Lucky Luke

From Hey Kids Comics

Lucky Luke
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Sous le Ciel de l'Ouest (1952), cover of an early softcovered issue.
Character information
First appearance das Debut (December 1946)
In-story information
Full name Luke
Species Human
Place of origin USA
Team affiliations The Pinkertons
Partnerships Jolly Jumper (his horse)
Rantanplan (the dumbest dog in the world)
Notable aliases Mr. Luke, Kid Lucky
Publication information
Publisher Lucky Comics (French)
Cinebook Ltd (English)
Formats Comics album
Original language French
Genre see below
Publication date December 7, 1946
Main character(s) Lucky Luke
Jolly Jumper
The Daltons
Rantanplan
The Pinkertons
Creative team
Writer(s) Morris (and René Goscinny for a period)
Artist(s) Morris (with Achdé)
Colorist(s) Vittorio Léonardo Kind
Editor(s) Dupuis and Dargaud (previous), Lucky Comics (current)

Lucky Luke is a Belgian comics series created by Belgian cartoonist Maurice De Bevere, better known as Morris, and for one period written by René Goscinny. Set in the American Old West, it stars the titular character, Lucky Luke, the Cowboy known to "shoot faster than his shadow".

Along with The Adventures of Tintin and Asterix, Lucky Luke is one of the most popular and best-selling comic-book series in continental Europe.[1] About half of the series' adventures have been translated into English. Lucky Luke comics have been translated into 23 languages, including many European languages, some African and Asian languages.

Publication history[edit | edit source]

left|thumb|200px|First appearance of Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper in Arizona 1880 (1946)

Both a tribute to the mythic Old West and an affectionate parody, the comics were created by the Belgian artist Morris who drew Lucky Luke from 1946 until his death in 2001. The first Lucky Luke adventure named Arizona 1880 appeared in the Almanach issue of the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou on December 7, 1946.[2] After several years of solitary work on the strip, Morris began a collaboration with René Goscinny who became the series' writer for a period that is considered the golden age of the series. This started with the story Des rails sur la Prairie published on August 25, 1955 in Spirou.[3] Ending a long run of serial publications in Spirou, the series shifted to Goscinny's Pilote magazine in 1967 with the story La Diligence, subsequently leaving publisher Dupuis for Dargaud.

After the death of Goscinny in 1977, several writers have tried to fill the role of storyteller, including Vicq, Bob de Groot, Jean Léturgie and Lo Hartog Van Banda. In addition to continuing the series, Morris started the related spin-off series Rantanplan in 1987. At the 1993 Angoulême International Comics Festival, Lucky Luke was given an honorary exhibition.[4]

After Morris' death in 2001, French artist Achdé continued drawing new Lucky Luke stories in collaboration with writer Laurent Gerra.

Lucky Luke comics have been translated into Afrikaans, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (both in the Brazilian and Portuguese forms), Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Turkish, Vietnamese and Welsh.

The stories[edit | edit source]

Although always described as a Cowboy, Luke generally acts as a righter of wrongs or bodyguard of some sort, where he excels thanks to his resourcefulness and incredible gun prowess. A recurring task is that of capturing bumbling gangsters the Dalton brothers, Joe, William, Jack and Averell. He rides Jolly Jumper, "the smartest horse in the world" and is often accompanied by Rantanplan, "the stupidest dog in the universe", a spoof of Rin Tin Tin.

Luke meets many historical Western figures like Calamity Jane, Billy the Kid, Judge Roy Bean and Jesse James's gang, and takes part in events such as the guarding of Wells Fargo stagecoaches, the Pony Express, the building of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, the Rush into the Unassigned Lands of Oklahoma, and a tour by French actress Sarah Bernhardt. Some of the books feature a one-page article on the background to the events featured. Goscinny once said that he and Morris tried to base the Lucky Luke adventures on real events whenever possible, but that they would not let the facts get in the way of a funny story.

The chronology of the albums is deliberately murky, and in most albums no particular year is given. The villains and incidental characters based on real persons lived over most of the mid-to-late-19th century. For example, in the album Daily Star, Lucky Luke meets a young Horace Greeley, prior to his moving to New York. Although no year is mentioned in the album, this story must take place c. 1830, since the real Horace Greeley moved to New York in 1831. Judge Roy Bean, who was appointed judge in 1882, appears in another album, taking place some fifty years later – and in another album, Lucky Luke takes part in the 1892 Coffeyville shootout against the Dalton Gang. Lucky Luke himself appears unchanged in all stories.

Except at the very beginning of the saga, Luke is never seen to kill anyone, preferring to disarm people by shooting weapons out of their hands.

At the end of each story, except the earliest, Lucky Luke rides off alone into the sunset on Jolly Jumper, singing (in English) "I'm a poor lonesome cowboy, and a long way from home...".

Smoking[edit | edit source]

"Lucky Luke's famous cigarette not only identifies a profile but allows the tempo to be modified and extended, expressing a feeling: in Le Pied-tendre (The Tenderfoot), Morris shows Lucky Luke's feelings at the death of a friend in a series of three frames in which the hero rolls and spills a cigarette."[5]

Morris, who has been criticized over Lucky Luke's cigarette for a long time, answered his critics : "the cigarette is part of the character's profile, just like the pipe of Popeye or Maigret".[6] It is claimed that Morris was forced to remove cigarettes Lucky Luke smokes from his strip and Lucky Luke who "used to be a heavy smoker", had to give up smoking for "commercial reasons", "apparently to gain access to the American market".[5][7][8] On World No Tobacco Day in 1989, the magazine Spirou published a militantly anti-tobacco issue, #2668.[5][9] Morris won an award from the World Health Organization in 1988 when he replaced Luke's omnipresent cigarette with a wisp of straw (in the story "Fingers") in 1983, "an anti-cigarette poster today proclaims "Even Lucky Luke can't stand them!" and shows the happy cowboy in a radical reversal of his image".[5][10][11] In the 2007 animated film "Tous à l'Ouest: Une aventure de Lucky Luke", Lucky Luke is seen using what appears to be a nicotine patch and mentions that before that he had to "chew on a piece of straw for a while" right after he quit smoking. In the story "The bridge over the Mississippi", he is seen rolling a cigarette again, although he claims it was just to hide his boredom.

Stereotypes[edit | edit source]

Some of the humour in Lucky Luke is based on clichés and stereotypes, including many ethnic stereotypes of "sneaky" Chinese or "lazy" Mexicans,[12] Native Americans, Irish and Italians[8] as well as "darky" depictions of Afro-Americans. According to the Forbidden Planet correspondent: "They played on the clichés of the genre, with humour that nowadays probably would be considered quite racist (lazy Mexicans, sneaky Chinese), but also with a special sort of satire, mirroring contemporary social platitudes." [12] Luke himself however, treats everyone with respect and protects any (stereotype-or-not) vulnerable person against injustice.

Real-life persons who have appeared in Lucky Luke[edit | edit source]

Lucky Luke in other media[edit | edit source]

[[wikipedia:File:LuckyLukeTerenceHillMovieFrenchDVDCover.jpg|180px|right|thumb|French DVD cover for the Terence Hill film]]

Animation[edit | edit source]

Four theatrical animated films were created. In 1990, Disney released one of them, The Ballad of the Daltons, on VHS. Three of the movies were part of a trilogy. The first of the films was titled Daisy Town (1971), followed by La Ballade des Dalton (1978) and finished by Les Dalton en cavale (1983), meaning The Daltons on the Loose in English.

In addition to the theatrical animated movies, there was also an animated Lucky Luke television series:

  • In 2001, Xilam produced a new series of 52 episodes known as Les Nouvelles aventures de Lucky Luke (The New Adventures of Lucky Luke) currently[when?] being broadcast on Cinemoi. It is now available on 8 DVDs with French and English audio tracks. This series also featured colonel Custer, in this incarnation an Indian-hater and a dwarf.

Xilam recently[when?] produced a theatrical animated film (the fourth film), Tous à l'Ouest: Une aventure de Lucky Luke (Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure), which was released in France on December 5, 2007.[13]

Television
  1. Hanna-Barbera Lucky Luke (1983)
  2. Xilam Les Adventures De Lucky Luke (2001)
  3. Xilam Rantanplan (2008)
  4. Xilam Les Dalton (2010)

Live-action film and Live-action television[edit | edit source]

In 1991, two live-action films (Lucky Luke and Lucky Luke 2) and in 1992 a live-action television series (The Adventures of Lucky Luke) starring Terence Hill as Lucky Luke were produced.

In 2004, the film Les Dalton featured Til Schweiger as Lucky Luke.

In 2009, Yves Marmion and UGC (the producers of Les Dalton) produced the film Lucky Luke starring French actor Jean Dujardin as the gunslinger. The film was released on October 21, 2009 in Europe.

Video games[edit | edit source]

Over the years, several Lucky Luke video games were released for many platforms, most of them by Infogrames,[14] and only released in Europe (the only ones released for the North American market were the Game Boy Color and PlayStation versions). A Lucky Luke game was also developed for mobile phones by The Mighty Troglodytes.[citation needed] Lucky Luke: Go West was released in Europe for the PC, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS in the end of 2007.

Collected editions[edit | edit source]

By Morris (1949–1958)[edit | edit source]

Dupuis Publishing[edit | edit source]

By Morris & Goscinny (1957–1986)[edit | edit source]

Dupuis Publishing[edit | edit source]

Dargaud Publishing[edit | edit source]

By Morris and various writers (1980–2002)[edit | edit source]

Dargaud Publishing[edit | edit source]

  • 47. Le Magot des Dalton, 1980, by Vicq (The Daltons' Loot)
  • 48. Le Bandit manchot, 1981, by Bob de Groot (The One-Armed Bandit)
  • 49. Sarah Bernhardt, 1982, by Jean Léturgie and Xavier Fauche
  • 52. Fingers, 1983, by Lo Hartog Van Banda
  • 53. Le Daily Star, 1983, by Jean Léturgie and Xavier Fauche (The Daily Star)
  • 54. La Fiancée de Lucky Luke, 1985, by Guy Vidal (Lucky Luke's Fiancee)
  • 56. Le Ranch maudit, 1986, by Jean Léturgie, Xavier Fauche and Claude Guylouis (The Cursed Ranch)
  • 57. Nitroglycérine, 1987, by Lo Hartog Van Banda
  • 58. L'Alibi, 1987, by Claude Guylouis (The Alibi)
  • 59. Le Pony Express, 1988, by Jean Léturgie and Xavier Fauche (The Pony Express)

Lucky Productions[edit | edit source]

  • 60. L'Amnésie des Dalton, 1991, by Jean Léturgie and Xavier Fauche (The Daltons' Amnesia)
  • 61. Chasse aux fantômes, 1992, by Lo Hartog Van Banda (Ghosthunt)
  • 62. Les Dalton à la noce, 1993, by Jean Léturgie and Xavier Fauche (The Daltons at a Wedding)
  • 63. Le Pont sur le Mississippi, 1994, by Jean Léturgie and Xavier Fauche (Bridge Over the Mississippi)
  • 64. Kid Lucky, 1995, by Pearce and Jean Léturgie
  • 65. Belle Star, 1995, by Xavier Fauche
  • 66. Le Klondike, 1996, by Yann and Jean Léturgie (The Klondike)
  • 67. O.K. Corral, 1997, by Eric Adam and Xavier Fauche
  • 68. Oklahoma Jim, 1997, by Pearce and Jean Léturgie
  • 69. Marcel Dalton, 1998, by Bob de Groot

Lucky Comics[edit | edit source]

  • 70. Le Prophète, 2000, by Patrick Nordmann (The Prophet)
  • 71. L'Artiste peintre, 2001, by Bob de Groot (The Artist)
  • 72. La Légende de l'Ouest, 2002, by Patrick Nordmann (The Legend of the West)

By Achdé & Gerra (Since 2004)[edit | edit source]

Lucky Comics[edit | edit source]

  • 73. La Belle Province, 2004 (The Beautiful Province)
  • 74. La Corde au cou, 2006 (From the Gallows to the Altar)
  • 75. L'Homme de Washington, 2008 (The Man from Washington)

By Achdé, Benacquista & Pennac (Since 2010)[edit | edit source]

Lucky Comics[edit | edit source]

  • 76. Lucky Luke contre Pinkerton, 2010 (Lucky Luke versus The Pinkertons)
  • 77. L'apprenti Cow-boy, 2011 (The Cowboy Apprentice)
  • 78. Cavalier seul, 2012 (Lone Riders)
  • 79. Lasso périlleux, 2013 (Dangerous Lasso)

English translations[edit | edit source]

Apart from the collections mentioned below, Lucky Luke comics were published in British comic book magazines such as Film Fun Comic or Giggle (in 1967). The Giggle version had Luke's name changed to "Buck Bingo".[15]

Brockhampton Press Ltd, Leicester, began publishing the books in hardcover and softcover, with six titles from 1972 to 1974, translated by Frederick W Nolan. Brockhampton became part of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd in 1976, and under their children's imprint, Knight Books, Hodder published mini-sized paperback editions of the first six books, in 1976 to 1977. In 1980 and 1982, Hodder & Stoughton published three new titles as Hodder Dargaud, as well as reprints of the previous six.

Cinebook Ltd have been publishing English language translations of Lucky Luke since 2006. One new volume is released every two months. In India only, Euro Books, a division of Euro Kids International Ltd. published English versions of 24 Lucky Luke titles in 2009.

Brockhampton Press (UK)

Knight Books (UK)

Hodder Dargaud (UK)

Dargaud USA and Canada

Fantasy Flight (US)

Ravette Books (UK)

  • The Dalton Brothers Memory Game, 1991

Glo'worm (UK)

Cinebook Ltd

  1. Billy The Kid, 2006, ISBN 1-905460-11-2
  2. Ghost Town, 2006, ISBN 1-905460-12-0
  3. Dalton City, 2006, ISBN 1-905460-13-9
  4. Jesse James, 2006, ISBN 1-905460-14-7
  5. In the Shadow of the Derricks, 2007, ISBN 1-905460-17-1
  6. Ma Dalton, 2007, ISBN 978-1-905460-18-2
  7. Barbed Wire on the Prairie, 2007, ISBN 978-1-905460-24-3
  8. Calamity Jane, 2007, ISBN 978-1-905460-25-0
  9. The Wagon Train, 2008, ISBN 978-1-905460-40-3
  10. Tortillas for the Daltons, 2008, ISBN 978-1-905460-49-6
  11. Western Circus, 2008, ISBN 978-1-905460-55-7
  12. The Rivals of Painful Gulch, 2008, ISBN 978-1-905460-60-1
  13. The Tenderfoot, 2008, ISBN 978-1-905460-65-6
  14. The Dashing White Cowboy, 2008, ISBN 978-1-905460-66-3
  15. The Daltons in the Blizzard, 2009, ISBN 978-1-905460-76-2
  16. The Black Hills, 2009, ISBN 978-1-905460-83-0
  17. Apache Canyon, 2009, ISBN 978-1-905460-92-2
  18. The Escort, 2009, ISBN 978-1-905460-98-4
  19. On the Daltons' Trail, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84918-007-8
  20. The Oklahoma Land Rush, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84918-008-5
  21. The 20th Cavalry, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84918-016-0
  22. Emperor Smith, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84918-026-9
  23. A Cure for the Daltons, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84918-034-4
  24. The Judge, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84918-045-0
  25. The Stagecoach, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84918-052-8
  26. The Bounty Hunter, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84918-059-7
  27. Lucky Luke versus Joss Jamon, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84918-071-9
  28. The Dalton Cousins, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84918-076-4
  29. The Grand Duke, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84918-083-2
  30. The Daltons' Escape, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84918-091-7
  31. Lucky Luke versus the Pinkertons, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84918-098-6
  32. Rails on the Prairie, 2011, ISBN 978-1-84918-104-4
  33. The One-Armed Bandit, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84918-111-2
  34. The Daltons Always On The Run, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84918-119-8
  35. The Singing Wire, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84918-123-5
  36. The Daltons Redeem Themselves, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84918-132-7
  37. Fingers, 2012, ISBN 978-1-849181389
  38. Doc Doxey's Elixir, 2012, ISBN 978-1-849181419
  39. The Man from Washington, 2013, ISBN 978-1-849181495
  40. Phil Wire, 2013, ISBN 978-1-849181556
  41. The Daily Star, 2013, ISBN 978-1-849181600
  42. Lone Riders, 2013, ISBN 978-1-849181686
  43. The Bluefeet are coming, 2013, ISBN 978-1-849181730
  44. Lucky Luke versus Pat Poker, 2013, ISBN 978-1-849181792

Eurokids

  1. The Alibi, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2033-1
  2. Ghost Hunt, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2035-5
  3. Kid Lucky, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2037-9
  4. Oklahoma Jim, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2040-9
  5. The Prophet, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2041-6
  6. Belle Star, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2038-6
  7. The Klondike, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2039-3
  8. The Pony Express, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2034-8
  9. Sarah Bernardt, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2042-3
  10. The bridge on the Mississippi, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2036-2
  11. The Hanged Man’s Rope and other stories, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2043-0
  12. The Ballad of the Daltons and other stories, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2056-0
  13. Daisy Town, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2044-7
  14. Fingers, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2045-4
  15. Marcel Dalton, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2046-1
  16. The Artist, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2047-8
  17. The legend of the west, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2048-5
  18. The Daily Star, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2049-2
  19. Lucky Luke’s fiancé, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2050-8
  20. Nitroglycerine, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2051-5
  21. The Cursed Ranch, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2052-2
  22. The Beautiful Province, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2053-9
  23. From the Gallows to the Altar, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2054-6
  24. The Dalton’s Loot, 2009, ISBN 978-81-286-2055-3

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

Footnotes
  1. ↑ Ratier, Gilles. "ACBD bilan 2006:new Lucky Luke had an initial run of 650,000 copies..". ACBD.fr. Archived from the original on 2007-03-05. Retrieved 2007-02-08. (French)
  2. ↑ BDoubliées. "Spirou année 1946" (in French). 
  3. ↑ BDoubliées. "Spirou année 1955" (in French). 
  4. ↑ Lambiek Comiclopedia. "Morris". 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "World Health Forum Vol 11 1990" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
  6. ↑ "World Health Forum Vol 11 1990 footnote Les cahiers de la bande dessinée. No. 43, 1980, p. 11." (PDF). Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
  7. ↑ "Peopledaily.com.cn". Peopledaily.com.cn. 2006-08-23. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Harrie Verstappen. "Thelooniverse.com". Thelooniverse.com. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
  9. ↑ BDOubliées.com - 1989 Spirou index
  10. ↑ "ABCnews.com". Blogs.abcnews.com. 2006-08-22. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
  11. ↑ Surette, Tim (2006-08-21). "TV.com". TV.com. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Forbiddenplanet.co.uk". Forbiddenplanet.co.uk. 2009-06-30. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 
  13. ↑ "Tous a l'ouest". Xilam Films. October 22, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-22.  |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)[dead link]
  14. ↑ IGN Staff (November 3, 1998). "Lucky Luke: Infogrames brings a huge European cowboy to the US market and puts him on the discount rack.". IGN.com. wikipedia:IGN. Retrieved June 22, 2013. 
  15. ↑ "Lucky Luke as "Buck Bingo" on the Forbidden Planet International Blog Log". Forbiddenplanet.co.uk. 2008-07-15. Retrieved 2012-02-14. 

Further reading[edit | edit source]

  • Lefevre, Pascal. 1998. Lucky Luke, a 'lonesome cowboy' for more than half a century. In The Low Countries, 1998-1999. Rekkem: Stichting Ons Erfdeel.

External links[edit | edit source]

Template:Lucky Luke by Morris


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