Tex Willer is the main fictional character of the

Italian comics Italian comics, also known as ''fumetto'' , plural form ''fumetti'' , are comics that originate in Italy. The most popular Italian comics have been translated into many languages. The term ''fumetto'' (literally ''little puff of smoke'') refers t ...

series ''Tex'', created by writer

Gian Luigi Bonelli Giovanni Luigi Bonelli (22 December 1908 – 12 January 2001) was an Italian comic book author and publisher, best remembered as the co-creator of ''Tex Willer'' in 1948, together with artist Aurelio Galleppini Aurelio Galleppini (28 August 1 ...

and illustrator

Aurelio Galleppini Aurelio Galleppini (28 August 1917 – 10 March 1994), better known with his nickname Galep, was an Italian comics artist and illustrator, best known as graphic creator of ''Tex Willer'' in 1948. Biography Galleppini was born at Casale d ...

, and first published in Italy on 30 September 1948. It is among the most popular characters of Italian comics, with translations to numerous languages all around the world. The author took inspiration from Sardinia, where he grew up as a kid. The fan base in Brazil is especially large, but it is very popular also in Finland, Norway, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, France, India, Serbia, Bosnia, Israel and Spain. The ''Tex Willer'' series is an Italian-made interpretation of the American Old West, inspired by the classical characters and stories of old American

Western movies The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...

. Tex is depicted as a tough guy with a strong personal sense of justice, who becomes a

ranger A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

(even if living in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

) and defends Native Americans and any other honest character from exaction and greed of bandits, unscrupulous merchants and corrupt politicians and tycoons. Native Americans are portrayed in a complex way, emphasizing positive and negative aspects of their culture. The same can be said of the American authorities, like the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

, the politicians, the business-men, the sheriffs or the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Tex had a son, named ''Kit'' (who became a ranger too), with a Native American woman, named ''Lilyth'', the daughter of a Navajo Chief (she later died of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

). Later, Tex himself went on to become the Chief of the Navajo tribe. Tex is not only featured in a monthly comic book series, but also in a special series called Tex Albo Speciale (sometimes called ''Texone'', meaning big Tex, because of their bigger size). The Texone have around 240 pages and some artists known outside the Tex universe have been involved, like

Jordi Bernet Jordi Bernet Cussó (born 14 June 1944) is a Spanish comics artist, best known for the gangster comics series ''Torpedo'' and for American weird western comic book ''Jonah Hex''. Career He was born in Barcelona, the son of a Spanish comic book a ...

Joe Kubert Joseph Kubert (; September 18, 1926 – August 12, 2012) was a Polish-born American comic book artist, art teacher, and founder of The Kubert School. He is best known for his work on the DC Comics characters Sgt. Rock and Hawkman. He is also kno ...

and Ivo Milazzo.

Fictional character background

Tex Willer's first adventure appeared on 30 September 1948, as a comic strip. The "first" Tex is an unwillingly

outlawed An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

man with a strong code of honour: to kill only for self-defence. Almost immediately, however, Tex becomes a

. Thanks to the marriage with the beautiful Navajo girl Lilyth, he becomes Chief of the Navajos, known as ''Eagle of the Night'', and a defender of Native American rights. Tough, loyal, infallible with guns, enemy of prejudice and discrimination, Tex is very quick and smart, and has a marked disregard for strict rules; on the other side, he has no pity for criminals, of every race and census, nor regard for their rights, if they do not immediately cooperate with the law. Tex's closest friend in almost every adventure, since he became a ranger, is Kit Carson, loosely inspired by the historic figure of the same name. A main role has been held by Tex Willer's son, Kit Willer, and by the Navajo warrior Tiger Jack; though importance of last two has been diminishing in recent stories. Other recurring characters include El Morisco (a kind of warlock-scientist of Egyptian origin, living in the north-east of Mexico), the Mexican Montales (originally a bandido that fought against a corrupted government, and after a successful politician), the Canadian trapper Gros-Jean, the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

boxer Pat Mac Ryan, the Mounties Colonel Jim Brandon,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Police Department Captain Tom Devlin, the Apache chief

Cochise Cochise (; Apache: ''Shi-ka-She'' or ''A-da-tli-chi'', lit.: ''having the quality or strength of an oak''; later ''K'uu-ch'ish'' or ''Cheis'', lit. ''oak''; June 8, 1874) was leader of the Chihuicahui local group of the Chokonen and principa ...

, and the Navajo wizard Red Cloud. Tex Willer's nemesis is Mefisto, an evil magician and

illusionist Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It ...

. Other enemies include Yama (Mefisto's son), The Black Tiger (a Malay prince who hates the white race and wants its annihilation in the United States), and Proteus (able to shapeshift his own face, and impersonate other people). During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

Tex fought for the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

, although his home state,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, sided with the Confederacy. He participated in the

battle of Glorieta Pass The Battle of Glorieta Pass (March 26–28, 1862) in the northern New Mexico Territory, was the decisive battle of the New Mexico campaign during the American Civil War. Dubbed the " Gettysburg of the West" by some authors (a term described ...

and briefly served in the

7th Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry The 7th Kansas Cavalry Regiment (also known as "Jennison's Jayhawkers") was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Service The 7th Kansas Cavalry was organized at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on October 28, 1 ...

Characters

Main characters

*Tex Willer, the protagonist, Texas ranger, chief of the Navajo tribe and also the Bureau of Indian Affairs agent of the Navajo Reservation (Tex Willer is modeled after actor

Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, ...

) *Kit Carson, Tex's best friend and pard ranger (he is not the same historical

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and ...

) *Kit Willer, Tex's son *Tiger Jack, Navajo warrior

Recurring friends and allies

*Montales, former Mexican bandido and current governor of the state of Chihuahua and vice-president of Mexico *El Morisco (Ahmed Jamal), a warlock, scientist, naturalist and doctor from

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

, Egypt, who lives in Pilares, Mexico *Gros-Jean, Canadian

metis Metis or Métis may refer to: Ethnic groups * Métis, recognized Indigenous communities in Canada and America whose distinct culture and language emerged after early intermarriage between First Nations peoples and early European settlers, prima ...

, former outlaw and current trapper working in Canada *Jim Brandon,

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

of the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

in Canada *

, chief of the Apache Chiricahua tribe *Tom Devlin,

Police captain A police captain is a police rank in some countries, such as the United States and France and in the Philippines. By country France France uses the rank of ''capitaine'' for management duties in both uniformed and plain-clothed policing. Th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

*Pat MacRyan, an Irish boxer *Lefty Potrero, owner of a gym and health club in

*Nat MacKennet, sheriff in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Ely Parker Ely Samuel Parker (1828 – August 31, 1895), born ''Hasanoanda'' ( Tonawanda Seneca), later known as ''Donehogawa'', was a U.S. Army officer, engineer, and tribal diplomat. He was bilingual, speaking both Seneca and English, and became frie ...

, head of the Federal Commission on Indian Affairs from 1869 to 1871 *

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...

of the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

from 1869 to 1877 *Red Cloud, Navajo shaman

Recurring enemies

*Mefisto (Steve Dickart), a powerful and evil warlock and illusionist, Tex's nemesis *Yama (Blacky Dickart), a powerful warlock, son of Mefisto. Seen four times so far *Proteus (Perry Drayton), a man who can camouflage himself and change appearance with ease *El Muerto (Paco Ordoñez), a Mexican pistolero, one of three brothers, who were killed by Tex *The Black Tiger (Prince Sumankan), a Malay prince from

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

. Killed by Tom Devlin *The Master (Andrew Liddell), a mad scientist

Authors

Giancarlo Berardi Giancarlo Berardi (born 15 November 1949) is an Italian comic book writer. Born in Genoa, he is most famous as creator of comics '' Ken Parker'' (1977) and ''Julia Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of th ...

Sergio Bonelli Sergio Bonelli (2 December 1932 – 26 September 2011) was an Italian comic book writer and publisher. He is best known as creator of '' Zagor'' (1961) and ''Mister No'' (1975), as well as a comics publisher through the publishing house Sergio ...

*Mauro Boselli *Decio Canzio *Tito Faraci *Gianfranco Manfredi * Michele Medda * Claudio Nizzi *Pasquale Ruju * Antonio Segura

Illustrators

Jesús Blasco Jesús Blasco (3 November 1919 – 21 October 1995) was a Spanish author and artist of comic books, whose career covered most of the conventional history of comic strips. He worked extensively in British comics in the 1960s and 1970s. Career Bla ...

* Guido Buzzelli *

Renzo Calegari Renzo Calegari (5 September 1933 – 5 November 2017) was an Italian comics artist. Life and career Born in Genoa, Calegari left his studies in accountancy to enter the art studios of Roy d'Ami. He made his professional debut one year later, co ...

* Aldo Capitanio *Raul and Gianluca Cestaro *

Fabio Civitelli Fabio Civitelli (born 9 April 1955, Lucignano) is an italian people, Italian comic artist best known for illustrating stories for Tex Willer, a popular comic in Italy. Civitelli is often remarked as being highly skilled with ink drawings, which al ...

*Franco Crivelli * Víctor de la Fuente *Pasquale Del Vecchio *Raffaele Della Monica *Roberto Diso *Lucio Filuppucci * Alfonso Font *Fernando Fusco *

*Francesco Gamba * Ernesto García Seijas * Alarico Gattia *

Alberto Giolitti Alberto Giolitti (November 14, 1923 – April 15, 1993) was an Italian-American comic book artist. He was born in Rome, where his family held (and still hold) one of the most famous cafés, Giolitti, where he also worked for a while. He debuted a ...

* Guglielmo Letteri *Carlo Raffaele Marcello * Ivo Milazzo * Vincenzo Monti *Virgilio Muzzi *Erio Nicolò * José Ortiz * Goran Parlov *

Roberto Raviola Magnus, pseudonym of Roberto Raviola (May 30, 1939 – February 5, 1996), was an Italian comic book artist, regarded as one of the foremost cartoonists of all time in his country. Biography Born in Bologna in 1939, he studied at Academy of Fine A ...

*Miguel Angel Repetto *Rossano Rossi *

Massimo Rotundo Massimo Rotundo (born 11 April 1955) is an Italian comics artist. Biography After attending the Academy of Fine Arts in his native city, Rome, Rotundo made his debut as comics artist in 1978 in collaboration with Eura Editoriale. Later he worked ...

Manfred Sommer Manfred Sommer (May 27, 1933 – October 3, 2007) was a Spanish comics artist, best known for the reporter comics series ''Frank Cappa''. Career Sommer was born at San Sebastián. He began his career as an informal pupil of Jesus Blasco, and re ...

*Erasmo Dante Spada *Giovanni Ticci * Mario Uggeri * Claudio Villa *

Colin Wilson Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his phil ...

Sergio Zaniboni Sergio Zaniboni (4 August 1937 – 18 August 2017) was an Italian comics artist and writer. He was especially known as the artist of numerous stories for '' Diabolik''. Career Born in Turin, Zaniboni started his comics career after working in t ...

Foreign versions

In Argentina, Tex was published in the 1950s by ''Editorial Abril'' in his weekly magazine ''Rayo Rojo'', with the name of ''Colt Miller''. In Brazil, Tex has been published uninterruptedly since 1971. Currently, it is being published by Mythos Editora. In Finland, Tex Willer was published in 1953–1965. After a break of five years, Tex Willer has been published continuously since 1971. The series is still popular and 16 numbers are published a year. In Greece, Tex was published in the 1970s, 1980s and 2010s under three different titles. In India, Tex was published in the 1980s by the South Indian Tamil Comics publisher, Lion comics. The series is regularly being published in Lion Comics, due to its wide popularity among the generations. In Israel, Tex was published in the 1970s, reprinted several times since in limited editions, the latest one in 2007. In Norway, Tex Willer has also run continuously since 1971, with from 11 to 17 numbers (each on 114 pages) issued a year. In former

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

, Tex was published in the late 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, and was very popular among other Bonelli characters such as Zagor. In the 1990s after the break-up of Yugoslavia Tex Willer starts publishing in Croatia Serbia and Slovenia. In Turkey, Tex was published by a large number of publishers and it is still being published in irregular hardcover book formats. Ceylan Yayınları (1961 - 1969) (1978 - 1986), Zuhal Yayınları (1970 - 1978), Inter, Alfa Yayıncılık (1991), Galaksi Yayıncılık, Doğan/Egmont (AD, DE - 1996), Aksoy Yayınları (2000), Maceraperest (200? - ), Oğlak Yayınları are the numerous publishers who made Tex hundreds of thousands of fans in Turkish languag

In the United Kingdom, fourteen Tex Willer albums were published since 1971.[] In the United States, Tex Willer appeared in two original books called ''The Four Killers'' and ''Tex: The Lonesome Rider'', written by Claudio Nizzi and illustrated by American comic artist

; they were published by

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...

. In 2017, Epicenter Comics also released in the USA the story ''Tex: Patagonia''.

Other media

Attempts had been made to adapt ''Tex'' into a film in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Italy. The film was eventually made in 1985 by director

Duccio Tessari Duccio Tessari (11 October 1926 – 6 September 1994) was an Italian director, screenwriter and actor, considered one of the fathers of Spaghetti Westerns. Born in Genoa, Tessari started in the fifties as documentarist and as screenwriter of pe ...

as ''

Tex and the Lord of the Deep ''Tex and the Lord of the Deep'' ( it, Tex e il signore degli abissi) is a 1985 Western film co-written and directed by Duccio Tessari and starring Giuliano Gemma and William Berger. The film is an adaptation of the ''Tex'' comic series that w ...

''. The film was adapted from three ''Tex'' comics: ''El Morisco'', ''Sierra Encantada'' and ''Il signore dell'abisso''. The film was intended as a pilot for a television series, but poor critical and box office reception of the film led to no television series being produced. In 1993 several Tex computer games (thirteen known ones) were released for the

Commodore Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

and PC by Italian published

Simulmondo ''Simulmondo'' was an Italian software house from Bologna. Specialized video game developer and publisher, it has produced about 150 videogames for Commodore 64, Amiga, PC and Atari ST. Originally founded in 1988 by Francesco Carlà and Ricca ...

. These games were only officially released in Italy and only had Italian text, which has made them quite rare and collectable by today.

References

Sources

External links

SERGIO BONELLI EDITORE official pageUnofficial info site on Tex Willer comics

Unofficial site for Tex Willer videos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willer, Tex 1948 comics debuts Comics characters introduced in 1948 Fictional American Civil War veterans Fictional United States Army personnel Fictional characters from Texas Fictional gunfighters Italian comics adapted into films Italian comics characters Tex Willer Tex Willer Western (genre) comics Western (genre) comics characters