Morris (1) (1923–2001)

Thought this would be a fun follow-up to Rick Geary's The True Death of Billy the Kid, but I was wrong. (Both are "Bonus Borrows" on Hoopla this month.) There is little interest in historical fact as the authors of this humor strip go for easy and stupid gags about a tiny psychopathic gunslinger holding an Old West town hostage to his every whim. He's Billy the Kid in name only. Enter Lucky Luke, the only man brave enough to stand up to the brat, but who takes his sweet time getting around show more to it.

I was immensely bored throughout, though I was taken aback when out of nowhere, three-quarters of the way through the book, Luke's horse starts talking to him. Umm, okay.

No read to read any more books from this series. show less

Some of the humour involving Mexicans and Native Americans are on the offensive (if well-intentioned) side by today's standards, but it seems unfair to hold that against an excellent entry in the series. The clash of the idealized stiff upper lip British gentleman with the rough American frontier produces a joyful series of hilarious moments, and the result is easily one of my favourite Lucky Luke albums.

The first story ("Les Dalton courent toujours") is wonderful, a really good and consistently funny Daltons vs. Luke adventure where a general amnesty has them out of prison as long as they give him no excuse to send them back. The second story, "Les Dalton sur le sentier de la guerre", where they escape during an Apache attack, is just OK. It has some funny bits with Averell, but nothing that's likely to stay with me.

Lucky Luke battles the Daltons less than bright cousins, West Bob, Grat, Bill and Emmett. These stories were some of my favorites as a kid and they are still delightful with the cool-as-a-cucumber Lucky Luke and his sarcastic horse, Jolly Jumper, dealing with various baddies of the west.