Guido Nolitta

Born in Milan on 2 December 1932, Sergio Bonelli came to comics almost by birthright — his father, Gian Luigi Bonelli, had created Tex Willer and shaped much of Italian popular comics. To carve out his own identity, the younger Bonelli adopted the pen name Guido Nolitta for his scriptwriting work, a distinction he maintained throughout his career.

He made his writing debut in 1957, adapting the Spanish series Verdugo Ranch into Italian and contributing its final episode, with art by Franco Bignotti. A year later he and Bignotti collaborated on his first original character, Un ragazzo nel Far West. Further apprentice work followed on Piccolo Ranger before a pivotal meeting in 1960 with illustrator Gallieno Ferri. Together they launched Zagor in 1961, and Bonelli wrote nearly all of the series through issue #182 in 1980, establishing the wilderness adventurer as one of Italy's most beloved comics figures.

In 1975 he created Mister No, another enduring title. He also contributed substantially to his father's flagship Tex Willer from the late 1970s onward, and in 1990 produced the mini-series River Bill, drawn by Francesco Gamba.

Beyond writing, Bonelli served as chairman of Sergio Bonelli Editore, one of Italy's foremost comics publishers, overseeing a catalog that included Tex, Dylan Dog, and his own creations. He died in Monza on 26 September 2011, after a brief illness, leaving an indelible mark on Italian sequential art.