Tex Willer


Tex Willer is the main fictional character of the Italian comics series Tex, created by writer Gian Luigi Bonelli and illustrator Aurelio Galleppini, 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 fan base in Brazil is especially large, but it is very popular also in Finland, Norway, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, France, Tamil Nadu, Serbia, 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.
Tex is depicted as a tough guy with a strong personal sense of justice, who becomes a ranger and defends Native Americans and any other honest character from exaction and greed of bandits, unscrupulous merchants and corrupt politician 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 politicians, the business-men, the sheriffs or the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Tex had a son, named Kit, with a Native American woman, named Lilyth, the daughter of a Navajo Chief. 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". The Texoni have around 240 pages and some artists known outside the Tex universe have been involved, like Jordi Bernet, Joe Kubert 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 man with a strong code of honour: to kill only for self-defence. Almost immediately, however, Tex becomes a ranger. 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, the Mexican Montales, the Canadian trapper Gros-Jean, the Irish boxer Pat Mac Ryan, the Mounties Colonel Jim Brandon, San Francisco Police Department Captain Tom Devlin, the Apache chief Cochise, and the Navajo wizard Red Cloud.
Tex Willer's nemesis is Mefisto, an evil magician and illusionist. Other enemies include Yama, The Black Tiger, and Proteus.
During the American Civil War Tex fought for the Union, although his home state, Texas, sided with the Confederacy. He participated in the battle of Glorieta Pass and briefly served in the 7th Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry.

Characters

Main characters

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 issued a year.
In former Yugoslavia, 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 , Zuhal Yayınları, Inter, Alfa Yayıncılık, Galaksi Yayıncılık, Doğan/Egmont, Aksoy Yayınları, Maceraperest, Oğlak Yayınları are the numerous publishers who made Tex hundreds of thousands of fans in Turkish language.
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 Joe Kubert; they were published by Dark Horse Comics. 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 as Tex and the Lord of the Deep. 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 were released for the Commodore Amiga and PC by Italian published Simulmondo. These games where only officially released in Italy and only had Italian text, which has made them quite rare and collectable by today.