Gallieno Ferri

Gallieno Ferri was one of the grandmasters of Italian comics, best known as the graphical creator and main artist of 'Zagor'. Born in an industrial district of Genoa, he grew up reading Il Vittorioso, Il Corriere dei Piccoli, Topolino and L'Avventuroso, where he picked up his influences from American cartoonists like Phil Davis, Lyman Young, Ray Moore, Hal Foster and Alex Raymond. He began his career using the pseudonym Fergal, while cooperating with the publisher and scriptwriter Giovanni De Leo. Together, they realised 'Il Fantasma Verde' and 'Piuma Rossa'. In 1951-1952, he drew the first episodes of 'Maskar', the western 'Tom Tom' and created 'Thunder Jack', a series inspired by Zane Grey's 'King of the Royal Mounted'. The latter was the first of his many productions for the French market. His other contributions included 'Kid Colorado', 'Jim Puma', 'Agent Secret', 'Le Fantôme Vert', all published by Pierre Mouchot's Éditions SER in the second half of the 1950s. Other agency work include stories with 'Dick Daring of the Mounties' for the British Fleetway agency, that were published in France as 'Jim Canada' by Impéria. During this period, Ferri was also present in Il Vittorioso with the adventures of 'Capitan Walter' (script by Sandro Cavore), in Lo Scolaro with 'Ali Baba' and in 165 issues of 'Jolly'. By 1961, Ferri was settled in Recco, and began his cooperation with Bonelli, starting with the Canadian Mountie story 'Giubba Rossa'. In 1961 he also created the adventures of 'Zagor' with Sergio Bonelli, and he continued to draw many episodes starring the "Spirit with the Hatchet", and all of the series' covers. In 1975 he drew the first story of 'Mister No'. Later on this comic was continued by Roberto Diso and other artists, but Ferri remained the cover artist for the first 115 issues. Gallieno Ferri passed away on 2 April 2016, at the age of 87. With a production of over 20,000 pages of 'Zagor' and other series, he was the second most productive artist of Bonelli, after Francesco Gamba.