Nick Raider #1
Nick Raider #1 ('La vittima senza nome,' June 1988) marks the debut of the first detective/crime comic series ever published by Sergio Bonelli Editore, breaking the house's long-standing focus on western, adventure, and horror genres and opening the door to Italian-language police procedural storytelling on a monthly schedule. The issue introduces the entire core cast of Manhattan Homicide's Central District — Nick Raider himself, his lieutenant Art Rayan, computer expert Jimmy Garnet, informant Alfie, and captain Philip Vance — establishing the ensemble, workplace-realism approach that would define the series for 200 issues. By grounding its detective fiction explicitly in the Ed McBain '87th Precinct' tradition rather than the lone-hero conventions dominant in Italian comics, the title helped legitimize the police procedural as a viable long-form format for Italian newsstand comics. The series ran continuously through January 2005 and spawned reprints, Speciali, an Almanacco del Giallo, and multiple revival projects, making this first issue the foundation of one of Bonelli's most genre-significant catalogs.
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Writer Claudio Nizzi, already a key scripter on Bonelli's flagship western Tex, conceived Nick Raider in 1988 at a particularly pressured editorial moment: he was simultaneously preparing to take over the majority of Tex scripts from its aging creator Gianluigi Bonelli, which would soon limit how closely he could shepherd the new title. Issue #1 was technically released under the Daim Press imprint — the house's name immediately before it formally became Sergio Bonelli Editore — making it one of the last comics to carry that transitional brand. Nizzi modeled the series on Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels, prioritizing ensemble squad dynamics and procedural realism over the superheroic individual. The title character's visual template was initially pitched by Nizzi as resembling Ryan O'Neal in the film 'Driver,' though successive artists gradually shifted the look toward a younger Robert Mitchum — a resemblance that became the series' official visual identity.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Nick Raider: third-generation Italian-American NYPD Homicide detective, Manhattan Central District; scripted by Claudio Nizzi, interior art by Gustavo Trigo, cover by Giampiero Casertano.
- First appearance of tenente Arthur 'Art' Rayan, Nick's direct superior and a mentor figure in the squad, who debuts here alongside Nick in the debut murder investigation.
- First appearance of Jimmy Garnet, the squad's computer/tech specialist, who assists in the investigation in this issue.
- First appearance of Alfie, a dwarf informant whose tip proves decisive to resolving the debut case.
- First appearance of capitano Philip Vance, the district captain who functions as a recurring authority figure and occasional foil to Nick throughout the series.
- Issue published June 14, 1988 under the transitional Daim Press/Sergio Bonelli Editore imprint; monthly black-and-white format, 96 pages, 16×21 cm square-bound — the standard Bonelli 'albetto' format.
- Marvin Brown, Nick's primary partner throughout the run, does NOT appear in issue #1; his partnership with Nick begins from issue #2 onward.
- The issue has been reprinted at least three times: in the Italian 'I Mitici Numeri 1' anthology mignon (Lo Scarabeo, July 1992), and as the inaugural reprint by If Edizioni (March 2005) when that publisher acquired the back-catalog after the original series ended.