Tex Willer, or Tex, is a very popular Italian western comic. Created by Gian Luigi Bonelli and Aurelio Galleppini in 1948, it became a success thanks to its beautiful artwork, fine cast of likable characters and engrossing stories, and it is still ongoing.
The comic depicts the adventures of a heroic Texas Ranger named Tex Willer who rights wrongs in the Old West with his snarky friend Kit Carson, his resourceful son Kit Willer and his trusty Navajo ally Tiger Jack.
The comic portrays Native Americans sympathetically and has deep, thought-provoking storylines with a good balance of humour and drama. The story began with Tex's early adventures, and he gradually aged in subsequent years while gaining friends, fathering a son and attracting the attention of many notorious and dangerous villains (and villainesses) along the way.
Tex is also well-known outside of Italy, particularly in Brazil, with publishing in various formats,
◊ and the Nordic countries, where it almost rivals the Disney Ducks Comic Universe fandom.
Now that you're here, have a look at the Characters sheet too.
Tex Willer provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Rarely seen, but they're here. One of the earliest and perhaps best examples is Lupe, a Mexican girl who Tex rescued. She accompanied him during his trip in Mexico to save Montales, saved his life at least twice, and in turn Tex tried his best to save her when she was in danger.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Hualapai people:
every time they show up, they're trying to kill our heroes and bragging about it. Justified each and every time: the first time it was a group that Mefisto had brainwashed into working for him as Mooks and adoring him as a god, the second time it was a small group of survivors of the group of the first time that still worked for Mefisto even after getting almost exterminated by the Navajos, and the third time we have a large band of warriors who are pissed at what Tex and the Hualapai War did to their people and have just found Manitary, a charismatic leader, who takes the cake: at first he's presented as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, who believes himself on a Mission From the Great Spirit to unite all the Indians and take back their land. Then we learn from a Paiute shaman that he's murdering anyone who dares to question him — said shaman barely escaped an attempted murder for cautioning against following him —, and he's actually planning to subjugate the Navajos. - The American Civil War: A recurring part of the backstory, with still significant influences on the "present day" of the series where Tex has to deal with veterans and events of the war, including a fight for the Confederate gold reserve and a regiment-sized unit of Confederate irreducibles trying to restart the war.
- Tex was involved with the lead-up to it and even saved then-senator candidate Abraham Lincoln from an assassination attempt from the Knights of the Golden Circle, but when it started he didn't want to get involved - only for a Texan merchant to send Texan militia after the herd he and his friend "Damned" Dick wanted to sell elsewhere, starting a chain of events that saw him enroll with a Union regiment. He fought at Shiloh, where the massacre and his friend Rob having been among the Confederate dead made him swear to not kill any Confederate soldiernote and became a scout, role he had at Glorieta Pass and later with the Army of the Potomac. He also took part in a failed attempt to get a group of Texan Unionists of German descent into Mexico before the Texan government attacked them.
- Carson considered the secession an utter idiocy but still considered himself Texan first, so he remained with the Texas Rangers - and took anti-Comanche patrol jobs to stay away from the frontlines while still serving his state. He also took a few jobs for his old friend Sam Houston (removed from governorship for opposing the secession), such as going to Shiloh to see if he could find his son Sam Jr (Carson found him after he had been left for dead) and try and get to Mexico a group of pro-Union Texans of German descent.
- Animal Assassin: Ohh boy, the series has a long and varied list. The very first example involved rattlesnakes. Other notable assassins included a ferocious gorilla, cougars, alligators, tarantulas, panthers and killer trained buzzards. Of course, none of them had success.
- Anti-Villain: Many, with the Rangers of Patagonia story having three that end up opposing each other:
- The Mapuche chief Calfucurà is the main antagonist of the early part of the story, having launched a terrifying raid on Argentinian cities, killing many men, taking women and children as slaves, and taking hundreds of cattle as plunder, with the Argentinian expedition being initially aimed to rescue the slaves and defeat him. His people has also been fighting against the Spanish colonial empire and later the states emerging from its collapse for centuries, Chile has recently chased them out of their traditional lands in Araucanian after killing most of them, and while the Argentinians have currently adopted a live and let it live policy the faction aiming to subjugate the Indios is gaining power, hence the raid that he intended as both as a pre-emptive strike and to feed his people.
- Colonel (later general) Ricardo Mendoza, commander of the Argentinian expedition, has a strong sense of honor and wants nothing but to prove that peaceful coexistance is possible and free Calfucurà 's slaves... But when the actions of the commander of his reinforcements cause the extermination of an allied tribe and make peace impossible he still commands what is now the Conquest of the Desert, as he's still an officer of the Argentinian army and gave his oath. Once a form of peace is reached he agrees to let Tex and the warriors of the resisting tribes go as long as Namuncurá, chief of the allied Indios, comes with him to Buenos Aires to sign the peace treaty and end officially the war.
- Lieutenant (later major) Belmonte is a strange variation: he's a racist who despises Indians as savages, and would like nothing better than to get rid of the tribes of Patagonia, but, differently from other more hostile officers, as long as they aren't hostile he's content to let them be (and even respects them and the Gauchos as better horsemen than the Argentinian regulars) and has a strict sense of duty and justice. It's said sense of justice that, at the end, prompts him to try and shoot Tex and former soldier Julio, as the former had arrived to help the Argentine army but ditched them when it became clear that peace with the Indians was impossible and the latter was a deserter, getting him shot by Mendoza.
- Arch-Enemy: Steve Dickard, a.k.a. Mefisto, and his son Yama, are the worst enemies of Tex.
- Arms Dealer:
- We have both gun shop owners and Gangland Gun Runners, the latter often involved in plans to cause Indian Wars so they or their associates will be able to move in their lands after the army stomp the insurrection.
- The second kind is firmly in place as the most despicable villains of the series due to two of them, Brennan and Teller, trying to murder Tex by causing a smallpox epidemic among the Navajos (Tex's Roaring Rampage of Revenge was something epic, and what he did to the last survivor when he finally caught up with him is described in the
Nightmare Fuel page).
- Automaton Horses: Averted with a vengeance. Proper care for the animals is always a part of the narrative when a long travel is being depicted, and pushing a horse past its regular limit is a very last resort for the heroes (who even then show consideration for their steeds, such as getting off at times and walking alongside the horse so it can restnote ), while bad guys that do it often get their mounts, and themselves by proxy, killed.
- Badass Bookworm: El Morisco, a fat, friendly Egyptian scholar who can practice magic and often helps Tex during his "supernatural stories".
- Badass Crew: Especially in the 100th volume, where almost all of Tex's pals are gathered to stop a gang of criminals.
- Badass Family: The Willers. The "softest" one was Tex's younger brother Sam, who didn't like to kill and was for the most part a quiet and nice man... and wiped out a seven-men gang who threatened the family ranch, by himself.
- Ballistic Discount: Given the presence of tons of sleazy guys willing to sell large quantities of guns to hostile Indians in the series, the series has a few examples. Surprisingly, only a few: the gun runners are smart enough to come armed and in force and the Indians know they'll need more guns and ammo in the future, so it takes the gun runner to be really stupid and piss off the buyers for this to happen.
- Bank Robbery: The plot of several stories involves banks being robbed blind. Usually, the baddies split up, and so do the heroes to go after them.
- Bat Out of Hell: Ahriman, Lord of the Third Circle, is a literal example: he's a demon lord who helps Yama and appears as a human-faced bat.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game:
- Yama uses magic to try to spy on El Morisco's house. Morisco, himself something of a mage, answers by summoning a very strong squall that forces Yama to withdraw.
- This also happens to Mefisto. Usually it's Mefisto who torments other people with apparitions and, if they are stupid or unlucky enough to look him in the eyes, hypnosis-generated hallucinations, but when Padma decided to deal with Mefisto, he caused the latter fellow such horrific hallucinations he was reduced to an harmless loon, and wasn't there to hypnotize him.
- Berserk Button:
- If you dare mock Native Americans or call Tex a liar, be prepared to either eat your words or get a mouth full of fist.
- And God help you if you actually wound or kill some of Tex's family or friends, or a Navajo. The fate of the final survivor of the gang that killed his wife is described in the Nightmare Fuel page.
- About the killing of Navajos... Tex started and won a friggin' Indian War because two rich men had murdered some Navajos and the authorities refused to arrest and try them. Few people dared to provoke Navajos after that stunt.
- Carson also tends to get quite pissed if you're making smart comments about his age and are not his friend.
- During their fourth battle, Tex manages to send Mefisto into a frothing rage by reminding him of the asylum where he was incarcerated after their most recent meeting.
- Don't call Gros Jean a "gorilla".
- Big Foot Sasquatch And Yeti: One mini-arc was focused on the Sasquatch, represented as a benevolent ape-man with healing powers.
- Body Horror: El Muerto, whose face was burnt in a fire, as well as the Master of the Abyss, who looks like a dried walking skeleton. Also, the infected people in Light From Space.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Gros Jean the half-blood and Pat Mc Ryan the Irishman. Both are built like brick outhouses capable of overpowering Tex himself, have a personality as big as their bodies, and become The Big Guy temporarily when they join the heroes.
- Bounty Hunter: Tex has faced a few of these, most notably El Muerto. Sometimes he himself poses as one in situations where declaring himself a US Ranger won't cut it.
- Bowdlerization: A rather infamous case, in the first volume upon spotting the villains Tex says "Lo sceriffo e i suoi scagnozzi" (The sheriff and his crooks). In the reprint it's changed to "Lo sceriffo e i suoi uomini" (The sheriff and his men).
- Bullying the Dragon: Happens surprisingly often, as some idiots dare and piss off Tex while knowing perfectly who they're dealing with. The trophy is shared by the duo of Sam Hope and Bart Barlow and the gang of Barry Lance: the first two shot a group of Navajo boys in cold blood and expected to get away with it (they ended up killing each other while trying to escape the sheriff of Gallup, Tex and one hundred Navajo warriors. Who just wanted to have them arrested and hanged according to the law), while the second group destroyed the gravestone of Tex's wife Lilyth just to piss him off (Tex killed them all). Barry Lance and his gang are Justified: they had found a way to the Navajo gold mines but knew that if they met Tex they were toast, so part of the gang destroyed the gravestone specifically to lure him out of the reservation while the rest reached the mines and stole a crapload of nuggets (Tex still managed to kill both groups).
- Celibate Hero: After the death of his wife, Lylith, Tex hasn't had a relationship with any other woman. Carson can't claim as much.
- Dark Action Girl: This comic had his share of villainesses, starting with Satania and proceeding among scheming ladies and witches. Since Tex doesn't harm girls, they usually end up killing themselves or dying by backstabbing or by snake bite.
- Darker and Edgier: It depends on the author: stories written by Mauro Boselli and Sergio Bonelli (the son of the original writer, who worked under the alias of Guido Nolitta) are considerably more violent than those by Gianluigi Bonelli and Claudio Nizzi (Gianluigi's original assistant). They're also more prone to have a bittersweet note at the end, and sometimes villains aren't just Card-Carrying Villains, or then they are way worse. Stories by Antonio Segura are even MORE darker and violent than Boselli/Nolitta stories.
- Deadpan Snarker: Carson is definitely guilty of this although Tex isn't that far behind either.
- Deal with the Devil: What Mefisto eventually ends up doing, thus becoming one of Tex's deadliest enemies.
- Determinator: If Tex is after you, he will chase you to the ends of the earth and back to either arrest or kill you.
- Didn't See That Coming: Many baddies didn't see Tex coming, and lost for that. Some particularly dangerous ones did see him but failed seeing him bringing a few hundred Navajos or the US Army as reinforcement.
- This trope got Mefisto three times: the first time (his third appearance) he did see everything Tex could bring against him, but didn't expect Padma (an exiled Buddhist monk that had saved his life, and a medium so powerful it is implied he can kill with his magic, something Mefisto himself can't) to survive receiving a brazier to the head, telling Tex where he could find him and driving Mefisto to a state of harmless madness (in his defence he had conked Padma with a bronze brazier and believed him dead); the second (his fourth appearance) he was in the crypt of Lafayette's castle preparing to resort to magics he never dared to use before to deal with the army of Seminoles helping Tex, knowing he had time because they were in a stone castle with a good garrison, when the US Army showed up with artillery and destroyed the place (this actually got Tex too, as they didn't expect for a shot to hit the castle's magazine and blow everything to kingdom come); and the third (his final appearance) he had no idea Tex, Morisco, and Padma (who Mefisto by now had surpassed in power) had brought back Narbas, the owner of the body Mefisto had stolen to resurrect himself and thus capable of disrupting his powers by being in the general area and flat-out retaking his body if he came close enough.
- The Dreaded: Tex and his pards are really feared by criminals, who routinely describe them as "worse than the Plague and cholera put together". Tex's Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the murderers of his wife, and especially what he did to the one who initially escaped once he finally caught up to him, show it's an Understatement.
- Escalating Brawl: Several examples, including an epic brawl that ends when Gros Jean kicks all the bad guys out of the inn and then chops the supporting pillars with an axe, wrecking the whole place.
- Evil Sorcerer: Mefisto and his son Yama. It also happens in stories concerning voodoo and similar stuff.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Mefisto is blocked into a dungeon and mauled by a bunch of huge rats, who eat him alive.
- Brennan, the last survivor of Lylith's murderers, was subjected to a nightmarish psychological torture before being eaten by sharks. Unlike Mephisto's death, this was on purpose.
- Fastest Gun in the West: Tex is pretty much the fastest gunslinger out there... although there have been a few who have bested him.
- Ruby Scott appeared to draw faster than Tex in a duel, but he had a custom holster that could be spun into shooting position, allowing Scott to shoot without even drawing his gun. After surviving, and still bleeding from the wound, Tex set the record straight and shot him dead in a second duel drawing with his left (and Tex is right-handed).
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Steve Dickart, a slimy spy who sells secrets to the Mexicans and performs as a Stage Magician under the name of Mefisto. After his first defeat and escaping being hanged he comes back, and this time is a real sorcerer and a legitimate threat to our heroes. The same goes for his son Yama, who was a mere circus artist and was eventually turned into a sorcerer after following his father's footsteps.
- Going Native: Partly. Tex spends a lot of his free time with his Navajo tribe although he is often drawn back to civilization to help someone in need.
- Guile Hero: Although Tex isn't afraid to use his fists or guns to solve problems, he uses his wits and complex plans just as often to outsmart more dangerous opponents.
- The Gunslinger: Tex's group is very adept at using guns.
- Half-Breed Discrimination: Kit Willer is half-Navajo, half-white. It often gets him in trouble in towns which don't tolerate anyone with "Injun blood."
- Hearing Voices: The Head Hunter from The Mysterious Voice is compelled by a "voice" in his head (caused by a trauma in Borneo during the assault of some angry natives), which causes him to dress up as an Ape and ride out in the night, bellowing and waving a massive scimitar which he uses to behead any unfortunate soul he comes across.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Many of the Red Shirt Mooks that the heroes face, even if the odds favor them.
- Improperly Placed Firearms: Normally Averted, as the authors take care of using only era-appropriate guns and ammo, with Colt Single Action Army revolvers and Winchester lever-action rifles being the usual weapons in the normal stories, soldiers carrying the Springfield Trapdoor (this was even a plot point when a group of rogue Indians were found with it, as it had to come from a government armory), and stories set in Tex' youth before the Civil War heavily featuring the Colt 1851 and other cap-and-ball revolvers and no lever-action rifles (while a few models already existed they were extremely rare, and the Henry and Spencer, the first widespread models, would be developed only in 1860).
- Justified when Tex used a scoped Mauser Gewehr 71/84 against a small Apache band to defend a mail wagon: the stagecoach was carrying a Mauser salesman looking for non-army customers, and of course he had a gun, ammunitions, and the scope for demonstrations. The salesman then tried to sell the gun to Tex after he "tried it out" against the Apaches.
- Indian Maiden: Tesah and Lilyth.
- Internal Affairs: Texas Rangers are used to investigate sheriffs, marshalls, and even mayors that give them or their superiors reason to believe they're crooked, with one occasion seeing Tex and Carson dispatched by orders of the governor of Texas (the governor knew this particular mayor was utterly crooked and supported by his brother, a particularly astute and wealthy Small-Town Tyrant, but as there was no evidence he dispatched Tex and Carson knowing they'd find a way to solve that particular mess). In a variation, they're used because they're all Cowboy Cops who care only for the spirit of the law and won't let themselves be stopped by a crooked official that hasn't broken the letter of the law - they'll just get creative in busting them.
- Invulnerable Horses: Averted completely: shooting the horse is a common tactic in a chase (both for the chasing and the chased party), especially when one or both factions don't want to actually hurt the other, and the only times it doesn't happen is when the chaser wants to steal the horses.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Tex's typical modu operandi involves punching the poor sop across the room until he finally tells the truth.
- Jack The Rip Off: In one story, Tex Willer's trouble in a town are doubled by the presence of a serial killer of women who's pretty much a lookalike of Jack the Ripper, known as "Lo Sventratore" (lit. The Gutter, ripper instead is translated as "lo Squartatore".) Turns out, is a girl, the same girl who's been helping Tex fighting the bad guys of the week and also gives a bit of psycho Motive Rant about being disgusted by women who "sells themselves".
- Kick the Dog: Many of Tex's enemies do it, but the top dog-kickers are Teller & Brennan, two arms dealer that, in revenge for Tex ruining a prosperous arms trade for them, tried to kill him by unleashing a smallpox epidemic on the Navajos (by chance, Tex was away with Kit when it happened), killing his wife in the process.
- Tex did it in one occasion: when he finally found Brennan (who had barely survived Tex's initial Roaring Rampage of Revenge and managed to lose him), his end was the second most horrible in the entire series, topped only by Mefisto's.
- Knight Errant: Tex and his friends travel around the US a lot (and sometimes even go abroad) setting things right.
- Large Ham: Mefisto tends to do this a lot, usually when showing off his powers. Another memorable example is the "Great King" Luis from the omonimous story.
- Mad Scientist: The first and most memorable example being Vindex: an insane midget who wants to create a new "Empire of the Sun" terrorizing his subjects with giant puma.
- Mail-Order Bride: During one of his adventures, Tex Willer had to escort a number of women across the country while they went to their potential husbands. Horribly subverted at the end when it's revealed it was a scam to lure young women and force them into prostitution, and while this group escapes their fate due Tex gunning down the bandits the scam had been going on for quite some time.
- Mama Bear: The indian witch Zhenda, (described by Tex as a "sort of skirt-wearing Mefisto), is mostly motivated by her love for her son and the desire to make him the proper leader of the Navajos instead of Tex.
- Maniac Monkeys: Gombo, Satania's pet, is a ferocious gorilla who's sent after Tex, who barely survives to his attack thanks to Carson's help, and takes a lot of bullets before dying. Also the disguise worn by the "Head Hunter" from the "Mysterious Voice" story.
- Master of Disguise: Proteus. He uses his skills to frame both Tex and Carson.
- Megaton Punch: Not exactly that strong, but Tex hits hard.
- Mighty Whitey: Tex becomes the chief of the Navajo tribe and gains the name Eagle of the Night. This title gives him some privileges among other tribes who recognize his authority, and he uses his position to help the tribes which other whites try to use for their own gain. Tex is very respectful of different tribes' customs, however, and often sees Native Americans as better people than whites.
- Missing Mom: Lilyth to Kit Willer.
- Mountain Man: Gros-Jean is a poster boy for this trope.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: What Tex's name is like to villains as his fame spreads.
- Also Mefisto and his son Yama.
- Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight: To ludicrous extremes when the heroes stumble upon a secret island inhabited by Vikings and easily snap their broadswords with bullets.
- No Kill like Overkill: In first half of Two Faces of Vengeance, Tex kills Don Luis Toledo by emptying an entire Gatling magazine into him.
- Oh, Crap!: One of the greatest one is seen during The Land of the Abyss story by Tex himself when, after descending into said lands with his son and Tiger is confronted by a giant carnivorous dinosaur.
- Our Liches Are Different: Rakos/Sokar, the evil Egyptian warlock who was cursed by Isis and is forced to live in a pyramid, protected by his Ushabti
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Diablero has the eponymous monster revealed to be a native who's turned into a feral beastman by a potion given to him by his own sister, a witch. Said witch can also control wolves through unclear means.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Zombies are first seen during Yama's first arrival: in this case, is simply a dead guy who had just died with a voodoo amulet around his neck, and can still move, think and shoot. Later during the second confrontation with the Black Tiger, his sorcerer ally summons some zombies to kill Tex and co.
- Outlaw: Many of Tex's enemies are these. Tex himself was one before joining the Rangers.
- Outlaw Town: These show up once in a while, usually as small settlements of a half a dozen buildings or less—plus the occasional attempt of someone to turn an actual town into this.
- Papa Wolf: Try threatening or harming any members of Tex's family, and you'll come to regret it.
- Perpetual-Motion Monster: The Giant Anaconda in the "Stone Tiger" temple from the Black Arrows story.
- Pinkerton Detective: Being this a western comic book set before the start of the unions, they only show up chasing major criminals or doing investigative work. The agency is also noted to have some ethics, as they'll fire with prejudice any agent caught doing something illegal (as freeing a criminal after being bribed), and if asked about them will quickly denounce whatever they're doing now. They also collaborate directly with Tex from time to time, with Tex and the Agency quickly answering each other's call for help. Their most decisive roles are in the "Death Cell" and "Pinkerton Lady" storyline:
- At the start of the "Death Cell" storyline Tex is framed for murder and it's mentioned they've been contacted to help find information to prove his innocence and catch the culprit before he and his accomplice can start an Indian war and have the Navajos evicted from their reserve. By the end of the storyline Tex and his pards have identified the culprit and found enough evidence to convict him and prove Tex' innocence on their own... And the Pinks reveal they have identified every single other member of the organization and provided enough evidence to arrest them, without even appearing on-page until one of their agents shows up to reveal what they've done in the meantime.
- They're at the center of the "Pinkerton Lady" storyline, where their agent Kate Warne (who really existed) investigates an assassination plot against presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, with Tex (then an outlaw) helping her. The Pinkertons realize it's Tex and know he's an outlaw, but Allan Pinkerton himself orders to look the other way as he realizes he's a good man, starting their collaboration.
- Posse: Tex features one of the most epic uses of the trope, as the posse gathered at the end of the story arc Navajo Blood is composed by Tex, his pards and over one hundred pissed Navajos, who showed up to make sure the men who murdered four Navajo boys For the Evulz are arrested and unable to bribe their way out of trouble again. The posse is so formidable that the Mooks of the villains run away after being told of it, and the villains end up killing each other as they fight over the only available horse to run away.
- Raised by Natives: Partly. Although Tex was occasionally around to look after Kit when Lilyth died, he was often called on duty and thus left Kit to be raised by the Navajo tribe.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Many stories are based on actual historical events. Two prominent examples are the recent "Rangers of Patagonia", based on the Argentinian conflict known as Conquest of the Desert (with the appearance of some of the historical characters, most prominently the chief Calfucurà ), and the celebrated story arc "Navajo Blood", based on the historical murder of the son of a Navajo chief and a hundred Navajos leaving the Reservation to hunt the murderers down.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In one story Tex begins to hunt down a group of bandits when he thinks that they have killed his son.
- He also did an epic one against the crooks who caused the death of Lilyth.
- Running Gag: Every time we see a telegraph office, the employee gets scared, killed or the butt of some joke. Some examples: in "The Blood Pact" the first telegraph employee to appear is tricked into sending a very offending (and fully justified) message to the Ranger headquarter with the excuse 'It's a secret code', while the second one is killed by Mooks while he gives ammo to Tex and Carson besieged in his office; in the story "Navajo Blood" the employees thinks they're going to be killed by the rebelling Navajos, who are there to escort a journalist who needs to send an enormous report to the Washington Post (the Navajos also escorted the money to pay for the message: it was big enough that the editor of the Post called it a novel upon getting it, and the employees doubted he could pay before seeing the cash); in "Son of the Wind" the employee decides to poke some fun at Tiger Jack, Tex's Navajo companion, who promptly threatened him with a knife, has him send the message and pays for the service with a smile before telling him his female coworker could resume breathing.
- Also, Carson's hat being used as decoy for enemy fire (and him complaining about how he always has to buy a new one after that).
- Scaled Up: In one story the heroes have to fight a tribe of black men dressed in alligator skins. Upon reaching the blind shaman, who's standing still on a sand bank, he drops on the ground and turns into an actual alligator in front of their eyes. Then all the swamp's alligators gathers to the village, seemingly to kill our heroes.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Most of the so called "gods", curses and magicians are a fraud. However, as the series proceeded, many "real" sorcerors appeared, from both sides.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Tex doesn't care about rules as long as he can bring criminals to justice. His brash attitude often brings him into conflict with various stiff officers, sheriffs etc.
- Shared Universe: As of december 2021 is part of the wider universe in which most comics published by Bonelli are set thanks to the crossover with Zagor (already part of this universe).
- The Sheriff: Plenty of them, ranging from corrupted to law-abiding ones.
- Silver Fox: Kit Carson is in very good shape for his age. And looking at his track record with women, he's quite aware of his looks too.
- Sinister Scimitar: Chinese sects sometimes have them in their lairs. Also the Head Hunter wields one.
- Small-Town Tyrant: Many of Tex's enemies are these. A particular story featured two of them. One was the story's Big Bad, the other was the Big Bad's father...who used the fact he was the one with all the money in town to defang his son and force the local sheriff and judge to actually apply the law (thus ending the story's conflict in the heroes' favour, clearing Kit from a charge of murder and relative death sentence in the process). Nobody had expected this, more out of him being a cripple (what allowed the son to do what he wanted for so long in the first place) than not knowing he had morals.
- Squishy Wizard: Mefisto and Yama have immense mystical powers and two weaknesses: they can't conjure anything solid (thus depending on more mundane means to actually kill Tex and his pards) and are killable as any human. Also, being both quite lean (and Mefisto being an old man), they are relatively weak in hand to hand, something they tend to avoid.
- Also, Padma: just like Mefisto and Yama he's killable as any human and very lean, and can't conjure anything solid. He compensates with some mystic force that saved him when Mefisto hit him in the head with a brazier and immense powers, more than adequate to conjure illusions that drove Mefisto mad and are implied to be able to kill (during a talk with that mystic force he asked for permission to do just that to neutralize Mefisto, and was told to just drive him mad).
- Subverted with Rayado: between the previous wizards and his fat he only appeared a weakling, but when Tex came close enough to shoot him he deflected the bullets with an axe, and then showed he was mostly muscle under his fat, giving Tex one of the hardest fights of his life.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Tex and pards make a rather liberal use of dynamite, ranging from throwing one or two sticks at someone or something to causing explosions big and well-placed enough to destroy a reservoir and flood a mine (in all fairness, they only wanted to empty the reservoir so that the mine's pressured water jets would stop working, the flooding was a side effect caused by the reservoir being huge).
- In one occasion Tex used dynamite to break a door. In all fairness it was an armoured security door they didn't have the key for... Still, Tex had to talk down Carson from using an excessive amount and remind him they wanted to break down the door, not blow everything to kingdom come.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: Tex actually didn't mean to start getting into adventures, and tried to retire twice... But every time trouble came to him:
- He initially aimed for a career as a rodeo rider, but when his brother was murdered he killed the entire gang responsible for it... Except for the crooked sheriff that was a part of it, who framed him for murder and turned him into an outlaw.
- Tex eventually cleared his name, and with his old friends Rod Vergil and "Damned" Dick decided to start raising cattle. Then as they were bringing a herd to Wichita, in Kansas, the Civil War started, Vergil decided to sell his part early to enroll in the Texas militia, and while Tex and Dick just wanted to sell their cattle and get away from the war the buyer sent the militia to try and force them to sell him the herd at a pittance, starting a chain of events that resulted in Tex and Dick enrolling in the Kentucky militia with the Union.
- Right after marrying Lilyth Tex decided to live in the Navajo reservation with her and her father Red Cloud... Then Teller and Brennan, two businessmen Tex had got arrested, tried to take their revenge by causing a smallpox outbreak among the Navajo to kill him, with Lilyth as one of the victims. Tex has returned to adventures since then, even if he always returns to the Navajo reservation.
- Train Job: Baddies do this.
- Inverted in The Armored Train where Tex gathered a team in a mission on Mexico to rob the titular train transporting gold and guns to a rebel general.
- Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Given the Fandom Rivalry involved, the crossover with Zagor had a young Tex Willer and the now aged Zagor fight. They're evenly matched until they're interrupted and find out they're on the same side.
- The Unreveal: The alien (you read that right) from Moon Valley story is always seen with his head turned or with his profile heavily shadowed, and we see his eyes twice, but the reader never gets a good look at his face. He looks mostly human though, if not for the black, sponge-like skin.
- Vain Sorceress: Many evil witches appears to be very beautiful. The most iconical example is the sorceress Mah-Shai from The Land of the Abyss story: Upon confronting the heroes she's revealed as a charming indian woman (to the point that Tex, Kit and Tiger are all mesmerized/surprised for a while), but after she dies, bitten by a snake, she shrivels and turns into an old hag.
- Wacky Wayside Tribe: Ranging from primitive indians to aztecs descendace to Horny Vikings to a whole medieval colony founded by the descendants of Cortez' conquistadores trapped in a valley by indians.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Yama's whereabouts after his third defeat were unknown for a number of years until it was revealed that he went into depression and that he was back doing the stage magician act with his mother. He finally came back in a 2017 storyline and he is apparently joining his father.
- In early stories Tex had a trusty horse named Dynamite. At some point Dynamite no longer showed up and was replaced by disposable mounts. He was eventually revealed to have grown old and been given a herd to roam the Navajo reservation in peace in his last years, and dying when a group of mustangers stole his herd and he helped Tex saving them.
- Yellow Peril: Sinister chinese sects (usually with knife-throwing mooks and dragon motifs) appears from time to time as enemies to out heroes. Also Sumankal, the Black Tiger.
