Great Adventures collection - Oveja Negra

Then in 1984, in Spain, publishing company Ediciones Forum (also part of the larger Planeta Group) launched another collection of 100 novels in softcover pocket book format under the title "Grandes Aventuras" ("Great Adventures"), consisting mostly of classic novels, but also some of Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels. Then in 1985, Oveja Negra from Colombia, again in partnership with R.B.A. from Spain, launched a collection under the same name for Colombia and Latin America, also consisting of 100 titles, released betweeen 1985 and 1986, including most (but not all) of the ones from the Forum collection; unlike what happened with their Best Sellers collection, here some titles which were long and in the Forum collection had been split into two volumes, were instead presented in a single volume, sometimes using smaller typeface in order to keep the size of the book from becoming too bloated. The enclosed brochure which came with the first two titles upon their release listed them all. Here in Peru it arrived between 1985 and 1987, and again, I acquired the first two at the Monterrey department store, as well as a few more, while I got some other titles much later at second-hand bookstores.

Just as I did before with the Best Sellers one, I've scanned the original brochure in 16 parts, since it was as large as the previous one. First, the front page as it appeared when it was folded:

Now the back page:

The inside after opening it first:

And the complete listing, after finishing unfolding it:

Here's the list of titles, translated into English, as they were originally published in Colombia:

• 1: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas – Jules Verne
• 2: Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
• 3: The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
• 4: Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar – Jules Verne
• 5: From Russia, with Love – Ian Fleming
• 6: Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad
• 7: King Solomon's Mines – H. Rider Haggard
• 8: The Prince and the Pauper – Mark Twain
• 9: The Return of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
• 10: The Count of Monte Cristo (I) – Alexandre Dumas
• 11: The Count of Monte Cristo (II) – Alexandre Dumas
• 12: Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne
• 13: The Black Corsair (El Corsario Negro) – Emilio Salgari
• 14: Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs
• 15: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – B. Traven
• 16: A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
• 17: The Call of the Wild – Jack London
• 18: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame – Víctor Hugo
• 19: In Search of the Castaways – Jules Verne
• 20: Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem (I) – Emilio Salgari
• 21: Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem (II) – Emilio Salgari
• 22: Ivanhoe – Walter Scott
• 23: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court – Mark Twain
• 24: The Last of the Mohicans – James Fenimore Cooper
• 25: Uncle Tom's Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe
• 26: Taras Bulba – Nikolai Gogol
• 27: Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen – Jules Verne
• 28: The African Queen – C. S. Forester
• 29: David Copperfield (I) – Charles Dickens
• 30: David Copperfield (II) – Charles Dickens
• 31: The Prisoner of Zenda – Anthony Hope
• 32: In the South Seas – Robert Louis Stevenson
• 33: The Pirate – Walter Scott
• 34: Gulliver's Travels – Jonathan Swift
• 35: The Man with the Golden Gun – Ian Fleming
• 36: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
• 37: From the Earth to the Moon – Jules Verne
• 38: Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
• 39: The King of Damascus – Emilio Salgari
• 40: The Talisman – Walter Scott
• 41: Tartarin of Tarascon – Alphonse Daudet
• 42: Quo Vadis – Henryk Sienkiewicz
• 43: Robin Hood – Walter Scott
• 44: David Balfour – Robert Louis Stevenson
• 45: The Carpathian Castle – Jules Verne
• 46: The Swiss Family Robinson – Johann David Wyss
• 47: Tarzan and the Ant Men – Edgar Rice Burroughs
• 48: The Gold Danger / The Trail of '98 – Jack London
• 49: Twenty Years After (I) – Alexandre Dumas
• 50: Twenty Years After (II) – Alexandre Dumas
• 51: Nobody's Boy – Hector Malot
• 52: The Coral Island – R. M. Ballantyne
• 53: The Shipwreck of the Chancellor / The Survivors of the Chancellor – Jules Verne
• 54: The Mystery of the Black Jungle – Emilio Salgari
• 55: Rob Roy – Walter Scott
• 56: The Last Days of Pompeii – Edward Bulwer-Lytton
• 57: Goldfinger – Ian Fleming
• 58: Five Weeks in a Balloon – Jules Verne
• 59: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
• 60: The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses – Robert Louis Stevenson
• 61: The Hunchback / The Duke's Motto – Paul Féval
• 62: Quentin Durward – Walter Scott
• 63: Rookwood – William Harrison Ainsworth
• 64: Captain Blood – Rafael Sabatini
• 65: The Headhunters – Emilio Salgari
• 66: The Lighthouse at the End of the World – Jules Verne
• 67: Martin Eden – Jack London
• 68: Allan Quatermain – H. Rider Haggard
• 69: The Black Tulip – Alexandre Dumas
• 70: Beau Geste – P. C. Wren
• 71: Live and Let Die – Ian Fleming
• 72: Seven Pillars of Wisdom – T. E. Lawrence
• 73: The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen – G. A. Bürger
• 74: Kazan, The Wolf Dog – James Oliver Curwood
• 75: Two Years' Vacation – Jules Verne
• 76: The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baronesa D'Orczy
• 77: The King of the Sea – Emilio Salgari
• 78: The Adventures of Captain Hatteras – Jules Verne
• 79: The Red Rover – James Fenimore Cooper
• 80: Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
• 81: The Queen of the Caribbean – Emilio Salgari
• 82: Godfrey Morgan / School for Robinsons – Jules Verne
• 83: The Black Swan – Rafael Sabatini
• 84: Adventure – Jack London
• 85: Montezuema's Daughter – H. Rider Haggard
• 86: Tarzan and the Golden Lion / Tarzan Lord of the Jungle – Edgar Rice Burroughs
• 87: Dr. No – Ian Fleming
• 88: An Antarctic Mystery / The Sphinx of the Ice Fields – Jules Verne
• 89: The Last Trail / The Spirit of the Border – Zane Grey
• 90: In Desert and Wilderness – Henryk Sienkiewicz
• 91: The Young Fur Traders – R. M. Ballantyne
• 92: The Wrecker– Robert Louis Stevenson
• 93: The Scalp Hunters – Thomas Mayne Reid
• 94: The Queen of the Caribbees – Emilio Salgari
• 95: A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
• 96: The Adventures of Buffalo Bill – William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill)
• 97: Mutiny on the Bounty – Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
• 98: The Mysterious Island – Jules Verne
• 99: Scaramouche – Rafael Sabatini
• 100: The Travels of Marco Polo – Marco Polo

And this is the top of cardboard piece behind the first two volumes,(and in front of the brochure) as it was designed to be hung on newsstands:

The same way it happend with the previous Best Sellers collection, I couldn't afford to buy the whole collection, since I was also collecting some other ones, so I just bought the titles which interested me the most:

The ISBN for this collection was 84-8280-700-5, and for individual volumes, of the form 84-8280-7nn-* (where nn stands for the volume number between 01 and 99 -no idea what it was for volume 100- and * was the checksum value). Similarly, the barcodes at the back cover were of the form 9 788482 807nn*. The back cover and the spine were green, with the title, author and volume number on the spine being printed on yellow characters over a black background, and the Oveja Negra logo (a black sheep) right above the volume number.

You may have noticed some inconsistencies in the Mysterious Island volume: instead of bearing the number 98 as in the original listing, it carries number 66, the back cover is a different shade of green, and it's lacking the barcode, instead having an added seal corresponding to the manufacturer of the paper used for printing. It turns out that, by the time the collection was released for Peru, for some reason or other, some of the titles were removed altogether from the collection, and the rest were moved around, resulting in only 91 titles. The final listing is as follows:

• 1. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas – Jules Verne
• 2. Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson
• 3. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
• 4. Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar – Jules Verne
• 5. From Russia, with Love – Ian Fleming
• 6. Lord Jim – Joseph Conrad
• 7. King Solomon's Mines – H. Rider Haggard
• 8. The Prince and the Pauper – Mark Twain
• 9. The Return of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
• 10. The Count of Monte Cristo (I) – Alexandre Dumas
• 11. The Count of Monte Cristo (II) – Alexandre Dumas
• 12. Journey to the Center of the Earth – Jules Verne
• 13. The Black Corsair – Emilio Salgari
• 14. Tarzan of the Apes – Edgar Rice Burroughs
• 15. The Last of the Mohicans – James Fenimore Cooper
• 16. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
• 17. The Call of the Wild – Jack London
• 18. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame – Víctor Hugo
• 19. In Search of the Castaways – Jules Verne
• 20. Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem (I) – Emilio Salgari
• 21. Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem (II) – Emilio Salgari
• 22. Ivanhoe – Walter Scott
• 23. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court – Mark Twain
• 24. From the Earth to the Moon – Jules Verne
• 25. Uncle Tom's Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe
• 26. Taras Bulba – Nikolai Gogol
• 27. Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen – Jules Verne
• 28. The African Queen – C. S. Forester
• 29. David Copperfield (I) – Charles Dickens
• 30. David Copperfield (II) – Charles Dickens
• 31. The Prisoner of Zenda – Anthony Hope
• 32. In the South Seas – Robert Louis Stevenson
• 33. The Pirate – Walter Scott
• 34. Gulliver's Travels – Jonathan Swift
• 35. The Man with the Golden Gun – Ian Fleming
• 36. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
• 37. Around the Moon – Jules Verne
• 38. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
• 39. The King of Damascus – Emilio Salgari
• 40. The Talisman – Walter Scott
• 41. Tartarin of Tarascon – Alphonse Daudet
• 42. Quo Vadis – Henryk Sienkiewicz
• 43. Robin Hood – Walter Scott
• 44. David Balfour – Robert Louis Stevenson
• 45. The Carpathian Castle – Jules Verne
• 46. The Swiss Family Robinson – Johann David Wyss
• 47. Tarzan and the Ant Men – Edgar Rice Burroughs
• 48. The Gold Danger / The Trail of '98 – Jack London
• 49. Twenty Years After (I) – Alexandre Dumas
• 50. Twenty Years After (II) – Alexandre Dumas
• 51. Nobody's Boy (Sin familia) – Hector Malot
• 52. The Coral Island – R. M. Ballantyne
• 53. The Shipwreck of the Chancellor – Jules Verne
• 54. The Mystery of the Black Jungle – Emilio Salgari
• 55. Rob Roy – Walter Scott
• 56. The Last Days of Pompeii – Edward Bulwer-Lytton
• 57. Goldfinger – Ian Fleming
• 58. Five Weeks in a Balloon – Jules Verne
• 59. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
• 60. The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses – Robert Louis Stevenson
• 61. The Headhunters – Emilio Salgari
• 62. The Queen of the Caribbees – Emilio Salgari
• 63. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
• 64. The Adventures of Buffalo Bill – William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill)
• 65. The Headhunters – Emilio Salgari
• 66. The Mysterious Island – Jules Verne
• 67. Martin Eden – Jack London
• 68. The Travels of Marco Polo – Marco Polo
• 69. The Wrecker– Robert Louis Stevenson
• 70. Beau Geste – P. C. Wren
• 71. Live and Let Die – Ian Fleming
• 72. Seven Pillars of Wisdom – T. E. Lawrence
• 73. The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen – G. A. Bürger
• 74. Kazan, The Wolf Dog – James Oliver Curwood
• 75. Two Years' Vacation – Jules Verne
• 76. The Scarlet Pimpernel – Baronesa D'Orczy
• 77. The King of the Sea – Emilio Salgari
• 78. The Adventures of Captain Hatteras – Jules Verne
• 79. The Red Rover – James Fenimore Cooper
• 80. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
• 81. The Queen of the Caribbean – Emilio Salgari
• 82. Godfrey Morgan / School for Robinsons – Jules Verne
• 83. The Black Swan – Rafael Sabatini
• 84. Adventure – Jack London
• 85. Montezuma's Daughter – H. Rider Haggard
• 86. Tarzan and the Golden Lion – Edgar Rice Burroughs
• 87. Dr. No – Ian Fleming
• 88. The Sphinx of the Ice Fields – Jules Verne
• 89. The Last Trail – Zane Grey
• 90. In Desert and Wilderness – Henryk Sienkiewicz
• 91. The Young Fur Traders – R. M. Ballantyne

The most likely explanation is that, as Oveja Negra was already facing financial troubles at the time, when it came to exporting the collection to Peru, they may have run out of those missing titles, and instead of reprinting them, they used the titles from the final volumes in the collection and just reprinted the covers to fill in the "holes" (since for example The Mysterious Island still features its original ISBN corresponding to volume 99 in the inner pages). Some other titles were replaced early on, too, in the original printing.

Finally, here's another sales ticket from Monterrey dated 1986, showing the price as 21.60 Intis, as was the case for the Best Sellers collection in the same year, too:

In my next post, I'll show you yet another collection, although this other one, unlike the previous ones, wasn't published by Oveja Negra anymore, since as I said, it was in financial troubles by then already...