If there can be Spaghetti Westerns and Sukiyaki Westerns, why not Baguette Westerns? Asterix is Rene Goscinny's most famous creation, but lonesome cowboy Lucky Luke is a close second. WEEELL, Lucky Luke is the creation of Belgian cartoonist Morris, but Goscinny wrote the best stories of a series that refuses to ride into the sunset: there are now 76 albums, (compare to the tiny Gaul's mere 34 albums). Only a fraction of those have been translated into English.
Accompanied by clever horse Jolly Jumper, Lucky Luke goes through most of the familiar Wild West scenarios, often chasing the hilarious Dalton Brothers or dealing with RinTinCan, the dumbest dog this side of Marmaduke. Real life celebrities pop up: Jesse James, Calamity Jane, Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, and the stories are far better researched than anyone should expect them to be. The series is not as gag packed as "Asterix" and Lucky Luke is generally too placid a figure to be a source of comedic chaos, but it's still unbelievable that he's not more popular in the very country through which he wanders.
Maybe it's the amiable un-PCness of the books? Maybe it's the self-rolled cigarette that perpetually dangles from Lucky Luke's lower lip? In the '80s, after decades of joyful incessant smoking, Morris let censorship win and put a straw in LL's orally-fixated mouth. Lucky Luke is now an exemplary health nut.
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