Mustang #54
Mustang #54 is the founding issue of Editions Lug's bold superhero experiment: a Lyon-based publisher's answer to Marvel and DC, launching three wholly original French super-heroes — Photonik, Mikros, and Ozark — in a single issue and marking the complete reinvention of a long-running western digest into a full-color, American-format comics magazine. The simultaneous debut of Photonik (created by Ciro Tota) and Mikros (created by Jean-Yves Mitton and Marcel Navarro) in one issue makes it a singular moment in Franco-Belgian comics history, representing the first sustained, commercially distributed attempt to build a domestic superhero universe in France that could coexist alongside licensed Marvel translations on the same newsstand. Although the Mustang super-héros run lasted only seventeen issues before economic pressures ended it, the characters born here — especially Photonik and Mikros — went on to multi-year careers in other Lug titles and have never entirely left French comics culture, inspiring reprint editions and revival projects across four decades.
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
In 1980, Editions Lug — a Lyon publisher that had been translating Marvel Comics for French readers since the late 1960s — discovered that Jean-Yves Mitton had been developing superhero strips on his own time, and decided to dedicate a vehicle to wholly original Lug studio creations as a way of demonstrating that French creators could produce superheroes on par with their American counterparts. Rather than launch an entirely new title (which would have created regulatory complications with France's press commission), the publisher repurposed the flagging western digest Mustang, retooling it from issue #54 onward into a full-color, larger-format comics magazine. Marcel Navarro, the co-founder of Lug, served as editorial supervisor over the run, writing Mikros scripts under the pen name Malcolm Naughton while Mitton drew and scripted under John Milton; Ciro Tota created Photonik under the alias Cyrus Arnt Tota, and Franco Oneta drew the Ozark strip (scripted by Jacques Lennoz) under the pseudonym Frank Honest. The magazine was priced identically to Lug's translation titles despite the far higher cost of producing original material, and when readership proved insufficient to cover those costs, Lug announced the run's end in the letters column of Strange #143 after just seventeen issues.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Photonik (Taddeus Tenterhook), created and drawn by Ciro Tota (working as 'Cyrus Arnt Tota'): a hunchbacked, orphaned New York teenager accidentally transformed into a light-powered superhero by a laboratory explosion involving a 'luminotron.'
- First appearance of Mikros (Mike Ross), Saltarella (Priscilla Conway), and Crabb (Bobby Crabb), three Harvard entomologists granted superpowers by insectoid aliens called the Svizz — created by Marcel Navarro (as Malcolm Naughton) and Jean-Yves Mitton (as John Milton).
- First appearance of Ozark (Russell Red Horse), a young Sioux who inherits shamanic powers, accompanied by a magic horse named Mustang — drawn by Franco Oneta (as Frank Honest) and scripted by Jacques Lennoz (Jack Nolez); the horse's name 'Mustang' was the explicit reason the strip was added, so the magazine's existing title remained justified.
- First appearance of supporting characters Doc Ziegel (neuropsychologist ally of Photonik), Tom Pouce (Photonik's young acrobatic companion), and the villain Le Minotaure, who opens Photonik's debut story by using mind control to menace New York.
- Issue #54 marked the complete format change of the Mustang magazine: from a small-format black-and-white western digest (issues 1–53, 1966–1980) to a larger, full-color American-style comics magazine (17×27 cm per GCD), with 100% original French content.
- The issue included a central insert page of three collectible stickers depicting Ozark, Photonik, and Mikros — a promotional bonus noted in collector documentation and reprinted as a facsimile in the 2013 Photonik Black & White integral edition.
- Photonik ran all 17 episodes of the Mustang super-héros era (issues 54–70), then continued in Lug's Spidey magazine through 1987; Mikros migrated to Titans and ran until 1986 — both series outliving the magazine that launched them.
- The Mustang super-héros run (issues 54–70, June 1980–October 1981) was canceled after 17 issues because producing original French content cost significantly more than licensing and translating Marvel material, at a cover price Lug kept deliberately low for working-class readers.