RGE

RGE or Rio Gráfica e Editora was a Brazilian publisher of comics.

History

Rio Gráfica Editora, also known as RGE, was aBrazilian comic book publisher and a division of the O Globo newspaper. Founded by Roberto Marinho, RGE was created in 1952 as the comic book and magazine publishing arm of O Globo, part of what was then known as Organizações Globo (now Grupo Globo), one of the largest media conglomerates in Latin America.

Although RGE was essentially part of the same media group, it could not initially use the name Editora Globo because another publishing house, Livraria do Globo—founded in 1883 and based in Porto Alegre—had been using the name Globo for publishing since 1928.

O Globo itself, founded in 1925, had a long history with comics. It began publishing Golden Age comic material in the late 1930s through two print series apart from the newspaper: O Globo Juvenil (1937) and Gibi (1939). On January 22, 1940, the newspaper started printing the daily strip of The Phantom to promote those comic book lines.

RGE gained prominence as the principal publisher of The Phantom in Brazil, even producing its own original Phantom stories. A dedicated Phantom magazine, titled Fantasma Magazine, was launched in 1953 and continued publication until 1992.

In 1986, RGE acquired Livraria do Globo of Porto Alegre. The main goal of the acquisition was to secure the rights to the Globo name. After the purchase, RGE officially became Editora Globo.

In January 2018, Editora Globo, Infoglobo (O Globo, Extra and others newspapers), and Valor Econômico were merged into a single company: Editora Globo, which came to own 21 brands. Later that same year, Grupo Globo began a unification process involving TV Globo, Globosat, Globo.com, and Globoplay under the initiative called "Uma Só Globo" ("One Globo"), aiming to consolidate their previously separate operations into a single structure. The completion of the first phase of this unification was officially announced in 2021.

Serialized "The Phantom" titles

Title	Year(s)	Issues
Fantasma (RGE)	1953-1986	371
Fantasma Edição Extra	1953-1971	6
Almanaque do Fantasma	1955-1978 1979-1986	33 31
Fantasma Especial (RGE - 1st Series)	1972-1978	3
O Fantasma Novels	1975-1977	3
Superalmanaque Fantasma	1980-1983	13
Hiperalmanaque Fantasma	1981-1982	3
Arquivos Secretos do Fantasma	1981-1982	2
Fantasma Especial (RGE - 2nd Series)	1983-1986	7

"The Phantom" one-shots

Title	Year
O Filho do Fantasma	1965
Mini-Edição da Revista Fantasma	1969
Gibi Especial 2	1975
O Casamento do Fantasma	1978
A Lua-de-Mel do Fantasma	1978
Fantasma Especial: Os Bebés do Fantasma	1979
Fantasma Album	1979
Fantasma Especial (RGE)	1980

Anthology appearances

Title	Year
Super Almanaque Especial	1972
Almanaque do Gibi Nostalgia 1	1975
Almanaque do Gibi Nostalgia 3	1976

As backup title

Title	Issue(s)
Mandrake (RGE)	? (325 in total)
Gibi de Ouro	1 (6 in total)