ITALIEN

Pauli Hietala writes:

When the series was published in Italy, Sherlock Holmes was changed to Guiseppe Petrosino and Harry Taxon to Franco Tarso. Petrosino was an Italian-American police-officer who fought ”The Black Hand” in New York. Petrosino travelled back to Italy in 1900, where he was supposed to start collecting information about the criminal elements emigrated to USA. The newspapers were reporting his “secret mission” before he even arrived. The curse of being famous. He was soon murdered. He became a national hero, who was literally immortalized not only through the modified Sherlock Holmes-series, but also through a thick adventure novel. The novel was published in Finland in 1914.

The covers of the German series painted by Alfred Roloff were repainted by Italian artist Tancredi Scarpelli. The most controversial covers were censured and the more distasteful details were removed. The cover depicting the infamous “Red Bill” no more have women hanging from meat hooks.

The series must have been very, very popular for there were numerous reprints. Unfortunately the numbering varies from series to series, so we cannot reconstruct af "complete" set.