Lucky Luke is a French language comic book series. Set in the American Old West, it stars the titular character, Lucky Luke.

Part parody of, part tribute to the mythic Old West, the hardcover comics were drawn by the Belgian artist Morris (1923-2001). The scripts of the earlier (but not the earliest) books were written by Frenchman René Goscinny (1926-1977), best known for Asterix. After Goscinny's death many tried to fill the gap.

Luke, drawing a gun faster than his shadow, fights crime and injustice, most often in the form of the bumbling Dalton brothers, Joe, Jack, William and Averell (each one being taller and dumber than the previous one). He rides Jolly Jumper,"the smartest horse in the world." He is often seen with Rantanplan , "the stupidest dog in the universe," the name being an allusion to Rin Tin Tin. A cigarette was constantly at his lips in the early albums, but (since it was essentially a parody of abundant cigarette usage in Western movies to begin with,) Morris replaced the cigarette with a piece of straw in 1983, which earned him recognition from the World Health Organization.

In the albums, Luke meets many factual Western heroes like Calamity Jane, Billy the Kid, Judge Roy Bean and Jesse James' gang, and takes part in such historical endeavors as the Pony Express, the building of the first transcontinental Telegraph, and the Rush into Oklahoma.

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

Lucky Luke in culture

Lucky Luke comics have left a notable trace in culture: toys, posters, fans, movies, animations, message boards, webpages. The books have become collectibles.

Animation

There was an animated Lucky Luke television series: In 1983, Hanna-Barbera studios and Morris released 26 episodes, and in 1991, 26 more episodes were released. In 2001, Xilam [1] produced a new series of 52 episodes known as "Les Nouvelles aventures de Lucky Luke" (Lucky Luke's new adventures). It is now availaible on 8 DVDs with French and English audio tracks.

Real prototypes of Lucky Luke series characters

• Roy Bean
• Billy the Kid
• Sarah Bernhardt
• Dalton Gang
• Céline Dion
• James B. Eads
• Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp
• Horace Greely
• Doc Holliday
• Calamity Jane
• Jesse James
• Joshua Norton
• George Maledon
• Isaac C. Parker
• Frederic Remington
• Mattie Silks
• Soapy Smith
• Belle Starr

External links

• lucky-luke.pagina.nl (The biggest link overview of Lucky Luke sites.)