Lucky Luke turns 75

The poor lonesome cowboy first appeared on December 7, 1946 in weekly Franco-Belgian cartoon magazine Spirou. A 75th anniversary issue, "Yesterday's Westerns," looks back at the origins and includes the two very first Lucky Luke adventures drawn by Belgian illustrator Morris, previously unpublished. The current Lucky Luke cartoonist, French illustrator Achde, designed the cover.

"I didn't have a style then," Morris said of his early work. "It was kind of a mix of Herge with a lot of Walt Disney and a dash of Max Fleischer, because Popeye influenced me a lot. It was thanks to Joseph [Gillain] that I was actually able to develop a more or less recognizable style." Gillain was a fellow Belgian comic artist who mentored younger cartoonists, working with them in his studio.

In the Wild West, a hero never shows fear or weakness. Lucky Luke had untold adventures in the course of his 75-year history, and he met quite a few individuals that really lived in the American West. But most of all he grappled with the Daltons, the four criminal brothers who always manage to break out of prison.

Jolly Jumper is Lucky Luke's reliable partner. In 1946, Morris had his "lonesome cowboy" ride across the prairie for the first time on his dappled horse. The amazing animal can make tea, balance on a tightrope and, sometimes, even talk. He often helps the cowboy get out of tight spots. In the early German translations, the horse was called Rosa.

Jolly Jumper also plays chess. When he talks to Lucky Luke, you get the feeling he doesn't take the cowboy all that seriously. His job is to watch out for him and make sure he is safe. In the process, he delights the reader with sarcastic remarks and wry comments.

Occasional encounters with Native Americans are not always friendly, sometimes the cowboy ends up tied to a stake. But mostly, he greets them, right hand raised, with "Hugh!" In the 1947 "Dick Digger's Gold Mine," Lucky Luke meets a Native American for the first time.

After he met the makers of "Mad" magazine, founded in 1952, in New York, Morris' comics increasingly became parodies of Western films. The Belgian illustrator had moved to the US in 1948, and for six years he traveled the country from the East Coast to California, as well as Mexico. He also set up an extensive archive about the pioneers in the American West in the second half of the 19th century.

Morris profited greatly from his collection even after he returned to Belgium in 1954. He drew desert plains with cacti and rattlesnakes, redwood trees and the mighty Mississippi, the snow-covered Chilcoot Pass to the Klondike, canyons with bizarre rock formations, booming gold mining towns and ghost towns deserted after the gold rush.

Morris wrote the Lucky Luke stories until 1955, when Rene Goscinny, author of the Asterix comics series, replaced him. After Goscinny died in 1977, the cowboy comics had various authors. Since 2002, the stories have been designed by French cartoonist Achde, and since 2016, the albums are scripted by Jul.

Lucky Luke has developed over time. One of the most striking changes: Since 1983, he no longer casually has a cigarette dangling from his lips, but just a straw. And in the 99th book, he takes a political stand: Because 25% of the cowboys are said to have been Black, a Black sheriff appears for the first time in "Torches in the Cotton Field."

The comics inspired several films. In the 2004 film "The Daltons vs. Lucky Luke," German actor Til Schweiger starred as Lucky Luke, the cowboy who invariably always wears the same outfit. A gang with the family name Dalton actually existed in the Wild West: the brothers Bob, Burr, Bill and Emmet. Time and again, comic after comic, Lucky Luke takes down these outlaws.