"A poor lonesome cowboy and a long way from home".

Lucky Luke is the title character of a far west parody created by Morris in 1949 as an indirect result of an extensive influence of American pop culture in Europe after World War II. Several american comics about cowboys appeared in Europe at this time, all with realistic drawings and serious storylines. Morris made an humourous twist on the tradition for Spirou magazine, and after Goscinny joined as a script writer the Lucky Luke series quickly became a success.

Lucky Luke is published by Dupuis. More than 200 million albums are sold by today, and Morris is still active producing new albums.

The humour in Lucky Luke's books is based on the intelligence gap between the hero and the bad guys, which avoids any real suspense and lets the reader laugh at the bad guys. However, the style is less elaborate than in Asterix and there are less allusions to the modern world. That is why, once and adult, you have less fun re-reading these books. They still have some interest because the parody covers many parts of the Old West mythology.

These are the main characters:

• Lucky Luke. He is a tall and slim man. His face has a very simple shape, so that he is neither beautiful or ugly, like Tintin. He never angers, and succeeds in everything he does. He is so fast at shooting that he reaches his target before his own shade has even moved. As far as I know, he has no past and no family, at least in the "classical" books. He used to smoke, but now he chews a grass strand, because he doesn't make ads for Marlboro.
• The Dalton brothers. They are four evil, but stupid, gangsters. They look exactly the same, except for their size and meanness. Joe Dalton is the smallest and the worst of all. He always decides what silly thing they will do next. Jack and William, who are taller, are undistinguishable. Averell is the tallest, and he really thinks about nothing but food.
  The Dalton brothers do not appear in all the comics. When they appear, they usually evade from a penitentiary at the beginning, and are brought back by Lucky Luke at the end.
  They are the cousins of the real Dalton Brothers (Frank, Grat, Bob, Emmett), who appeared in an early Lucky Luke comics and died.
• Jolly Jumper. He is Lucky Luke's horse, and his animal counterpart. He is the most intelligent horse in the West, and plays chess with Lucky Luke. He can also run and sleep at the same time.
• Rantanplan. He is the animal counterpart of the Dalton brothers, since he is the dumbest dog in the West. He never knows who are the good guys and who are the bad guys in the story. However, his mistakes ultimately produce the right thing.

A lot of real XIXth century people appear at one time or another, like Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Sarah Bernhardt and Calamity Jane.

A spinoff series features Rantanplan as the main character. A separate book also tells us about Lucky Luke's childhood. You probably don't want to read these books.

'Lucky Luke' is a graphic comic book series created by the Belgian(?)/French(?) writer/author and artist/illustrator; Maurice De Bevere (01/12/1923 - 16/07/2001) under his pen-name; Morris.

The 'Lucky Luke Adventures' first appeared in 1946 in a weekly issued French magazine called; the 'Spirou' which depicted many different graphic comic strips other than 'Lucky Luke'. This magazine then turned to monthly issues as many authors and illustrators left the magazine. These strips were then taken out of the magazine and collated into books.

During Morris's travels of the United States Of America (just were the cow-boy character 'Lucky Luke' and the books are set), from 1948 to 1955, he made friends with the 'Mad' Magazine creators, and met the French writer/author; René Goscinny (04/08/1926 - 05/11/1977) (the founder of the French 'Piolote' magazine) in New York in 1955. They became great friends and continued the 'Lucky Luke Adventures' together, returning to Europe.

The most recent publisher who prints these books is Cinebook - The 9th Art Publisher. (Although unfortunately, they have not been printed in the correct original and flowing order, and have been numbered/volumed wrongly.)

As Goscinny died on the 5th Of November 1977, Morris continued by himself, sometimes co-authoring with others such as; Bob De Groot, E. Benacquista, D. Pennac, and Achdé and also started his own series (in 1987) on a character in these 'Lucky Luke' books. The character is 'Rin-Tin-Can', "The stupidest Dog in the Wild West", and in French, 'Ran-Tan-Plan'. He now has a series to himself. There are also two books titled; 'Kid Lucky' and 'Oklahoma Jim', which are of Lucky Luke's childhood days, Hopefully one day, Cinebook or another publisher will publish these in English.

Below is a listing of the 'Lucky Luke' Albums printed in English....

A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #01: Billy The Kid
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #02: Ghost Town
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #03: Dalton City
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #04: Jesse James
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #05: In The Shadow Of The Derricks
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #06: Ma Dalton
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #07: Barbed Wire On The Prairie
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #08: Calamity Jane
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #09: The Wagon Train
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #10: Tortillas For The Daltons
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #11: Western Circus
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #12: The Rivals Of Painful Gulch
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #13: The Tenderfoot
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #14: The Dashing White Cowboy
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #15: The Daltons In The Blizzard
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #16: The Black Hills
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #17: Apache Canyon
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #18: The Escort
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #19: On The Daltons' Trail
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #20: The Oklahoma Land Rush
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #21: The 20th Cavalry
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #22: Emperor Smith
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #23: A Cure For The Daltons
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #24: The Judge
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #25: The Stagecoach
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #26: The Bounty Hunter
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #27: Lucky Luke Verses Joss Jamon
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #28: The Dalton Cousins
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #29: The Grand Duke
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #30: The Daltons' Escape
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #31: Lucky Luke Verses The Pinkertons
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #32: Rails On The Prairie
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #33: The One-Armed Bandit
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #34: The Daltons Always On The Run
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #35: The Singing Wire
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #36: The Daltons Redeem Themselves
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #37: Fingers
A Lucky Luke Adventure Volume #38: Doc Doxey's Elixir

Below is a listing of the main characters in this series....

- Lucky Luke ("The man who shoots faster than his own shadow".)
- Jolly Jumper (Lucky Luke's horse.)
- Joe Dalton (Brother to Jack Dalton, William Dalton, and Averell Dalton.)
- Jack Dalton (Brother to Joe Dalton, William Dalton, and Averell Dalton.)
- William Dalton (Brother to Joe Dalton, Jack Dalton, and Averell Dalton.)
- Averell Dalton (Brother to Joe Dalton, Jack Dalton, and William Dalton.)
- Rin-Tin-Can ("The stupidest Dog in the Wild West!", the penitentiary guard dog.)