|
 |
orn in Milan on 2 December 1932, Sergio Bonelli is the
son of Gian Luigi Bonelli, the |
| creator of Tex and of so many other heroes of
Italian comic strips.
However, precisely in order to distinguish himself from his father, he has always
preferred to write his scripts under the pseudonym of Guido Nolitta. He made his
début as a scriptwriter in 1957, when he translated into Italian the Spanish series
"Verdugo Ranch" and wrote its concluding episode, entrusting the artwork to
Franco Bignotti. Bignotti also performed the graphic rendering of the first
|
|
 |
character
created by Nolitta: "Un ragazzo nel Far-West" dated 1958.
Several episodes of "Il Piccolo Ranger" (normally written by
Andrea Lavezzolo) are likewise the fruit of the fervent Bonelli imagination.
In 1960 Nolitta wrote "Il Giudice Bean", an absolutely brilliant
series composed of just six adventures, for which the artwork was provided by
Sergio Tarquinio. The joint activity with Tarquinio was repeated for "Il ribelle",
a short adventure composed in the same year. 1960 saw the meeting
between Sergio Bonelli and the illustrator Gallieno Ferri: they decided to begin
working together and in 1961 they created Zagor, for which Nolitta composed
almost all the stories up to 1980. 1975 was the year in which Nolitta initiated the
Mister No series, about an amusing Piper pilot who is half a tramp, half an
adventurer, experiencing his adventures against the background of 1950s South
America. In 1977 Nolitta wrote the script of the book "L'Uomo del Texas"
for Aurelio Galeppini, and at the same time he began,
anonymously, to entrust Galep himself and several other illustrators with some
of his Tex stories. In 1985 he composed the concluding adventure of the
"Il Piccolo Ranger" series, and in 1990 he inaugurated the miniseries "River Bill"
with artwork by Francesco Gamba. At present, Nolitta writes stories for Mister No
and Tex; he was also the co-author (with Castelli) of the cross-over in which
Jerry Drake meets the Detective of the Impossible. Of fundamental importance for
the world of Italian comic strips is Sergio Bonelli's activity as a publisher,
an activity which today takes up almost all of his time and would deserve a
chapter in its own right.
|
 |
GALLIENO FERRI, who created the graphics and the artwork
was born in Genoa on 21 March 1929.
In 1960 he met Guido Nolitta (Sergio Bonelli) with whom he invented Zagor, subsequently contributing the artwork for numerous stories and the entire range of cover illustrations.
After working for a few years as a chartered surveyor, he was judged to be one of the best comic strip illustrators in a competition held by the publisher De Leo, who was "talent scouting" among some of the most promising young artists.
This result enabled Ferri to set to work immediately on illustrating two characters, "Il Fantasma Verde" and "Piuma Rossa".
Ferri initials his panels as Fergal.
In 1949 he illustrated the first series of "Maskar" ,
and designed the graphic representation |
 |
|
|
and designed the graphic representation of the western characters "Tom Tom" and "Thunder Jack". This marked the beginning of a series of successful projects with the French market.
He also illustrated the series "Jolly" and "Capitan Walter" for "Il Vittorioso".
The two authors' intention was to create a character who would appeal to the younger generation, while carefully steering clear of childish oversimplification; they also intended the Zagor stories to embody all the most typical elements of adventure stories, enriching the themes with ingredients taken over from other narrative genres.
In 1975, when another celebrated Sergio Bonelli character, Mister No, was first introduced, Ferri illustrated the first issue and designed the first one
one hundred and fifteen cover illustrations. Ferri also designed the covers of Specials 9 and 10 of the Comandante Mark series, and the cover of the small album enclosed with Special 9.
| |
|
