Aurelio Galleppini, known in the comic book world by the pseudonym Galep, is universally recognized as one of the cornerstones of Italian comics. Born in 1917 in the small village of Casale di Pari to Sardinian parents, Galep was the graphic creator of Tex Willer, one of the most iconic characters in Italian adventure storytelling.
Fate seemed to have already set a path for young Aurelio, who took his first steps in drawing amidst the hills and woods of his hometown, soon developing a passion for art so intense that he left school to dedicate himself fully to it. At the age of nine, Galleppini moved with his family to Sardinia, his parents’ homeland. Galep’s precocious talent found its first public expression in 1936 when he debuted as an illustrator for the weekly Mondo Fanciullo.
In 1940, after moving to Florence, Galep became a regular contributor to the magazine L’Avventuroso, a significant periodical of the time. There, he had the opportunity to experiment and refine his style across a wide range of genres and stories.
During the difficult years of World War II, Galleppini temporarily set aside comics to focus on painting, pursuing a more intimate inspiration. This artistic interlude marked a period of profound personal growth, enriching his technique and vision for future projects. After the war, however, he returned to comics, a form of art he felt was more immediate and aligned with his nature.
In 1947, he began collaborating with the magazine Intrepido of the Universo publishing house, creating comic adaptations of literary classics, including Pinocchio, The Betrothed, and The Three Musketeers.
The turning point in Galep’s career came in the late 1940s when he moved to Milan. There, he met Tea Bonelli of Edizioni Audace (now Sergio Bonelli Editore), who entrusted him with the task of illustrating two new characters conceived by the renowned writer Gianluigi Bonelli: Occhio Cupo and Tex Willer.
Although Occhio Cupo, a darker and more dramatic hero, was well received, it was Tex Willer that cemented Galleppini’s status as a legend in the world of comics. Tex first appeared in 1948 with the strip Il Totem Misterioso—later reprinted in 1958 as La Mano Rossa, the first issue of the iconic “bonellide” format, featuring 96 pages and marking the start of the historical series still in production today. Tex introduced Italian audiences to a novel vision of the Wild West, a place where courage, loyalty, and justice intertwined with stories rich in adventure and mystery.
Tex’s first line—“By all the devils, are they still on my tail?”—is a memorable opening that immediately captured readers’ attention. Tex is depicted standing proudly, gun freshly drawn, in a scene that immediately defined his character: an indomitable man capable of facing any adversity with cunning and determination.
The character’s face was modeled by Galep primarily on the American actor Gary Cooper, though the artist also incorporated elements of his own features.
Galep served as the principal artist for Tex until 1977, when he decided to focus exclusively on the covers of Tex’s comic books, an activity he pursued with dedication until his death in 1994.
The settings in Tex were influenced not only by classic Western scenarios borrowed from cinema but also by places from Galep’s childhood, such as Sardinia, Trentino (where he spent his holidays), and Maremma in Tuscany. The latter, with its rich equestrian tradition, left a particularly significant mark on the artist’s imagination.
It is easy to imagine how Maremma’s butteri—with their traditional attire and nearly symbiotic relationship with their horses—became natural models for the cowboys who populate the pages of the celebrated comic. Horses, which Galep had loved drawing since childhood, represent an iconic element of both Maremma and the West: symbols of freedom, strength, and adventure. This passion is evident in the numerous horses featured in Tex’s adventures, embodying the free and wild spirit of the West while rooted in Italian landscapes and traditions. Maremma, with its vast grassy expanses, grazing herds, and austere atmosphere, contributed to the distinctive narrative dimension that characterises Tex’s adventures. It is not merely an imaginary place where cowboys and Native Americans clash but also a literary space that welcomes monsters, sorcerers like Mefisto, and supernatural creatures, taking the Wild West beyond reality and into the realm of myth.
The simplicity and harshness of life in Maremma, its stories of butteri and bandits, and the kind of rural mythology that permeated the region found a parallel in Tex’s West—a similarly rugged and primordial place where human nature clashed with the uncontrollable forces of fate and the natural world.
In the rugged Maremma, amidst evocative and untamed landscapes, Galep found inspiration to depict the settings where the protagonist and his inseparable companions—Kit Carson, Kit Willer, and Tiger Jack— had adventures imbued with action, justice, and mystery.
It is no surprise that the early Tex strips convey a familiarity with the atmospheres of this Italian region: the contrast between the wild and the civilised, the natural beauty mixed with a sense of danger and mystery, reflect elements dear to Galep and typical of Maremma.
The Tuscan hills, with their gentle slopes and historic villages, also seem to have influenced the visual representation of Tex’s world. While Tex Willer is set in an imagined and fantastical Texas, Galep’s illustrations often convey a sensitivity closer to Mediterranean landscapes than to classic American vistas. This fusion of local tradition and adventure storytelling helps make the character unique in the international comic scene.
Finally, despite his strong ties to Sardinia and his self-identification as Sardinian rather than Tuscan, Galep’s numerous watercolors dedicated to the village and its surroundings reveal a vivid memory of Casale di Pari, the Tuscan village where he was born and spent his early childhood. This land, surrounded by green hills, dense forests of oaks, cork trees, and chestnuts, as well as ancient stone walls, provided the artist with an archetypal, almost mythical landscape that resurfaces in his watercolours.