{"id":32990,"date":"2025-05-28T08:00:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32990"},"modified":"2025-05-27T16:55:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T16:55:23","slug":"lucky-luke-volume-56-under-a-western-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/05\/28\/lucky-luke-volume-56-under-a-western-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucky Luke volume 56: Under a Western Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Morris<\/strong>, translated by Jerome Saincantin <\/strong>(Cinebook)
\nISBN: 978-1-84918-273-7 (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>. From that natal moment, his exploits in Le Journal de Spirou<\/em><\/strong> – and, from 1967, in rival periodical Pilote<\/em><\/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>), commencing 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 strengthened as the six-gun straightshooter 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

Eventually Morris invited an inspired band of legacy creators to step in: luminaries including Achd\u00e9 & Laurent Gerra, Benacquista & Pennac, Xavier Fauche, Jean L\u00e9turgie, Jacques Pessis and more, all taking 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 tackled 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 numerous artist\u2019s specials) Sales are well north of 300 million in 33 languages and all 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 interacts with historical\/mythological figures, as well as even odder fictional folk as authors explore and refine 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>. This collection re-presents the contents of the fourth European album, released in 1952 as Sous le ciel de l\u2019Ouest<\/em><\/strong>. Under a Western<\/strong> Sky<\/strong> gathers three short strip serials and opens with \u2018The Return of Trigger Joe\u2019<\/em> (originally Le Retour de Joe la Gachette<\/em><\/strong>, running in LJdS<\/em><\/strong> #602-618 between October 27th<\/sup> and 1949-February 16th<\/sup> 1950. Here the lonesome wanderer meets another prairie nomad who\u2019s his match in all cowboy disciplines, and becomes a rather ruthless competitor when they both sign up for the Nugget Gulch horse race. John \u201cThe Philanthropist\u201d Smith<\/em> believes he\u2019s a shoo-in since he\u2019s riding the stolen Jolly Jumper, but the rogue hasn\u2019t counted on Luke\u2019s close relationship with the wonder horse.
\n\"\"
\nOnce that scheme fails – but not before extended and manic slapstick shenanigans in the race scenes which also include the usual cinematic cohort of clowns, cheats and chancers – Smith falls back on his old ways as veteran bank robber Trigger Joe<\/em>. However, his pilfering the prize money only leads to disaster when Lucky trails him deep into the searing desert, and displays an uncanny grasp of a craven villain\u2019s psychology…<\/p>\n

Next up is \u2018Round Up Days\u2019<\/em> which ran in LJdS<\/em><\/strong> #619-629 from February 23rd<\/sup> to May 4th<\/sup> 1950 as Jours de round-up<\/em><\/strong>. It sees Lucky actually working as a cowboy, hiring on for a cattle round-up (lots of rodeo style comedy here!) before encountering rustlers and cleaning up cow town Bottleneck City…
\n\"\"
\nClosing the proceedings, Le Grand combat<\/em><\/strong> (LJdS<\/em><\/strong> #630-646; May 11th<\/sup> – August 31st<\/sup> 1950) becomes \u2018The Big Fight\u2019<\/em> and sees Luke briefly adopt a two-fisted simpleton with the strength of Hercules and a sweetheart in need of marrying and providing for: schooling him in the arts of pugilism for a prize-fight against infamous Killer Kelly<\/em>. Things go pretty well until bookmaker Slats \u201cSlippery\u201d Nelson<\/em> attempts to fix the outcome. Thankfully, Lucky is his match in cunning and a faster gun than the gambler\u2019s hirelings and the result is a cartoonishly violent romp celebrating a series of riffs on boxing movies as well as cowboy antics…
\n\"\"
\nThese prototypical formative forays of the 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
\nOriginal edition \u00a9 Dupuis 1952 by Morris. \u00a9 Lucky Comics. English translation \u00a9 2015 Cinebook Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Morris, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook) ISBN: 978-1-84918-273-7 (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 56: Under a Western Sky”<\/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":[191,113,125,192,210,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-comedy","category-humour","category-lucky-luke","category-sport","category-westerns"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8A6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32990","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=32990"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32997,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32990\/revisions\/32997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}