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Characters
Lucky Luke
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The ‘cowboy that shoots faster than his own shadow’ is like several legends of the Old West all rolled into one. Morris, soaked in Westerns from an early age, squeezed the best out of that genre’s legendary heroes to create his own hero. Lucky Luke inherited Clarke Gable’s composure and class, Gary Cooper’s ‘busted’ side, as well as his broody mien and shyness with women, all that mixed with a touch of James Stewart. Yes, Lucky Luke is a cowboy, the quintessential cowboy: surrounded by an aura of mystery, fearless, exemplary and staunchly lonesome. With his loyal steed Jolly Jumper, he criss-crosses the American states from chance encounter to government mission. And wherever he goes, he is known. His unparalleled skill with a revolver has made him a legend, and his fame has travelled ahead of him all through the Old West. He’s also gifted with an incredible ability to adapt. No matter his mission, he’ll come through with flying colours. For him, escorting a shipment of gold, looking after a construction site, protecting a celebrity as they travel across a hostile West … It’s all no more difficult than putting the Daltons back in prison. Just another day on the job. His good and generous nature, his readiness to help, always, and above all his great humility have made him the people’s darling. But in spite of the affection or admiration of his fellows, he never stays long. Once his job is done, he sneaks out of the celebrations given in his honour and rides into the setting sun, onward to new adventures, claiming no rewards. In Lucky Luke, man’s best friend isn’t a dog (especially not Rin Tin Can) but his horse. Our hero views Jolly Jumper as his companion more than a mere mount. Their bond dates back to early childhood, as we’re told in volume Kid Lucky. With a longevity record under his gun belt (70 years and over 80 titles), Lucky Luke has established himself as one of contemporary bande dessinée’s legendary figures.
The Daltons
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JoeThe Daltons all look remarkably alike: protruding chin, big nose, short brow and striped clothes. Joe is by far the nastiest of them. Pigheaded and as aggressive as a pitbull, his mind never strays far from his two obsessions: robbing banks and shooting Lucky Luke. Rather a tall order for him… -
JackJack, along with William, is one of the only two capable of a smidgeon of intelligence – or at least of flashes of common sense. But his devotion to Joe tends to cancel out his lucidity. William and Jack don’t work without the other. In a way, they’re the duo within the quartet. As a matter of fact, few people really know which one is the tall one (William), which is the small one (Jack). They mostly serve as foils for the other two. -
WilliamWilliam, along with Jack, is one of the only two capable of a smidgeon of intelligence – or at least of flashes of common sense. But his devotion to Joe tends to cancel out his lucidity. William and Jack don’t work without the other. In a way, they’re the duo within the quartet. As a matter of fact, few people really know which one is the tall one (William), which is the small one (Jack). They mostly serve as foils for the other two. -
AverellAverell may be the tallest, but he’s also without a doubt the dumbest of them all, and his brothers spend a lot of their time telling him to shut up. His first and only concern is food. His signature line, “When do we eat?” has become very popular.
The friends
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Jolly Jumper
Jolly Jumper is a splendid white stallion with a golden mane. Learned and proud, he’s been Lucky Luke companion almost from birth. And much more than a simple mount, Jolly Jumper is above all an irreplaceable partner in adventuring. Cheeky and sarcastic, he’s very adept at roasting any silly person that crosses his path and earns his scorn – even when that someone is his own cowboy. -
Rin Tin Can
Rin Tin Can appeared in 1960 in the pages of Sur la Piste des Daltons (On the Daltons’ Trail). His original name, Ran-Tan-Plan, was already a reference to Rin-Tin-Tin, the canine star of both TV series and films born in 1954 in the United States. But the concept behind him was quite different: to show in the comics series a dog as dumb as Rin-Tin-Tin could be smart on screen! -
Calamity Jane
Frontierswoman and noted figure of the Old West, Calamity Jane is one of the few female characters in Lucky Luke’s world (along with Ma Dalton)… But what a character! Army scout, gold miner, she worked for the Pony Express and even at railroad construction – and she proved just as skilled at swearing as she was with a rifle…
The bad guys
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Billy the Kid
A spoiled, bad-tempered kid, Billy started his outlaw career at the tender age of five by robbing a stagecoach… A great fan of hot chocolate and cream pastries, he forbade the barman of his town from serving anything else. Terrorising the population, feared even by the worst desperadoes, his reputation for cruelty was well-established. Pitted against Lucky Luke, though, he was arrested then sentenced to 1,247 years hard labour.
