Il Piccolo Ranger (i.e. "The Little Ranger") is an Italian comic book series centered on Kit Teller, a character created in 1958 by writer Andrea Lavezzolo in tandem with illustrator Francesco Gamba and later developed by numerous authors; they were published in Italy by Edizioni Audace in the striped format in the series of the same name and later in a new series in the Bonelli format published from 1963 to 1985. The character belongs to a group of teenage heroes very popular in the fifties and sixties, such as Captain Miki, the Little Sheriff and others. These characters were young to facilitate their identification with potential young buyers, that being their peers, who could reflect themselves in the protagonists of comic stories. The series presents its own originality, giving life to a long and engaging comic epic with both tragic and humorous tones among the most successful of the western genre of the period. The series was also published in France, the former Yugoslavia (now in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia), Turkey, Greece, Spain, and Brazil.
A traditional western series addressed to a young audience, it debuted in 1958 and was published until 1985. Until 1963, Il Piccolo Ranger comic books also featured other characters in their appendix episodic stories, including works by Hugo Pratt, Guido Nolitta and Dino Battaglia. It was released fortnightly until 1971, then monthly until its cancellation. Between 1995 and 1996, a 13-volume paperback collection was published in a limited edition by Editrice Dardo.
Biography Kit Teller is the son of Mary Worth and Ted Moses Teller who emigrate from Wales to the United States in search of fortune. Once they arrive, they venture into the wild frontier territories in search of a job. During this trip, Kit was born in 1861 on the border of Missouri and Illinois. Eight months after Kit's birth, his mother died and little Kit fell ill. Saved by the Indians of the Red Bison tribe, Kit and his father stay with the Indians for almost a year and then leave to join the rangers and send Kit to a college in the east. Moses becomes a ranger and obtains permission from the commander to keep the little Kit at the fort until the child reaches reach college age. The Little Ranger series starts here. Kit's father deserts during a mission to go live with the Indians. For this reason he is considered a traitor. The fort's rangers intend to keep the fact from little Kit, who is well-liked anyway. The Little Ranger adventures in a wild land and faces outlaws, ferocious Indians, wise reptiles, extraterrestrials, and medieval warriors with know-how in the New World. Among the characters he meets, perhaps the most unusual are two Mormon, Italian-American vegetarians: SATURNINO and SALVATORE. They are experts of every art and science, endowed with strange powers. Among other things, they talk to animals, in a way not unlike what happens in the pages of the Tarzanesque Akim. They warn the two Tellers, father and son, to beware of the water on full moon nights. Such a warning will save them from several ambushes. At the end of each adventure, the young ranger finds his friends within the reassuring walls of the ranger fort. Among them the fiancée Claretta Morning, the maternal vivander of the strong Rosa Morning, mother of Claretta, the drunkard Brandy Jim, the Chinese cook and washerman Cin Lao, the sergeant O'Hara, Teeth Bill, Frankie Bellevan, Annie Four guns, and Ibrahim Bamboula.
Editorial history The character made his debut in the Collana Audace of the homonymous publishing house by Gian Luigi Bonelli in the classic striped format published in seven series from 15 June 1958 to 25 April 1971, for a total of 328 issues. The screenplays are by Andrea Lavezzolo and, to a lesser extent, by Guido Nolitta while the drawings are by Francesco Gamba and Birago Balzano. Subsequently, with the books not sold, the publisher re-proposed the Little Ranger series in a total of 69 collections, starting from no. 11 of the series Supplement to the Audace series. The collections do not have a periodicity and the price is 100 lire for the first volumes and 120 for the remaining issues. From 1963 the stories proposed in the strip format in the Audace series were reprinted in the Bonelli format in the series Gli albi del cowboy – Nuova serie up to page 55 of no. 89 when unpublished stories of the character began to be published. The publication ended in February 1985 after 255 issues. In the final publication, Kit, Frankie, and their friends finish their years with the Rangers uniform, retire to the countryside, and begin a new life as ranchers. The merit of the longevity of the series, however, must also be attributed to those who continued the work of Andrea Lavezzolo. Decio Canzio, while maintaining the spirit of the series, made the narrative more agile, updating it to the changing times. Giorgio Pezzin, Marcello Toninelli, and the If Staff also worked on the series. Note that Guido Nolitta wrote the last adventure of the series.
An unpublished, self-contained episode entitled "Secret document" was published as an appendix to no. 99 of Commander Mark in the Herald Series. In May 1992, a 148-page special issue was published entitled "The return of the Rangers," written by Mauro Boselli and drawn by Francesco Gamba. Finally, in 2006, the Editoriale Mercury published a new unpublished story entitled "Zoltan the Magician," written by Ermes Senzò and drawn by Luigi Merati. In February 2012, the Little Ranger was reprinted in an edition for newsstands by If Edizioni.
List of albums of the series "The books of the cowboy – New series"
{| class="wikitable" style="width:47%;text-align:center;" |- !Number!!Original title!!Title!!Publication date |- |1||Il Piccolo Ranger||The Little Ranger|| December 1963 |- |2||L'indiano bianco||White Indian||January 1964 |- |3||Il segno di Manitù ||The Sing of Manitou|| February 1964 |- |4||L'uomo di ferro||Iron man|| March 1964 |- |5||Il padrone della folgore||The Master of Lightning|| April 1964 |- |6||Mani in alto! ||Hands Up!|| May 1964 |- |7||Sepolto vivo! ||Buried Alive!|| June 1964 |- |8||La casa del mistero||The House of Mystery|| July 1964 |- |9||Il morso del serpente||The Snake Bite|| August 1964 |- |10||Nuove reclute||New Recruits|| September 1964 |- |11||La bussola stregata||The Bewitched Compass|| October 1964 |- |12||Kit contro tutti! ||Kit Against All|| November 1964 |- |13||Il totem d'avorio||The Ivory Totem|| December 1964 |- |14||Il pugnale malese||The Malay Dagger|| January 1965 |- |15||Il tranello||The Trap|| February 1965 |- |16||L'inferno verde||The Green Hell|| March 1965 |- |17||La stella del Nord||The North Star|| April 1965 |- |18||Formiche rosse||Red Ants|| May 1965 |- |19||La maschera di cera||The Wax Mask|| June 1965 |- |20||Le colline proibite||The Forbidden Hills|| July 1965 |- |21||Azione notturna||Night Action|| August 1965 |- |22||Rangers all'attacco||Rangers Attack|| September 1965 |- |23||Il Cavaliere Nero||The Black Knight|| October 1965 |- |24||Il terzo complice||The Third Accomplice|| November 1965 |- |25||Missione compiuta||Mission Accomplished|| December 1965 |- |26||Battaglia nel canyon||Battle in the Canyon|| January 1966 |- |27||Allarme al forte||Alarm at the Fort|| February 1966 |- |28||Fulmine Nero||Black Lightning|| March 1966 |- |29||Killer Jim||Killer Jim|| April 1966 |- |30||L'Orda Rossa||The Red Horde|| May 1966 |- |31||Spari nella notte||Shoots in the Night|| June 1966 |- |32||Colui che viene da Nord||He Who Comes From the North|| July 1966 |- |33||I negrieri dei Caraibi||The Caribbean Slavers|| August 1966 |- |34||La cascata della morte||The Waterfall of Death|| September 1966 |- |35||La voce nelle tenebre||The Voice in the Darkness|| October 1966 |- |36||Orme sul sentiero||Footprints on the Trail|| November 1966 |- |37||Segnali di fumo||Smoke Signals|| December 1966 |- |38||Bottino di guerra||Spoils of War|| January 1967 |- |39||L'invincibile||The Invincible|| February 1967 |- |40||La collana di smeraldi||The Emerald Necklace|| March 1967 |- |41||Il fantasma||The Ghost|| April 1967 |- |42||Un eroe ritorna||A Hero Returns|| May 1967 |- |43||Il sospetto! ||The Suspect!|| June 1967 |- |44||Gli avventurieri||The Adventurers|| July 1967 |- |45||La lunga pista||The Long Trek|| August 1967 |- |46||La ribellione||The Rebellion|| September 1967 |- |47||Frontier Town||Frontier Town|| October 1967 |- |48||Nel campo nemico||In the Enemy Camp|| November 1967 |- |49||La Banda dei Cinque||The Gang of Five|| December 1967 |- |50||Veleno! ||Venom!|| January 1968 |- |51||Rangers in agguato||Rangers Lurking|| February 1968 |- |52||Caccia all'uomo||Manhunt|| March 1968 |- |53||Malatierra||Malatierra|| April 1968 |- |54||Bandiera bianca||White flag|| May 1968 |- |55||La valle maledetta||The Cursed Valley|| June 1968 |- |56||Old Nick||Old Nick|| July 1968 |- |57||La legge di Lynch||Lynch's Law|| August 1968 |- |58||La caverna dell'oro||The Cave of Gold|| September 1968 |- |59||Il cavallo d'acciaio||The Steel Horse|| October 1968 |- |60||Guerra indiana||Indian War|| November 1968 |- |61||Tragica fine||Tragic End|| December 1968 |- |62||L'albero della morte||The Tree of Death|| January 1969 |- |63||Il tesoro||The Treasure|| February 1969 |- |64||La valle nascosta||The Hidden Valley|| March 1969 |- |65||Sulla via di Austin||On the Way to Austin|| April 1969 |- |66||Ombra Rossa||Red Shadow|| May 1969 |- |67||L'assedio!||The Siege|| June 1969 |- |68||L'ultima beffa||The ultimate Bluff|| July 1969 |- |69||Senza tregua!||Without Respite|| August 1969 |- |70||Avventura in Messico||Adventure in Mexico|| September 1969 |- |71||Bande rivali||Rival Gangs|| October 1969 |- |72||Assalto a Valle Nera||Assault on Black Valley|| November 1969 |- |73||Il trionfo di Kit||Kit's triumph|| December 1969 |- |74||Verso l'Irlanda||Towards Ireland|| January 1970 |- |75||Lo spettro dello stagno||The Spectrum of the Pond|| February 1970 |- |76||Il castello maledetto||The Cursed Castle|| March 1970 |- |77||I naufragatori||The Shipwreckers|| April 1970 |- |78||L'isola in fiamme||The Island on Fire|| May 1970 |- |79||La gloriosa impresa||The Glorious Feat|| June 1970 |- |80||Terra bruciata!||Scorched earth!|| July 1970 |- |81||Oro!||Gold!|| August 1970 |- |82||"El Charro"||"El Charo|| September 1970 |- |83||La fine di un bandito||The End of a Bandit|| October 1970 |- |84||Il deserto non-perdona||The Desert Does Not Forgive|| November 1970 |- |85||Storia di un ribelle||Story of a Rebel|| December 1970 |- |86||La legione dei dannati||The Legion of the Damned|| January 1971 |- |87||Silver Lake||Silver Lake|| February 1971 |- |88||La regina delle tenebre||The Queen of Darkness|| March 1971 |- |89||La pietra della vita||The Stone of Life|| April 1971 |- |90||Quartiere cinese||Chinatown|| May 1971 |- |91||Le tigri del mare||'''The Sea Tigers|| June 1971 |- |92||L'immortale||The Immortal|| July 1971 |- |93||Il diabolico barone||The Diabolic Baron|| August 1971 |- |94||Il libro rosso||The Red Book|| September 1971 |- |95||La parola di un ranger||The Word of a Ranger|| October 1971 |- |96||La banda degli evasi||The Gang of Escapees|| November 1971 |- |97||Luna di sangue||Blood Moon|| December 1971 |- |98||Il ragazzo selvaggio||The Wild Boy|| January 1972 |- |99||Bisonte Nero||Black Bison|| February 1972 |- |100||Lost Valley (a colori) ||Lost Valley (in color)|| March 1972 |- |101||Kit è scomparso||Kit Has Disappeared|| April 1972 |- |102||Il Grande Vecchio||The Great Old Man|| May 1972 |- |103||Nel cuore della giungla||In the Heart of the Jungle|| June 1972 |- |104||La città morta||The Dead City|| July 1972 |- |105||Oltre il confine||Beyond the Border|| August 1972 |- |106||L'arma del delitto||The Murder Weapon|| September 1972 |- |107||Campesinos! ||Campesinos!|| October 1972 |- |108||La casa sulla collina||The House on the Hill|| November 1972 |- |109||Uomini violenti||Violent Men|| December 1972 |-