Lotario Vecchi and his brother Arturo founded Editôra Vecchi in Rio de Janeiro in 1913 after relocating from Italy. Lotario returned to Italy and later founded Edisioni Lampo in 1939, leaving Arturo to run Vecchi. The company originally focused on women’s novels (one can assume this means romance novels) but in 1929 began publishing comic books, for which the company would become famous. The range of titles was large, reprinting content from famous comics around the world including Tex from Italy, Mad Magazine from the US, Smurfs from Belgium, and numerous Gold Key, Fawcett, and Charlton comic books. From the late 1940s through at least the 1970s the company also created a range of sticker books on a wide array of topics, including Disney. The company suffered financial problems in the early 1980s, forcing the company to close in 1983.
Os Livros de Ouro da Juventude #16 - Alice no Pais das Maravilhas
Vecchi printed an Alice in Wonderland sticker book, essentially a Portuguese version of the Italian Lampo sticker book which had been published in 1952 (we'll see that one in a future post). There were at least two printings of this Brazilian version, one in the late summer of 1958 (dated July, August, September), the other in the winter of 1959 (dated January, February, March). The book has the same format as the Italian, including all art, with 32 pages holding 240 stickers, each page separated by a velum sheet. The album itself could be purchased for Cr$5, with stickers sold for Cr$5 per 15, although they could be purchased in quantities of 15, 30, or 45 stickers at a time.
