{"id":31406,"date":"2025-01-24T16:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T16:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=31406"},"modified":"2025-01-24T16:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T16:22:09","slug":"lucky-luke-volume-44-lucky-luke-vs-pat-poker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/01\/24\/lucky-luke-volume-44-lucky-luke-vs-pat-poker\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucky Luke volume 44: Lucky Luke vs Pat Poker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Morris<\/strong>, translated by Erica Jeffrey <\/strong>(Cinebook)
\nISBN: 978-1-84918-155-6 (Album PB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

As we know him now, Lucky Luke<\/strong> is a rangy, good-natured, lightning-fast cowboy roaming the fabulously mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures with his horse Jolly Jumper<\/em> whilst interacting with a host of historical and legendary figures and icons. His exploits have made him one of the bestselling comic characters in Europe (83 collected books plus around a dozen spin-offs and specials – totalling over 300 million albums in at least 33 languages thus far), with all the usual spin-off toys, computer games, puzzles, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies that come with that kind of popularity.<\/p>\n

The simplicity of the spoof cowboy tales means that older stories can generally sit quite comfortably alongside newer material crafted for a more modern readership. That\u2019s certainly the case in this rather ancient and formative brace of yarns from 1953. Lucky Luke<\/strong> was created in 1946 by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de B\u00e9v\u00e8re AKA Morris. For years Le Journal de Spirou<\/em><\/strong> Christmas Annual (L\u2019Almanach Spirou 1947<\/em><\/strong>) was cited as the wellspring, before he launched into his first weekly adventure \u2018Arizona 1880\u2019 <\/em>on December 7th<\/sup> 1946, but the feature actually debuted earlier that year in the multinational weekly comic, sans a title banner and only in the edition released in France.<\/p>\n

Whilst toiling as a caricaturist for magazine Le Moustique<\/em><\/strong> and working at the CBA (Compagnie Belge d\u2019actualit\u00e9s<\/em>) cartoon studio, Morris met future comics superstars Franquin and Peyo and became one of la Bande des quatre<\/em> – The Gang of Four – comprising Jij\u00e9, Will and old comrade Franquin: leading proponents of a new, loosely free-wheeling artistic style known as the \u201cMarcinelle School\u201d which dominated Le Journal de Spirou<\/em><\/strong> in aesthetic contention with the Ligne Claire<\/em> style used by Herg\u00e9, EP Jacobs and other artists associated with Le Journal de Tintin<\/em><\/strong>. In 1948 said Gang (excluding Will) visited America, meeting US creators and sightseeing. Morris stayed for six years, meeting fellow traveller Ren\u00e9 Goscinny, scoring work at newly-formed EC sensation Mad<\/strong> and always making copious notes and sketches of the swiftly vanishing Old West. Morris stayed six years, an \u201cAmerican Period\u201d seeing him chase an outsider\u2019s American Dream while winning fame and acclaim in his own country. That sojourn is carefully unpicked and shared by expert researchers Christelle & Bertrand Pissavy-Yvernault in Lucky Luke: The Complete Collection volume 2<\/a><\/strong> if you require further elucidation…<\/p>\n

Working solo (with early script assistance from his brother Louis De Bevere) until 1955, Morris produced nine albums of affectionate sagebrush parody and action before formally uniting with Goscinny, who became the regular wordsmith as Luke attained the dizzying heights of superstardom, commencing with \u2018Des rails sur la Prairie\u2019 <\/em>(Rails on the Prairie<\/em>)\u2019<\/em>, which began in Le Journal de<\/em><\/strong> Spirou<\/em><\/strong> on August 25th<\/sup> 1955.<\/p>\n

Here though is a truly wild and woolly delight – originally released in December 1953 as fifth compiled album Contre Pat Poker<\/em><\/strong>. It offers a far more boisterous and raw hero in transition, hitting his stride and strutting his stuff by highlighting Morris\u2019 filmic and comics influences and caricaturing gifts following that eventful US sojourn…<\/p>\n

Contained herein are \u2018Clean-up in Red City\u2019<\/em> from LJdS<\/em><\/strong> #685-697 (May 31st<\/sup> – August 23rd<\/sup> 1951) and notional sequel \u2018Rough and Tumble in Tumbleweed\u2019<\/em> with the former detailing via a string of sequential gags and skits how Lucky becomes a sheriff after being embarrassingly robbed. Enduring harsh bullying while assessing the lay of the land as ruled by crooked gambler\/saloon owner Pat Poker<\/em>, the solitary rider eventually kicks out all the gamblers, shysters and ne\u2019er-do-wells led by the sinister conman.\"\"
\nHard on its heels comes \u2018Rough and Tumble in Tumbleweed\u2019<\/em> (from LJdS<\/em><\/strong> #735-754 spanning May 15th<\/sup> – September 25th<\/sup> 1952) with sheep farmers harassed and imperilled by cattlemen over Luke\u2019s attempts to broker peace. His efforts are especially hindered by shepherd-hating gunslinger Angelface<\/em> but necessarily escalate to crisis level action after escaped convict Pat Poker slips into town, using his gift for cheating to take over the local saloon. His intent to remove Lucky and leads to an alliance with Angelface to murder their mutual enemy. Sadly for them, even this alliance of evil is insufficient to tame the wily western wonder man…<\/p>\n

Morris died in 2001 having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus spin-off yarns of Rantanplan <\/em><\/strong>(\u201cdumbest dog in the West\u201d and a winning spoof of cinema canine Rin-Tin-Tin<\/strong>), with Achd\u00e9, Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, and Jul taking over the franchise, producing many more tales of the immortal indomitable legend of the West.<\/p>\n

These youthful forays of an indomitable hero offer grand joys in the tradition of Destry Rides Again<\/strong> and Support Your Local Sheriff<\/strong>, superbly executed by a master storyteller: a wonderful introduction to a unique genre for modern kids who might well have missed the romantic allure of the Wild West that never was…
\n\u00a9 Morris\/Dupuis, 1949 to 1954 for the first publications in Le Journal de Spirou<\/strong>. \u00a9 Morris\/Dupuis 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Morris, translated by Erica Jeffrey (Cinebook) ISBN: 978-1-84918-155-6 (Album PB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. As we know him now, Lucky Luke is a rangy, good-natured, lightning-fast cowboy roaming the fabulously mythic Old West, having light-hearted adventures with his horse Jolly Jumper whilst interacting with a host of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Lucky Luke volume 44: Lucky Luke vs Pat Poker”<\/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":[191,113,63,125,192,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-comedy","category-european-classics","category-humour","category-lucky-luke","category-westerns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8ay","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31406","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=31406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31411,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31406\/revisions\/31411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}