Ken Parker
Kenneth Parker's character was born on November 20, 1844 in Buffalo, Wyoming. Had parents Lucy and Jed Parker. He also had a brother, Bill, who would be killed in the first issue of the series, what would motivate the hero to hunt the killers of his brother.
In June 1977, the Ken Parker series, conceived by Giancarlo Berardi and Ivo Milazzo, made its debut on Italian newsstands. The first three episodes, prepared starting from 1974, with the working title of "Jedediah Baker", were intended for publication in the Rodeo Series, the container series of Bonelli editions, which alternated with Gino D'Antonio's Storia del West, true flagship of the Series, other minor series or one-off episodes. It was only after watching the third episode in preparation that Sergio Bonelli, evaluating the quality of the product, decided to make Ken Parker a new western series of the publishing house. The series remained on newsstands for eight years. It turned out to be highly appreciated by comics critics and capable of binding an interesting, albeit not very high, number of passionate readers to itself.
The closure, dated May 1984, was a painful editorial choice which took place not for lack of readers, but wanted by the authors who were no longer able to sustain, with the monthly periodicity, a high average quality of the stories. From 1985 to 1988, the Ken Parker saga continued its editorial path, with serialized episodes or short stories, first in the Orient Express magazine, also owned by Bonelli, and then, at the end of this, in some issues of the Comic Art magazine (Comic Art Publisher).
The magazine experience led to the publication of four unpublished episodes.
After a break of about 4 years, Ken Parker's editorial affairs resumed with mixed success, in June 1992, in the Ken Parker Magazine to end, almost definitively, in 1996 with the publication of some special albums.
PUBLISHING HOUSE REPRINTS
- Collana West - Ken Parker N. 1-30 [L'Isola Trovata editions, 1983-1988].
- The series reprints in "French" format, with reassembled and color plates, 24 albums of the series, and precisely all the episodes drawn by Milazzo, by Trevisan and the only episode created by the couple Calegari-Trevisan. Milazzo's covers are unpublished.
OTHER NON-BONELLI EDITIONS
- Ken Parker Serie Oro N. 1-62 [Parker Editore, 1989-1994]. The series reprints all 59 issues of the Cepim series and in the last three issues (from N. 60 to 62) publishes the episodes of Ken Parker published in Orient Express magazine and ComicArt.
- Ken Parker Collezione Serie Oro N. 1-14 [Parker Editore, 1991-1996].
- It is the collection of Ken Parker Serie Oro albums and re-proposes the first 28 numbers of the series.
- Each collected volume contains two albums.
- Ken Parker Collection N. 1-45 [Panini Comics, 2003-2007].
- Only the first 30 volumes of the series reprint Ken Parker's 59 books by Edizioni Cepim. Each book contains 2 stories. Starting from the second episode of N. 30 and up to N. 41 all the subsequent adventures of Ken published in other magazines after the closure of the Cepim series are reprinted (Orient Express; Comic Art; Ken Parker Magazine; Ken Parker Special). The last 3 albums, with the masthead becoming Ken Parker presents, collect all the comic works, extra Ken Parker, signed by Berardi and Milazzo.
- Ken Parker Deluxe N. 1-6 [Panini Comics, 2004-2005].
- The series collects the first 12 episodes of the Ken Parker Collection, two per issue, and re-proposes the first 24 episodes of Ken Parker from the Cepim series.
- Ken Parker N. 1-50 [Mondadori Comics, 2014-2015].
The first 30 volumes of the series reproduce the 59 issues of Ken Parker of Cepim, two stories per issue. From the second story of the thirtieth issue and up to N. 47 all subsequent stories by Ken Parker are re-proposed. The albums N. 48 and 49 present the covers and a series of illustrations dedicated to the character.
Finally, the last issue of the series offers readers, after twenty years, an unpublished episode of Ken Parker entitled "Fin dove arriva il mattino" which, with a dramatic epilogue, definitively closes the forty-year saga of the character of Berardi and Milazzo . - Ken Parker Color edition N. 1-3 [Mondadori Comics, 2015-2016]. Color reprint, in large format hardcover volumes (21×26 cm), the first 9 episodes of the series.
- Ken Parker Classic N. 1-59 [Mondadori Comics, 2016]. The series reprints all 59 Cepim albums.
- Ken Parker N. 1-3 hardbacks + Ken Parker N. 1-13 paperbacks [La Repubblica-L'Espresso-Gedi Gruppo Editoriale S.p.A,
2020]. Color reprint of all the albums of the Cepim series designed by Milazzo and Trevisan, with the addition of the stories that appeared in the magazine.
