KEN PARKER SIGNATURE EDITION The Best of Collection Book 1 Long Rifle Chemako

An acclaimed, award-winning, western series that first appeared in Italy. Ken Parker is a trapper, military scout, sheriff, fugitive, detective, writer... everything except a typical western hero. Here his story begins, that of a western anti-hero, graphically inspired by Robert Redford and the Jeremiah Johnson film. Like Johnson, he is a trapper who decided to escape the city. His stories are mainly set in Northwestern states or, after Parker was forced to flee after his participation in some strikes in Boston (initially as a Pinkerton agent), along the Canadian frontier. The themes covered by the series are unusual for a western, including homosexuality, ecology, ghettoization, justice, the destiny of Man, and his relationship with God. Ken Parker is not a typical cowboy, but more a monolithic character like Tex Willer or John Wayne's heroes: he grows older since his first story (set in 1870), he commits errors and changes his ideas and ideals. He maintained: "I don't like to kill... not even when it is necessary". Ken Parker was created in 1974 by Giancarlo Berardi and Ivo Milazzo. He is a widely appreciated character in Italy and all over the former Yugoslavia. The series was also published in Turkey under the title Alaska but failed to become as popular as Zagor, though while it was in publication it was ranked above Tex. First issue of the series, "Lungo fucile" ("long rifle") was published by the Italian publisher CEPIM. Ken Parker, however, had been created three years earlier for a magazine of the same publisher. The series ran for 59 numbers. New issues appeared in the following years, and are constantly being reprinted in Italy.