{"id":19698,"date":"2019-02-20T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T09:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=19698"},"modified":"2019-02-19T15:53:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T15:53:06","slug":"lucky-luke-volume-1-billy-the-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2019\/02\/20\/lucky-luke-volume-1-billy-the-kid\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucky Luke volume 1: Billy the Kid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Morris<\/strong> & Goscinny<\/strong>, translated by Luke Spear (CineBook)
\nISBN: 978-1-905460-11-3<\/p>\n

It’s hard to think of one of Europe’s most beloved and long-running comics characters being in any way controversial, but when the changing times caught up with the fastest gun in the West (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153so fast he can outdraw his own shadow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) and the hero moved with them, it made the news headlines all over the world.<\/p>\n

Lucky Luke<\/strong> is a rangy, laconic, good, natured cowboy endlessly roaming the fabulously mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures with his whip-smart horse Jolly Jumper<\/em> and Rantanplan <\/em>(the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dumbest dog in the West\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and a charming spoof of cinema canine Rin-Tin-Tin<\/strong>), interacting with a host of historical and legendary figures of the genre.<\/p>\n

His continued exploits over more than 70 years have filled 95 albums to date and made him the best-selling comic character in Europe (countless millions of albums in more than 30 languages thus far), with spin-off games, computer games, animated cartoons and even live-action movies.<\/p>\n

He was created by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de B\u00c3\u00a9v\u00c3\u00a8re – who signed himself Morris – for the 1947 Annual (L’Almanach Spirou<\/em><\/strong> 1947<\/em>) of Le Journal de Spirou<\/em><\/strong>, subsequently launching into his first adventure ‘Arizona 1880’ <\/em>on December 7th<\/sup> 1946.<\/p>\n

Before then, while working at the CBA (Compagnie Belge d’Actualiti\u00c3\u00a9s<\/em>) cartoon studio, Morris met future comics super-stars Franquin and Peyo, and worked for weekly magazine Le Moustique<\/em><\/strong> as a caricaturist (to my eyes, Lucky looks uncannily like the young Robert Mitchum who graced so many mid-1940s B-movie Westerns).<\/p>\n

Morris was one of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153la Bande des quatre<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or Gang of Four, which comprised creators Jij\u00c3\u00a9, Will and old comrade Franquin: leading proponents of the loose and free-wheeling artistic style known as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Marcinelle School\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which dominated Spirou<\/em> <\/strong>in aesthetic contention with the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ligne Claire\u00e2\u20ac\u009d style used by Herg\u00c3\u00a9, E P. Jacobs and other artists in Le Journal de Tintin<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 1948 the Gang (all but Will) visited America, meeting US creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, meeting Ren\u00c3\u00a9 Goscinny, scoring some work from the newly-formed EC sensation, Mad<\/strong>, and making copious notes and sketches of the swiftly disappearing Old West. His research henceforward resonated on every page of his life’s work\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Morris was a one-man band producing nine albums worth of affectionate sagebrush parody until 1955 when he reunited with Goscinny who took over the scripts. Working in perfect unison, they steered Luke to dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with Des rails sur la Prairie<\/em><\/strong> (Rails on the Prairie), which began in Spirou<\/em><\/strong> on August 25th<\/sup> 1955.<\/p>\n

In 1967 the straight-shooter switched teams, leaving Spirou<\/em><\/strong> for Goscinny’s magazine Pilote<\/em> <\/strong>with La Diligence<\/em><\/strong> (the Stagecoach).<\/p>\n

Goscinny produced 45 albums with Morris before his death, from when Morris continued both alone and with other collaborators. Morris died in 2001 having drawn fully 70 yarns, plus spin-off adventures of Rantanplan, with the team of Achd\u00c3\u00a9 & Laurent Gerra taking over. In a most peculiar aside I feel I must mention that Morris was apparently voted the \u00e2\u20ac\u015379th<\/sup> Greatest Belgian\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the 2005 Walloon election of De Grootste Belg<\/em>. If so, I demand a recount\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Lucky Luke<\/strong> first appeared in Britain in the early 1960s, syndicated in weekly comic Film Fun<\/strong> and again in 1967 in Giggle<\/strong> where he was renamed Buck Bingo<\/em>. In all these venues as well as the numerous attempts to follow the English-language successes of Tintin<\/strong> and Asterix<\/strong> albums from Brockhampton and Knight Books, Luke had a trademark cigarette hanging insouciantly from his lip, but in 1983 Morris – no doubt amidst both pained howls and muted mutterings of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153political correctness gone mad\u00e2\u20ac\u009d – substituted a piece of straw for the much-traveled dog-end, which garnered him an official tip of the hat from the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n

The most successful attempt to bring Lucky Luke to our shores and shelves comes from Cinebook: the first album (available in paperback and eBook formats) is Billy the Kid<\/strong>, Morris and Goscinny’s eleventh collaboration.<\/p>\n

As Luke rides into the troubled town of Fort Weakling, he finds the populace cowed and broken by the vile depredations of the infamous William Bonney<\/em>. The desperado robs the bank every couple of days, and the stagecoach every time it leaves town, helps himself to caramels without paying, and won’t let the saloon serve anything but drinking chocolate.<\/p>\n

His deadly aptitude with a six-gun means that no one will swear out a complaint, let alone testify against the vicious little bully\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

When Luke accepts the job of sheriff, it takes brains and cunning rather than his legendary skill with a shooting iron to free the town from the tiny grip of the world’s meanest 12-year old\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Although the dialogue is a trifle stiff in places, this is a grand old hoot in the tradition of Destry Rides again<\/strong> and Support Your Local Sheriff<\/strong>, superbly executed by master storytellers, and a wonderful introduction to a unique genre for kids of all ages.<\/p>\n

And in case you’re worried, even though the interior art still has our hero chawin’ on that ol’ nicotine stick, trust me, there’s very little chance of anyone craving a quick snout, but quite a high probability that they’ll want more Lucky Luke Albums\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\n\u00c2\u00a9 Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Goscinny & Morris. \u00c2\u00a9 Lucky Comics. English translation \u00c2\u00a9 Cinebook Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Morris & Goscinny, translated by Luke Spear (CineBook) ISBN: 978-1-905460-11-3 It’s hard to think of one of Europe’s most beloved and long-running comics characters being in any way controversial, but when the changing times caught up with the fastest gun in the West (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153so fast he can outdraw his own shadow\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) and the hero … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Lucky Luke volume 1: Billy the Kid”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[113,63,97,192,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","category-european-classics","category-kids-all-ages","category-lucky-luke","category-westerns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-57I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}