ami's studio until 1955. He may have worked on the strip later, but not on this strip ... unless it has been redrawn from the original, which is an option I've only just thought of.

Anyway, if anyone can help, please drop me a line.

(* © Creazioni D'Ami)