Lucky Luke: The Man From Washington
by Achdé & Gerra; trans. Erica Jeffrey (Cinebook, 2013)
Visually engaging but narratively lacklustre. While Achdé has captured Morris’s drawing style (down to Luke’s enormous, cyborg-gunslinger hands), Gerra’s story is a plodding tour of American heartland stereotypes circa 1876. Without any sparkle to the script, Luke’s inherent blandness makes itself felt.
Lucky Luke: Billy the Kid
by Morris & Goscinny, trans. Luke Spear (Cinebook Ltd, 2006) [Original French language version published in Spirou magazine, 1962]
Morris’ illustrations are as playful as ever but Goscinny’s script lacks the usual sparkle, overmuch being made of the central conceit (ie. that notorious outlaw Billy the Kid is an actual child) and in-story repetitions similar to those in Goscinny’s Asterix stories.
Lucky Luke: The Bounty Hunter
by Morris & Goscinny, trans. Erica Jeffrey (Cinebook Ltd, 2010)
[from Chasseur de primes, Dargaud Editeur Paris, 1972]
One could argue that Lucky Luke (‘the man who shoots faster than his own shadow’) lacks the personality of Goscinny’s Asterix characters, but there’s no denying the humour derived from pitting his laidback cowboy aplomb against a frontier bounty hunter’s grasping wiles.
The Daltons Redeem Themselves
by Morris & Goscinny, trans. Erica Jeffrey (Cinebook Ltd, 2012) [from Les Dalton se rachétent, Dargaud Editeur Paris, 1971]
For Asterix junkies who’ve been in withdrawal since René Goscinny’s death in 1977, a retrospective fix now exists in the translation of his collaborations with artist Morris on the American wild west Lucky Luke series: different characters but the same potent humour.