Devil Doone - The French Connection?

I recently wrote a Facebook post to commemorate the centenary of the Australian comic artist, Hart Amos, who was born on December 2, 1916. Amos was a prolific comic-book illustrator, but remains best known for his artwork on "The Adventures of Devil Doone", the comic-book series written by R. Carson Gold, which appeared for nearly thirty years in the Australian men's magazine, Man Junior (This digest-sized magazine, launched in 1937, was an early successor to publisher K.G. Murray's flagship publication, Man, which debuted in 1936).

During my research, I came across a French comics website, which indicated that several of the later episodes of "Devil Doone", illustrated by the Spanish artist, Josep Gual (b.1936), were reprinted in French comic magazines during the mid-1970s and early 1980s. This website describes Devil Doone as follows (Translated from the French text with Google Translate):

Straight from the beaches of Australia, here are the adventures of Devil Doone, a modern knight in constant struggle against the gangsters and [drug] traffickers on the Australian coast. Devil Doone, playboy and detective, fights crime by surrounding himself with pretty girls and two assistants: His beautiful fiancee, Lorna, and her faithful, bare-headed colossus, Desert Heart [sic].

The French comics website lists the following "Devil Doone" episodes appearing in three separate comic magazines published by the French company, Editions SEPP:

"Terrorisme" ("The Terrorists" - ? Story: R. Carson Gold) - Brigade Speciale, No.2 (February 1977)

"La vierge doree" ("The Golden Virgin" - Story: Uncredited) - Brigade Speciale, No.3 (March 1977)

"Gare aux champignons" (Story: Uncredited) - Mission Speciale, No.59 (April 1976)

"Les extremistes" ("The Extremists" - Story: Uncredited) - Mission Speciale, No.60 (May 1976)

"Un drole d'oiseau" ("The Funny Bird" -? Story: Uncredited) - Mission Speciale, No.64 (September 1976)

"Les morts ne parlent pas" ("The Dead Do Not Speak" - Story: Uncredited) - Mission Speciale, No.65 (October 1976)

"La fille en mini" ("The Girl in the Mini" - ? Story: Uncredited) - Mission Speciale, No.67 (December 1976)

"Oiseaux de paradis" ("Birds of Paradise" - Story: Uncredited) - Thriller, No.10 (March 1984)

Thriller, No.10 - March 1984

Editions SEPP was a small French publisher, which operated chiefly from 1963 to 1977, and specialised in digest-sized, black & white comic books, spanning romance (Escapade), war (Alerte), Westerns (Colt), science fiction (Fantastik), and juvenile humor (Simbad Poche). They appear to be modelled after the popular British digest comics of the post-war era, such as Commando (DC Thomson), and Battle Picture Library (Fleetway Publications/IPC). Many of these French titles date back to the early 1960s, where they appeared under the Edi-Europ imprint, but it is not clear whether Editions SEPP had any formal or commercial links with this company.

The sole exception here was the Devil Doone episode titled "Oiseaux de paradis" ("Birds of Paradise"), published in Thriller, No.10 (March 1984). This latter comic was published by Campus Editions, which appeared to specialise in more "adult" war, crime, and erotic comics.

As I have not been able to cross-check these French story titles with the original Australian versions, it's difficult to tell which episodes of "Devil Doone" were translated and reprinted by Editions SEPP. Although only two translated episodes are credited to the series' creator, R. Carson Gold, it is probable that all of these installments were written by Gold.

There is greater uncertainty about whether all of these episodes were drawn by Josep Gual, as I believe that the "Devil Doone" series was illustrated by several artists following Hart Amos's departure, including Gerald Carr (Australia), and at least one other uncredited European cartoonist in addition to  Josep Gual.

But how did these episodes of "Devil Doone" come to appear in these French comics, some years after the series ceased publication, following the cancellation of Man Junior magazine? I suspect the answer may lie with the series' Spanish artist, Josep Gual, whose work was marketed throughout Western Europe and the United States via Selecionnes Ilustradas (SI).

Mission Speciale, No.59 - April 1976

This company was established by Josep Toutain (1932-1997) in 1953, and became one of several Spanish agencies which employed local artists (unable to find work in Spain's then-moribund comics industry) to produce comic art for international comic-book publishers, including Fleetway Publications (UK), Warren Magazines (USA), and SEMIC Press (Sweden). SI also supplied content for K.G. Murray Publications' various romance and cowboy/Western comics throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Did KG Murray Publications contract SI to provide new artwork for the "Devil Doone" series, following Amos' retirement? If that was the case, it's possible that part of their agreement  allowed SI to sell the Spanish-drawn episodes of "Devil Doone" throughout Europe. After all, SI had struck a similar deal with Skywald Publications (USA) in the 1970s, which allowed the company to syndicate the work it produced for Skywald's various horror comics to foreign markets - including Australia, where they were published by the Sydney-based firm, Gredown Pty Ltd (Fellow Australian comics historian Daniel Best has uncovered some fascinating insights about this "mysterious" Australian publisher, which he promises to share publicly).

Nevertheless, this is a fascinating glimpse of how Australian comics continued to circulate in foreign markets, long after Australia's comic-book industry had closed its doors.