Sergio Bonelli Editore

For detailed information about this franchise, visit the official website of Sergio Bonelli Editore.

Summary

Sergio Bonelli Editore is the most prominent comic book publishing house in Italy. Founded in 1940 as "L'Audace" by Gianluigi Bonelli, whose role of president will be taken first by his wife Tea Bonelli in 1945 and then by his son Sergio Bonelli in 1957. The name of the company will change many times, until 1988, the year which settled the current one given after its president at the time. The beginnings featured many classic characters, such as Fulvio Almirante and Capitan Fortuna, which will declare the success of the company and establish the classic italian comic book format, consisting in black and white pocket books, with about a hundred pages, containing full stories for each issue; a tradition that continues nowadays, with some exceptions once in awhile and/or for specific issues, series and genres.

The recurring theme of the series published by Sergio Bonelli Editore has always been "adventure", mostly of the western genre, but many others were added overtime, including crime, mystery, action, sci-fi, history, war, horror, fantasy and so on, but all of them still revolve around the idea of adventure. The most popular character has been, and still is Tex Willer, created in 1948 and followed by other iconic heroes over the course of the years, such as Zagor (1961), Ken Parker (1974), Mister No (1975), Martin Mystère (1982), Dylan Dog (1986), Nick Raider (1988), Nathan Never (1991), Julia (1998), Dampyr (2000) and Dragonero (2013). These and many other characters have inhabited the pages of thousands of issues over an 80 years-long history and keep going on in current days, even reaching other countries, including Brazil, Croatia, Serbia, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Germany, France and more.

Tex is one of Bonelli's most characteristic works, arguably the most emblematic of his comics. With more than 728 issues and a publication history dating from 1958, Tex is a very well-stablished character when talking about Bonelli's works, with several spin-offs and even cinema adaptations being made.

Tex depicts a very savage Wild West under the lenses of Tex Willer, the best gunslinger in all the West, a former outlaw, a ranger and the chief of the navajo tribe, whose exploits are famous over the entire United States. He and his pards, which include grizzled ranger Carson, the quiet Tiger and his straightforward son, Kit, fight against all sorts of criminals, corrupt officials, warring natives and the rare supernatural threat in their goal for justice and equality.

Tex has been praised for its realism and scope, with an immense focus on the accurate depiction of technology and customs of the West, and also having simple, yet engaging stories of surprising length and thoughtfulness, and occasionally eliciting questions about the colonization of the West and of some of its most famous figures.

Zagor is a series published by Bonelli, covering more than 668 issues and published since 1965, being a very popular work within the Editore's publications.

Zagor follows the fantastical adventures of Zagor, the self-proclaimed Spirit with the Hatchet, King and Protector of Darkwood, and his partner Chico, a cowardly mexican that yet stays by his side no matter what happens. While Zagor occurs on a western thematic in general, his adventures are very fantastical or unreal in scope, with Zagor consistently finding himself facing the supernatural, impossible technology, monsters and all sorts of unworldly threats. Zagor is a staunch, and often naïve, fighter for the rights of all, and he is determined to face everything in the name of his goal.

Zagor is a more comical and self-aware work in Bonelli's comics, with jokes and absurd situations being common and easily accepted, with originality being favoured over realism. That has made Zagor a very popular comic among those who read it.

Dylan Dog is one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed series from Bonelli, spanning more than 400 issues, with several spinoffs, alternative prints and a recent reboot.

The series follows the titular character, Dylan Dog, a nightmare investigator who, along with his sidekick Groucho, spends most of his days fumbling around, trying to solve mysteries that most often than not end up solving themselves. Most of the stories involve several layers of misdirection and subversion of classical tropes, most notably the idea of the monsters being the enemies.

The philosophical, introspecitve and mature nature of many of the stories, along with the wild sci-fi and horror elements sprinkled throughout make Dylan Dog an exception to the "adventure" rule of Bonelli, a fact that is perfectly exemplified by the main character, an anti-hero through and through, full of phobias, a pacifist who would rather get beaten up than initiate combat.

Power of the Verse

Sergio Bonelli series are mainly based on realism, or at least try to strive for it even while adding supernatural elements in terms of characters, plot and settings. For this reason most characters hardly go beyond Tier 9, nor possess other extremely high statistic or particularly powerful and esotic superpowers. Nonetheless, heroes and villains often are around the peak of human capabilities, breaching into the superhuman once in awhile. They are though and seasoned people who can make the impossible possible, holding many skills and usually being proficient with a variety of weapons; all these elements are accompanied by great willpower, determination, teamwork and a keen intellect, with the latter being the trademark of many characters, especially the less combat-oriented ones. There are still some notable exceptions, mostly in those series that revolve around the supernatural, which sometimes even pays a visit to the most grounded verses.

Tex is one of Bonelli's most grounded works, with most characters being in the Human range of capabilites, and some remarkable of individuals are into the lowest bounds of superhumans, going decently into Street level. Rarely, supernatural entities and especially powerful individuals can appear, breaching the Wall range, possibly even beyond.

Much like in attack power, speed wise, the work is fairly modest. Most characters are into the Human range of abilities, with a considerable amount of characters reaching into Superhuman, if not Subsonic range of speed.

As a series devoted to realism, there rarely is any form of hax in the universe, mostly limited to the exceptional skillsets of some characters, with many of them being inhumanly skilled at their specialties, casually doing sharpshooting and quickdraw feats that far exceed what was ever done in real life. However, at times magic users can be found, and they are typically of a ritualistic, psychometric variety of powers; Astral Projection, communicating with the spirits of the dead, Telepathy, contact over dreams, Illusion Creation, and powers of the like. Typically, such powers require lengthy rituals and are almost useless in direct combat, and even easy-to-use, quick varieties of such powers are extremely rare and treated as terrifying, with more traditional, offensive magic being almost unheard of.

Zagor is diverse in its ratings. Usually, most characters are into the Human to Street range, with Wall level characters also being reasonably common as very notable individuals that are, nonetheless, usually the focus of the stories. Every once in a while, characters of vastly different levels can appear, ranging from Small Building all the way up to possibly Universal. In general, however, it stays firmly in Tier 9.

Most characters have speeds that top on Subsonic, as some individuals can consistently react to revolver and winchester shots and blitz several normal people at once. Rarely, characters of much higher speeds can be found.

Zagor is diverse in its abilities. For the most part, the series is rather grounded, with even abnormal characters rarely displaying powers beyond enhanced physiques, often limiting themselves to basic Astral Projection, Necromancy and Hypnosis, but occasionally much greater powers are displayed by specific characters, with Mind Manipulation being a very common theme, while abilities such as Reality Warping also being found at times.

Despite its appearance, Dylan Dog is possibly the most high-concept series in Bonelli's catalogue, populated by a diverse cast of monsters, ghosts, demons and magicians. The titular protagonist has a variety of consistent Wall level showings, and the most powerful supernatural beings showcase universal levels of power.

Speed feats are few and far between, though Dylan has showcased feats of Supersonic speed. Due to the common presence of the supernatural, as well as frequent dips into metanarrative, various characters showcase powerful abilities, even Dylan himself, who unknowingly has a passive Plot Manipulation effect on the world around himself.

Knowledgeable Members

EliminatorVenom (Tex and Zagor)
Twellas (Dylan Dog)
SamanPatou

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