European Western Comic Books ~ Il piccolo sceriffo

Hodghins Kit (his last name also appears in Hodgkins in some strips), orphaned by his sheriff father, captures his father's assassin and is acclaimed as a new sheriff. His companions are Piggy, her sister Lizzie, his girlfriend Flossie and her father Garrett, and the wolf Roki his dog who since that time has given his name to thousands of dogs in Italy

Il piccolo sceriffo (The Little Sheriff) was created by Tristano Torelli and designed by Camillo Zuffi, the hero of a western series published from 1948 to 1964 by the Editor Torelli.  The first strip was seen on the newsstand on June 30, 1948 and is therefore the first comic strip published in Italy. There have also been several foreign editions.

The Little Sheriff belongs to a group of teenage heroes widespread in the 1950s and early 1960s such as “Captain Miki”, the “Little Ranger” and others who wanted to identify them with potential buyers, young boys who could, identify with someone of their own age, and is reflected in the protagonists of comic adventures.

The series began on June 30, 1948 and was written by Torelli and Giana Anguissola and designed by Camillo Zuffi and was published by the Torelli until December 30, 1965 in all 847 strips divided into series. After the first two series the strip was devoted mainly to the adventures of the character, the strip takes on the classic booklet format becoming a periodical that will change several times.  The last two series (IX and X) no longer host the adventures of the character but are instead edited on the Scary Giant.  In ten series, the adventures of the character appear first in two striped series, then in a third in square format, then in five in a libretto format and then in a ninth format in the format of the numbers of the Albo Grandi Avventure (Fasani, 1964) and then finally conclude with numbers 3-6 of the SEPIM Small Scummer in 1966.

The character was also published abroad: There was an English edition entitled Little Sheriff, a French titled Le Petit Shériff of Sagé, a German titled Der Kleine Sheriff and a Brazilian published with the Old Editions.

Camillo Zuffi was born in Bergamo, Italy on April 19, 1912,. He was the creator of 'Il Piccolo Sceriffo', together with writer/publisher Tristiano Torelli, which first appeared in 1948. He also worked with the characters 'La Jena', 'Bonnie' and 'Tex Tone'. He worked primarily for the Italian and French markets, but was also present in Britain with 'Kit Carson' in Cowboy Picture Library and 'Mustang Grey' in Pearson's Western Picture Library. He illustrated several issues of 'I Misteri della Giungla Nera' from 1977. Zuffi died in Italy on April 4, 2002 in his hometown of Bergamo, Italy.