Having lost his uncle, his last living relative, at the
hand of Lucky Bear's bandits, Tim Carter decides to enroll in the army as a
scout, where he soon finds an opportunity to settle the account with the
murderers. Thus begins the long series of adventures whose protagonist is
"A boy in the Far West" (this is in fact the title of the series),
and which also marked the script-writing debut of Guido Nolitta, alias Sergio
Bonelli. As compared to his more classical predecessors, the figure of Tim was
enriched by a certain irreverent tone, that would later become a constant
element of Nolitta's characters, from Zagor to Mister No. The inevitable
"comic relief character" (and perhaps the true protagonist of the
stories) is Dusty Ryan, a rather disheveled soldier, a bit of a lazy-bones, not
terribly brave, keen on a good drink, often to be found strumming his banjo and
singing completely out of tune. Nolitta, who was busy working on other
projects, subsequently handed the character on to G. L. Bonelli, who accentuated
the action component. The long saga - entirely illustrated with skill and
precision by Franco Bignotti, assisted in the final period by Giovanni Ticci,
who contributed the pencil drawings for several episodes - had its grand finale
in 1975, at the hand of Decio Canzio, on the occasion of its reprinting in the
Collana Rodeo collection. By this time, there was heightened civil and social
awareness, so that in the last episode was the two companions of adventure
begin to distance themselves from the army, whose positions on certain issues
they no longer share.
Sergio Bonelli (aka Guido Nolitta) was born in Milan,
Italy on February 12, 1932. A child of art: his father, Gianluigi Bonelli, was
one of the 'founders' of Italian comics, and one of its most valuable authors;
his mother, Tea Bonelli, was a pioneer of' children's publishing. While still very
young he attended the craft editors Audace, taking familiar art classes with
all the different aspects of the "trade." in 1957, only twenty-five,
he takes over the family business as director of the Herald editions. A year
after signing a Boy in the Far West, designed by Franco Bignotti, published in
Frontier and reprinted several times, this is followed by Judge Bean, drawn
graphically by Sergio Tarquinio in 1959 but published only in 1963 in the
series of Albi the Cow Boy. The signature that appears in the title of the
books it is not Sergio Bonelli, but Guido Nolitta, not his real name, made by
chance. This is a very clear choice desired by those who, with a lot of honesty
and sincerity, is considered an amateur in authorship, but is considered more
properly at ease in publishing entrepreneur books. In 1961 he creates Zagor,
designed by Gallienus Ferri. The stories of Nolitta, while easily inserted in
the vein of classic adventure fiction, and often willingly enrich a certain
light-hearted tone that then turns into a constant of all the characters he
creates, to become the distinctive feature of Mister No, published in 1975
designed by Gallienus Ferri and Franco Donatelli in the first two episodes, but
then definitively characterized by Roberto Diso. However even in this case
Bonelli leaves, perhaps more reluctantly than others, the task of writing
different stories for good employees such as Castelli, Nizzi, Sclavi and
Ongaro. It's like an author getaway that is within him to better find himself
than that of publisher, who in over thirty years of activity has given to
Italian readers the opportunity to read stories of timeless heroes like Tex
Willer or decidedly innovators like Ken Parker, Martin Mystere, Dylan Dog, Nick
Raider and Nathan Never. But even small publishing jewel, such as series
Protagonists (1974-75), by Gino D'Antonio the History of the West series, or
the prestigious volumes of A Man an Adventure, real training of international
talent. It is in this series that in 1977 Bonelli Nolitta-wrote the screenplay
of "The 'Man in Texas", designed by Aurelio Galleppini. Without
signing them he also writes numerous stories for TEX.
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