Tex Willer

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Tex Willer

Tex Willer. Art by Unknown.

Publisher	Sergio Bonelli Editore
First appearance	(vol. 1) #15 (September 1948)
Created by	Gian Luigi Bonelli Aurelio Galleppini.

Characteristics
Alter ego	Tex Willer
Notable aliases	Eagle of Night, It is the Native American name for Tex, which resulted from a costume and mask he wore in one of his adventures.
Abilities	Can control most of native Indians, effective use of rifle.

Tex Willer is a character in an Italian comics of the same name, created by writer Gian Luigi Bonelli and illustrator Aurelio Galleppini, first published in Italy on September 30, 1948. Tex is the most famous hero of Italian comics in 20th century, and in 2000s his books sell around 200,000 copies per issue in Italy, published by Sergio Bonelli Editore. He usually travels with his pards Kit Carson, Kit Willer, and Tiger Jack.

1 Early adventures
2 Friends
3 Work
4 Authors (main writers)
5 Authors (main illustrators)
6 Foreign versions
7 External links

[edit] Early adventures

The first Tex Willer's adventure appears in newspaper kiosk on the 30 September 1948, in the mythical "strip" size. The "first" Tex is an outlaw against his will, with a code of honour: he kills only for defending. Almost immediately, however, Tex becomes a ranger. Thanks to an Indian marriage with the beautiful Lilyth, he becomes (with the name Eagle of the Night) head of the Navajos and brave defender of Indians' laws. Hard, loyal, infallible with the gun, enemy of prejudice and discrimination, Tex is very quick, he doesn't care for the rules: he beats the "bad" that often acknowledges! Because of his character, everyone calls Tex for help where there is the need of anybody without fear and without "tied up hands".

[edit] Friends

The friend of almost all the adventures, since the enlistment in the ranger, is the old Kit Carson (homonymous of the historic frontiersman). A fundamental role has been held by Tex Willer's child, Kit Willer, and by the Navajo warrior Tiger Jack. It's impossible to remember all the other friends of Tex, met in thousand adventures, from the Texas' tracks to the San Francisco's Chinatown , from the Canadian snowed expanses to the Maya temples in Mexico... His recurrent friends are: the mysterious El Morisco, the Mexican Montales, the strong Canadian Gros-Jean, the Irish boxer Pat Mac Ryan, the red coat Jim Brandon, the police officer Tom Devlin, the Apache chief Cochise, the wizard Navajo Red Cloud.

[edit] Work

He is a ranger working for the Indian Department, and he is the Indian Agent of Navajo Reservation in Arizona. He is also the chief of all Navajo tribes, because he married his predecessor's daughter Lilyth.

His nemesis (or eternal enemy) is Mefisto, a magician who practices dark magic. Other enemies met along the way are Yama (Mefisto's son), The Black Tiger (a Malaysian prince who hates the white race and seeks its destruction in the USA), Proteus (a man capable of transforming his face to take another person's place).

[edit] Authors (main writers)

[edit] Authors (main illustrators)

Jesús Blasco
Fabio Civitelli
Fernando Fusco
Aurelio Galleppini
Francesco Gamba
Guglielmo Letteri
Carlo Raffaele Marcello
Vincenzo Monti
Virgilio Muzzi
Erio Nicolò
José Ortiz
Miguel Angel Repetto
Giovanni Ticci
Claudio Villa

[edit] Foreign versions

Tex Willer character started coming in South India through Lion comics in Tamil language and it is still a very popular character. Lion comics has brought many cowboy heroes, but the best known of all is Tex. "Thalai vanki kurangu", meaning "head seeking ape," is considered to be one of his best. In Norway Tex Willer has also run continuously since 1971, with from 11 to 17 numbers (on average 120 pages) issued a year. He is also very popular in Brazil, Finland, France, Turkey and in the ex-Yugoslavian countries (mainly Croatia and Serbia).