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"Why did I make Tex? Because it was a good flag under which to fall. And if I had to fall, it was worth falling at Alamo." Magnus
I admit it: I've always hated Tex.
I swear. Since I was a kid, I’ve always been irritated by his cool hero demeanor, always escaping a thousand bullets, with a stupid joke always at the ready (and out of place) and this air of "handsome and impossible" which is truly annoying, surrounded by a Clan of sons, godfathers, and disreputable and equally annoying Indians.
I preferred Zagor or Mister No, with more human and less predictable stories. Not to mention Ken Parker, 10 light years ahead, more likable and original (Long live the genius of Berardi and Milazzo!!).
Tex, on the other hand, was Tradition, the stereotyped, stiff, predictable adventure, and ultimately a bit boring.
He was the embodiment of the prototypical bourgeois hero, loved by conservative Christian Democrats and truckers with basic culture, who could barely read the words on the balloons and didn’t like plots too complex.
A Tex who was already old in the early 70s, always the same and devoid of even the slightest inventiveness both in drawing and in stories.
But then on a nice day in 1996, in the gray existence of this character, “La Valle del Terrore” finally arrives among the Giant Albums of Bonelli drawn by the great Magnus and suddenly Tex becomes a whole different story.
• A cyclopean working process (lasting 7 years with ups and downs).
• A meticulousness of drawing and inking on the verge of paranoid/obsessive (Magnus isolated himself from the world, on a country estate in Castel del Rio for months and months, dedicating day and night to his creation).
• A fanatical reconstruction of the entire layout (including the placement of the premises) of the fort where ¾ of the story will take place, of the weapons, the uniforms, and single details.
• Extreme care of every single shot with added photographic sketches for the inking of lights and shadows.
• Obsession with horses with hundreds of sketches from multiple angles and perspectives to choose the best one (assisted in the task by the skillful Romanini).
This and more make this album a rare gem of meticulousness and magnificence, freeing the most famous Italian comic from the national-popular culture that had seen its birth to that of unmissable Cult Comic for lovers of the genre.
An album to be enjoyed with the eyes (check out these two tables: 1 2 ) considered by everyone to be the artistic testament of an author who has given us masterpieces of refinement and genius such as Alan Ford, Kriminal, Satanik, Lo Straniero and la Compagnia della Forca - but I understand that the younger users of this site may know little or nothing about what I am talking about :-( .
And anyway, back to me, after this brief interlude of 224 illuminated pages, I went back to HATING Tex more than ever. Not even the brief flame of the most inspired Comic Art could chip away at the dreary moldy tradition of a character for me as dead as ever. For the same reasons I mentioned at the beginning and although more than 50 years have passed.
But now I know: I will hate Tex until the end of my days.
This is for sure.
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