Dario de Sevilla
By Gerardo Macías
January 23, 2019
'Ken Parker' (1974), by Giancarlo Berardi and Ivo
Milazzo, is a 'western' starring a trapper inspired by Robert Redford from the
film 'The Adventures of Jeremiah Johnson'
The spaghetti western is a subgenre of the western that
was fashionable in the sixties and seventies, characterized for being of
Italian production, in contrast to the traditional films of the genre that were
filmed in the USA. One of those western, although not produced in Italy but in
the USA, Jeremiah Johnson (1972), with Robert Redford in the lead role,
inspired the Italians Giancarlo Berardi and Ivo Milazzo to create a comic set
in the Far West, starring a trapper.
Ken Parker was created in 1974, within the Rodeo
collection. The series continued in its own series in 1977, when the publisher
had episodes to guarantee the monthly periodicity. It was published in
fifty-nine volumes of one hundred pages. The series is very famous in Italy and
in the ex-Yugoslavian Republics.
The authors wanted to name the series Jebediah Baker, but
the editor wanted another title. Milazzo suggested Ken, and Berardi the surname
Parker (in tribute to the fountain pen brand). The editor asked to shave the protagonist,
who went to the barber shop in the middle of the second episode.
Ken Parker travels through American history from 1868 to
1908, and travels geography from Alaska to Mexico and from San Francisco to
Boston. It deals with the feelings of the protagonist in the face of social
conflicts. The series deals with unusual themes for a western: homosexuality,
drugs, death penalty, racism, ecology, man's relationship with God.
In the first chapter, Largo rifle, Ken Parker and his
teenage brother head home and are assaulted by three whites who pretend to be Indians,
and who kill the younger one. Ken looks for the murderers to get revenge. To do
this, he enlists in the army, where he contemplates the abuses of the white man
against the indigenous people. Finally consummate your revenge and kill the
three murderers.
Parker hates violence, but is forced to fight against
those who abuse their power, such as the band of rustlers that takes the
population that gives its name to the second episode: Mine Town. The priest of
Mine Town accuses Parker of not respecting the command not to kill. Parker
alleges that the main commandment is to survive and that a living being must
fight to defend itself. In the moment of truth, the priest abandons his passive
attitude towards injustice and fights against abuses, although this ends up
costing him his life.
Milazzo received help from the best Italian cartoonists
to maintain the rhythm of one hundred pages per month imposed by the publisher:
Giancarlo Alessandrini, Carlo Ambrosini, Renzo Calegari, Giovanni Cianti,
Alfredo Castelli, Tiziano Sclavi, Bruno Marraffa, Renato Polese, Sergio
Tarquinio or Franco Giorgio Trevisan and also, the Spanish José Ortiz. The
publication was very erratic, but the authors preferred quality rather than
punctuality. The series ended in 1984, and five years passed until the authors
founded Parker Editore, which reissued and added new stories in the Ken Parker
Magazine, stretching Parker's exploits until 1998, the date on which the authors
split up and the series was interrupted.
Ivo Milazzo (Piedmont, 1947) is a professor at the
Faculty of Fine Arts of Carrara since 1997. From his beginnings in the world of
comics he collaborates with Berardi in Ken Parker (1974-1984), Tiki (1976),
L'uomo delle Filippine (1980), Tom's Bar and Marvin Detective. Milazzo entered
series of Bonelli as Tex, Nick Ryder and Magico Vento. He drew stories of Uncle
Scrooge for Disney. Berardi and Milazzo met again to end the Ken Parker series
in 2015.
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