{"id":32866,"date":"2025-05-14T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T08:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32866"},"modified":"2025-05-13T16:40:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T16:40:44","slug":"lucky-luke-volume-48-dick-diggers-gold-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/05\/14\/lucky-luke-volume-48-dick-diggers-gold-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucky Luke volume 48: Dick Digger\u2019s Gold Mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Morris<\/strong>, translated by Jerome Saincantin <\/strong>(Cinebook)
\nISBN: 978-1-84918-208-9 (Album PB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

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

Lucky Luke<\/strong> was created in 1946 by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de B\u00e9v\u00e8re (AKA \u201cMorris\u201d). For years we believed it was for Le Journal de Spirou<\/em><\/strong> Christmas Annual (L\u2019Almanach Spirou 1947<\/em><\/strong>), before being launched into his first weekly adventure \u2018Arizona 1880\u2019 <\/em>on December 7th<\/sup> 1946. However, eventually it came to light that the strip actually debuted in the multinational weekly comic mid-year, but sans a title banner and only in the French-language edition.<\/p>\n

Doughty, rangy, and dashingly dependable, the cowboy is an implacably even-tempered do-gooder who can \u201cdraw faster than his own shadow\u201d, amiably ambling around the mythic, cinematically realised Old West, enjoying light-hearted adventures on his petulant, stingingly sarcastic wonder-horse Jolly Jumper<\/em>. Ever since that natal moment, his exploits in Le Journal de Spirou<\/em><\/strong> – and, from 1967, in rival periodical Pilote<\/em><\/strong> –<\/strong> have made the sharpshooter a legend of stories across all media and monument of merchandising.<\/p>\n

Working solo with occasional script assistance from his brother Louis, Morris produced 10 albums worth of affectionate and thrilling sagebrush parody before formally uniting with Ren\u00e9 Goscinny, who became regular wordslinger with Des rails sur la Prairie<\/em><\/strong> (Rails on the Prairie<\/strong>), which commenced in LJdS <\/em><\/strong>on August 25th<\/sup> 1955.<\/p>\n

They literarily rode together on another 44 albums whilst Luke attained dizzying heights of superstardom. The partnership continued when the six-gun straight-shooter switched teams, transferring to Goscinny\u2019s own magazine Pilote<\/em> <\/strong>with La Diligence<\/em><\/strong> (The Stagecoach<\/strong>). When Goscinny died, Morris continued both singly and with fresh collaborators. The dream team\u2019s last ride was 1986\u2019s La Ballade des Dalton et autres histoires<\/em><\/strong>\/The Ballad Of The Daltons and Other Stories<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Morris briefly went solo again before inviting an inspiring passel of legacy creators to step in: luminaries like Achd\u00e9 & Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean L\u00e9turgie, Jacques Pessis and more, who all took their own shots at the lovable lone rider. Morris died in 2001, having drawn fully 70 adventures, plus an assortment of sidebar and spin-off sagebrush sagas. Since 2016 Julien Berjeaut, AKA Jul (Silex and the City<\/strong>) has handled the tall tale telling\u2026<\/p>\n

Lucky is one of the top-ranked comic characters in the world, having generated 94 albums (if you count spin-off series like Kid Lucky<\/strong> and Ran-Tan-Plan<\/strong>, and artist\u2019s specials) with sales well north of 300 million in 33 languages. That renown has translated into a mountain of merchandise, toys, games, animated cartoons, TV shows and live-action movies and even commemorative exhibitions. No theme park yet, but you never know\u2026<\/p>\n

Our taciturn trailblazer\u2019s travails draw on western history as much as movie mythology and regularly interact with historical and legendary figures as well as even odder fictional folk as he re-explores and refines key themes of classic cowboy films – as well as some uniquely European notions and interpretations. As previously hinted, the happy wanderer is not averse to being a figure of political change and Weapon of Mass Satire\u2026 but not in this primal, heavily cartoon-short-influenced outing\u2026<\/p>\n

We Brits first encountered Lucky Luke<\/strong> in the late 1950s, syndicated to weekly comic Film Fun<\/strong>, and again in 1967 in Giggle<\/strong>, where he blazed trails as Buck Bingo<\/em>. In all these venues – as well as in numerous attempts to capitalise on the English-language success of Tintin<\/strong> and Asterix<\/strong> albums from Brockhampton and Knight Books – Luke had his trademark cigarette hanging insouciantly from his lip, but in 1983 Morris – no doubt amidst both pained howls and muted mutterings of political correctness gone mad – substituted a piece of straw for the much-travelled dog-end, which garnered him an official tip of the hat from the World Health Organization. However, in this restored remastered but still prototypical collection, Lucky doesn\u2019t smoke at all although violence and booze consumption are pretty constant. If that\u2019s a problem, stop here and seek out another, later Lucky lark\u2026
\n\"\"
\nThis collection re-presents the contents of the first album, released in 1949 as La Mine d’or de Dick Digger<\/em><\/strong>\/Dick Digger\u2019s Gold Mine<\/strong>. Gathering strips from Spirou <\/em><\/strong>#478-502) the serial unrolls in a riotous concatenation of fast-paced, rollercoaster rapid gag sequences like the screwball US animated features that inspired it, as Lucky helps recover the much-coveted map to a lost payload, causing great grief to the eponymous miner until our hero returns it to the true owner.<\/p>\n

The album also includes a second serial romp. Le Journal de<\/em><\/strong> Spirou<\/em><\/strong> #505 (18th<\/sup> December 1947) began the third adventure, by which time the Lonesome Cowboy was clearly here to stay. Running until #527 (May 20th<\/sup> 1948) \u2018Lucky Luke\u2019s Double\u2019<\/em> completed that landmark first compiled album: another riotous slapstick chase and comedy of errors as our hero is constantly mistaken for deadly desperado Mad Jim<\/em>, much to the profit of minor crooks Stan Strand<\/em> and Tiny Charley Chick<\/em>. After much rowdy behaviour and larcenous hijinks, thanks to Jolly Jumper, justice and decency triumph in the end…
\n\"\"
\nThese youthful, prototypical and formative forays of an indomitable hero offer grand joys in the wry tradition of near-contemporary cinema classics like Destry Rides Again<\/strong> or Laurel & Hardy\u2019s Way Out West<\/strong> – perfectly understandable as Morris was a devout fan of the immortal bumblers and their gentle but astonishingly imaginative action-slapstick capers. Superbly executed by a master storyteller these tales are a wonderful introduction to a unique genre for modern kids who might have missed the allure of a Wild West that never was\u2026
\n\u00a9 Dargaud Editeur Paris 1971 by Morris. \u00a9 Lucky Comics. English translation \u00a9 2014 Cinebook Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Morris, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook) ISBN: 978-1-84918-208-9 (Album PB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Lucky Luke was created in 1946 by Belgian animator, illustrator and cartoonist Maurice de B\u00e9v\u00e8re (AKA \u201cMorris\u201d). For years we believed it was for Le Journal de Spirou Christmas Annual (L\u2019Almanach Spirou 1947), … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Lucky Luke volume 48: Dick Digger\u2019s Gold Mine”<\/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-32866","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-8y6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32866","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=32866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32871,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32866\/revisions\/32871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}