Magnus, pseudonym of Roberto Raviola, was an Italian comic book artist. He is regarded as one of the foremost cartoonists of his country. Having worked as an illustrator, he started his comics career and his association with Max Bunker in 1964 with the series Kriminal. He took the pseudonym Magnus from the Latin phrase "Magnus Pictor Fecit" ("A Great Painter Made It"). During the 1960s the duo became a mainstay of Italian comics, creating successful series such as Kriminal, Satanik, Dennis Cobb, Gesebel and Maxmagnus. In 1969 the duo released Alan Ford, their most successful series. After leaving Alan Ford in 1975, Magnus started working for Renzo Barbieri's publishing house. He devoted several years to research and the result was a revolution in the erotic comics genre. In the 1970s works like Midnight of Fire, Ten Knights and a Wizard, Vendetta Macumba and The Living Skull came out. Magnus continued creating the long saga The Outlaws and in 1975 he started the Lo Sconosciuto series. In 1977 The Company of the Gallows series appeared. In the 1980s he created two heroines: Milady 3000 and Necron's Frieda Boher, written by Ilaria Volpe. Milady is a science fiction series where Chinese culture, erotism and science-fiction. Necron instead was a pornographic series. Inspired by eastern literature, he created The 110 Pills, Fiori di prugno in un vaso d'oro and The Enchanted Women. In 1989 Magnus began his last work, a graphic novel featuring the popular Italian western character Tex Willer. Magnus completed 223 exceedingly detailed plates in 7 years of work, for which he used original sources for any historical element. He died of cancer just few days before completing his work.