Lucky Luke Books In Order

Publication Order of Lucky Luke Books

The Lucky Luke series is a popular comic series written by multiple authors, the most prominent ones among them being Rene Goscinny and Morris. It is a long running humorous series, which was first created by the Belgian cartoonist named Morris in the year 1946. In all, there are 72 books published between the years 1946 and 2002. Author Goscinny also contributed a few books to the series that were very successful. The scripts were written by various writers over the years, beginning with Rene Goscinny. Morris remained the illustrator of all the books throughout the course of the series until his death in 2001. Following his death, a French artist named Achde continued the series. A major part of this series is set in the Old West of America and consists of the titular character of Lucky Luke. He is described as a cowboy, who is popularly known as the man who can shoot faster than his own shadow. Lucky Luke is accompanied by his personal horse called Jolly Jumper. In some of the stories, Lucky Luke is shown as being accompanied by a dog called Rantanplan. Luke is often charged with the task of restoring justice in Old West by going after the bandits. The most notorious bandits that he has chased are the members of the Dalton Brothers gang. Al the stories comprise of humorous elements that parody the famous Western genre. The Lucky Luke comic series is one of the best selling and best known series in all of Europe. It is translated into a number of foreign languages across the globe. As many as 68 albums have featured in the comic series as of 2015.

The stories were first published by the Dupuis publication and then they were taken over by the Dargaud from 1968 onwards. Finally, from 1999 onwards, Lucky Comics began publishing this series’ books. Every author serialized the stories first in magazines. It was the Spirou magazine that featured the stories between 1946 and 1967. Afterwards, Pilote, Lucky Luke, and Tintin, and many other magazines followed. Apart from comics, the series has also been adapted into various other forms of media such as television series, animated films, video games, live action movies, board games, and toys. Half of the adventures mentioned in the series are translated in the English language. There are around 23 translations of the Lucky Luke comics, including the African, Asian, and European languages. Morris worked solitarily for the initial few years, after which he collaborated with the Rene Goscinny. The period during which he wrote the stories for the series is considered to be the golden age as far as the series’ success is concerned. When the publication of the series shifted from Spirou the Pilote magazine of Rene Goscinny in 1967, it ended a long run of publications in the former magazine. When Goscinny died in 1977, several other writers tried to fill in as the storyteller. These included Raymond Antoine, Jean Leturgie, Bob de Groot, Hartog Banda, etc. In the comics festival of 1993, the series was provided with an honorary exhibition. Achde started working as the artist for the comic series after the death of Morris. He collaborated with authors like Daniel Pennac, Tonino Benacquista, and Laurent Gerra. In 1987, the writers began writing the spin-off of the series called as Rantanplan. This series starred the dimwitted sidekick of Luke. The books of the spin-off series were written alongside the original series by several teams of artists and writers. The Rantanplan’s character also featured in an animated TV series that started in 2006 and consisted of 76 episodes in total.

In 1995, another spin-off series known as Kid Lucky was created. Its aim was to attract the younger readers. Kid Lucky starred the Luke’s character in the role of a small boy. This type of format was very famous with Spirou. A couple of albums featuring the new version of Lucky’s character were published in conjunction with the main comic series. They are called as Oklahoma Jim and Kid Lucky. Both these series were credited to the veteran writer named Jean Leturgie and an artist called Pearce. However, the series failed to achieve the targeted sale and were consequently scrapped. In 2011, the series was re-launched. In each and every comic book, Luke is shown as the one who likes to right the wrongs. He excels in whatever he does because of his incredible ability of using guns and his resourcefulness. As a frequent task, Luke is faced with capturing the bumbling gangsters and bandits, William, Averell, and Joe Dalton. Luke considers his horse as the smartest horse of all. As the series progresses, Luke comes across numerous historical figures like Jesse James, Calamity Jane, Roy Bean, and Billy. He gets involved in several important events like guarding of Pony Express, stagecoaches of Wells Fargo, and building the Transcontinental Telegraph. A few of the books contain a single page article that describes the background of the upcoming events in a particular book. On one occasion, Morris and Rene Goscinny tried to set the adventures of Lucky Luke on actual events, but the facts were coming in way of the fun element of the stories. Therefore, they had to drop the idea. Nevertheless, they went on to pen many interesting stories over the course of the comic series.

An initial book written in the series by author Goscinny is entitled ‘Les Cousins Dalton’. It was released in the year 1958 and served as the 12th part. At the start of the story, author Goscinny has featured the three Dalton brothers Averell, Joe, and William. They are shown as playing significant roles. Featuring in Lucky Luke universe, the brothers are the cousins of the real life Dalton Gang. At first, the Daltons are inept outlaws, who intend to become very notorious by carrying out criminal activities. They even vow to avenge the death of their cousins by making Luke suffer. But instead, they too suffer the same fate as their cousins. Another successful book of this series is called as ‘The 20th Cavalry’. This book was released in 1988 in the Dupius magazine. At the beginning of this story, Chien Jaune is introduced as the head of the tribe of Cheyenne. He decides to dissolve the peace treaty with America and kill bison. When the bison is actually killed, Lucky Luke comes ahead to bring back peace and find the bison’s killer. He becomes a part of the twentieth Cavalry under Colonel Mac Straggle’s command. Luke discovers that the killer is a man named Flood, who was formerly in 20th Cavalry. The killings committed by him were an act of taking revenge. Luke goes on to prove that Flood is the main culprit after the besieging of the military camp for a few days. In the end, a new treaty of peace is signed with Yellow Dog.

2 Responses to “Lucky Luke”

1. Ingrid Devenish: 3 years ago

   Do you know where I can et this eries in the UK..TOO expensive to send from USA /Canada etc pleaseand thank you. Have a good day

   Reply
   • Graeme: 3 years ago

     The majority of them appear to be available on Amazon UK

     Reply