Why Ringo?

El Loco: by Manuel Medina and Carlos Giménez from Ringo 26 (KG Murray, Australia).

For some reason, KG Murray chose to publish "Ringo" rather than "Gringo", a change that reflects the reworking of the foreign Johnny Galaxia title into the anglicised Johnny Galaxy.

Ringo 42: The final issue of KG Murry's series.

The series was almost certainly renamed in Australia, specifically for Murray's editions. The original Gringo title was consistently used in other countries and even in later Australian printings by Gredown.¹

The Treasure: ("El tesoro") from Ringo 5 (KG Murray, Australia). The missing "G" is very noticeable next to a similar splash page.

It can't have been a casual choice as it led to consistent additional editorial work for each issue. While the translation and English presentation is professionally done overall (and probably provided to KG Murray in that form), most of the reprints have been noticeably altered with the "G" cropped, blacked out or whited over.

El Secreto de los Pantanos: from Gringo 2, 1982 (Ediciones Alonso, Spain) was printed in Ringo 1 (KG Murray, Australia) as "The Secret of the Swamps".

From a marketing perspective, Murray may have decided that the title "Ringo" had broad reader recognition as a western comic. Numerous fictionalised versions of the life of Johnny Ringo, including Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, the OK Corral and Tombstone Arizona, have effectively associate him with the traditional western archetype. The hit theme song of the long-running TV series Bonanza (1959-1973) was also called Ringo, firmly embedding the association in the Australian consciousness.²

KG Murray may also have avoided "Gringo" because it has a strong pejorative connotation in English, despite its more neutral meaning as a white American for many Spanish speakers.

Above all, it is clear that the company was not yet ready to abandon its long-standing tradition of disguising the international origins of its material.³