In Review: Lucky Luke - The Daltons Always On The Run

Morris and Goscinny's honest cowboy and his horse, Jolly Jumper returns in Lucky Luke - The Daltons Always On The Run.

The new President of the United States announces a general amnesty for all prisoners freeing amongst many others Joe, Jack, William and Averill Dalton. However just because they are free doesn't make them any more honest and, after trying to rob the bank at Awful Gulch, they steal the money  from a stagecoach delivery to the bank and hightail it into the desert with Luke in pursuit.

Meanwhile an Apache attack on the prison frees the Daltons yet again but they are soon the prisoners of the tribe. However they are able to persuade Chief Tipi Toes that Averell is a great sorcerer and so get the Apaches to help them continue robbing people. Lucky Luke now not only has to stop the cavalry going to war with the Apaches but must also convince the Apaches that they are being used by the Daltons, however the only way he can find their hidden camp is with the help of the prison's rather stupid dog, Rin Tin Can.

This Lucky Luke book is the 34th that Cinebook have published but it was originally the 24th French album when it was published in 1964. Does it feel like it is almost half a century old? Not at all. From the vertically challenged, and often incandescently outraged, Joe to the tall and somewhat dim-witted Averell, the four Dalton brothers always ensure an enjoyable Lucky Luke book, and this one is no different. What is slightly different is that its 48 pages are made up of one short and one long tale that sort of dovetail together but must have have been separate stories when they were originally published in the weekly Spirou comic in the early 1960s due to their separate page codes in the artwork.

The first story is short, sweet and fun while the second story does rather involve a lot of back and forth between the prison and the Indian camp making it feel a little longer that it probably should be. However the dumb mutt, Rin Tin Can, an obvious play on Hollywood's Rin Tin Tin, who doesn't really understand anything that is asked of him but still manages to save the day, is a nice addition especially with the reader being able to see the his thoughts as we sometimes do with Snowy in the Tintin books.

Lucky Luke - The Daltons Always On The Run with its two part structure and reliance on the characters of the Daltons and Rin Tin Can rather than Lucky Luke himself may not be to everyone's taste, but Lucky Luke books featuring the Daltons are always worth reading and this is no exception.

• There are more details of the English language Lucky Luke books on Cinebook's website.

• There are more details on the original French language Lucky Luke on the official Lucky Luke website (in French).

•  Cinebook will be selling their range of books including Lucky Luke at the Comica Comiket Fall 2012 Independent Comics Fair in the City Of London on Saturday 10 November 2012 and at Thought Bubble's Royal Armouries Hall in Leeds on the weekend of 17-18 November 2012.

In Review: Iznogoud Rockets To Stardom

The despicable, but highly amusing, Grand Vizier of Baghdad who will go to any length to rid himself of his Caliph so that he can take his place may be going rather further than before in his latest book, Izogoud Rockets To Stardom.

The book consists as usual of a collection of short stories - in the title story Iznogoud purchases Baghdad's first space rocket to send the Caliph on a one way mission to the stars; in Iznogoud's Pupil he becomes the teacher to a neighbouring Sultan's son in an attempt to force that Sultan to attack Baghdad and depose the Caliph; in The Tartar's Talisman a necklace makes the wearer's dreams come true but not their daydreams only their uncontrollable sleeping dreams; in My Hat a straw boater turns its wearers mad; and finally in Dark Designs Iznogoud takes drawing lessons since if he rips up a drawing made with his magic pencil, the subject of that drawing disappears.

As ever Iznogoud's motives are always the same, remove the Caliph from power by any means possible to take his place which, unsurprisingly, he consistently fails to do. As each story begins with the status quo of the Caliph being in power and oblivious to Iznogoud's machinations, this is a book that could get boring very quickly. However, since it is written by Asterix's Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Jean Tabary, it does not and indeed remains surprisingly funny as Goscinny is able to come up with more outlandish and outrageous ways for Izongoud to attempt to depose his Caliph.

Of the five stories in the book two stand out for me - the title story of Iznogoud Rockets To Stardom and Dark Designs. The first shows how Goscinny took the world around him and incorporated it into the strip since this book was originally published in French in 1969 at the height of NASA's Apollo moon programme. The second is a long in-joke with Iznogoud being taught how to draw by the slow artist Tahbari Al Tardi who of course bears more than a passing resemblance to Tabary himself.

While it is the eighth Iznogoud title from Cinebook, this is a translation of the fifth French album Des Astres Pour Iznogoud which was originally published in English in the UK in 1980. Rene Goscinny passed away in 1977 and Tabary continued on with the books himself until 2004 when the 27th title was published after which a 28th album was created by his children in 2008. Jean Tabary himself passed away earlier this year.

Iznogoud Rockets To Stardom continues the short, sharp, funny tales of the perennially frustrated Grand Vizier and are a good starting point for children for whom an Asterix book would be too long.

• There are more details of the current British Iznogoud books on the Cinebook website.

• There are more details of the French Iznogoud books at the Tabary Editions website (in French).

• There are more details of Iznogoud around the world at the Iznogoud World website.

In Review: Lucky Luke - The Daltons' Escape

Cinebook reaches their thirtieth Lucky Luke book with the first English translation of The Dalton's Escape written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Morris.

Hearing that Lucky Luke is close to their jail, Joe Dalton convinces the three other Dalton's to escape and they go on a rampage through the nearby towns before settling into their hideout to plot revenge on Luke. In the meantime as Lucky Luke follows their trail, he soon realises that the Dalton's revenge to is put up fake wanted posters about him that turns the nervous townsfolk against him. Luke's only recourse is to find the Dalton's on his own but all does not go quite to his initial plan.

This was originally printed as L'Evasion Des Daltons in the weekly Spirou magazine in 1958/59 and then published as an album in 1960 and, while it may be over half a century old, it doesn't show its age at all.

Morris and Goscinny, as ever, have fun with the different heights of the Dalton's be it with the depth of the river that they hide in after their initial escape or the different heights of the wanted posters they put up when trying to frame Lucky Luke. However my favourite panel in the whole book is one that doesn't even need to be there, from a plot point of view at least, and shows Morris' playful use of the comics medium as he illustrates the Dalton's walking past a still lake which has the reflections of the four brothers and of the landscape around them as well as of the single speech balloon. It doesn't need to be there, but it is charming that it is.

The plot falls into two distinct parts, Luke's initial hunt for the Daltons and then the more unusual section with Luke as their not so reluctant prisoner. Indeed both parts go against type with those wanted posters making Luke the bad guy, in the eyes of the town folk at least, while the second part shows Luke's cunning as, despite being a prisoner, he twists the Daltons around to doing what he needs them to do. Perhaps the funniest moment of this section is when Luke gets three of the brothers knitting until Joe puts a very red-faced stop to such craziness.

Lucky Luke - The Dalton's Escape was a delight to read from start to finish and shows just how good Morris and Goscinny were when they worked together on the character.

• There are more details of the English language Lucky Luke books on Cinebook's website.

• There are more details on the original French language Lucky Luke on the official Lucky Luke website (in French).

In Review: Iznogoud The Infamous

The Grand Vizier of Baghdad, who's one desire in life is "to be Caliph instead of the Caliph", returns in Iznogoud The Infamous, his seventh book published by Cinebook. Written by Asterix's Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Jean Tabary, this book was originally published as the French album Iznogoud l'Infâme in 1969 and has previously been published in the UK by Methuen in 1977.

As is usual for Iznogoud books, it consists of several different stories. In The Sinister Liquidator he persuades a water demon to dissolve the Caliph, but will there be enough water left in the bucket for the demon to live in by the time Iznogoud and his man-servant Wa'at Alahf trek across the desert and reach the palace? In The Invisible Menace Iznogoud attempts to make the Caliph invisible so that his people will forget about him. In The Unlucky Diamond Iznogoud's greed over the diamond backfires badly on him. In The Magic Doll an African witch doctor shows Iznogoud how to make a voodoo doll that he decides to use against the Caliph. Finally in The Mysterious Billposter Iznogoud imprisons the Caliph in an enchanted holiday poster.

Is there really anything new that can be said about each Iznogoud book? In each story the character's motivation is the same, he goes about his current method of achieving his task in the most extreme way, he fails, he suffers his comeuppance and by the next story the situation has defaulted back to the status quo again. It sounds repetitive and basically it is.

However these are stories written by Goscinny which means that while the motivation and outcome is repetitive, the methods Iznogoud employs to dethrone the Caliph are wild and wonderful and Tabary's artwork is equally wild and wonderful. Perhaps the best example in this book is in The Mysterious Billposter in which our main characters are pushed into a magical wall poster of a holiday beach from which they cannot escape and climbing the palm tree to the top of the poster's scene brings them back out of the hole they have just dug in the sand below themselves. It is all quite surreal but intriguing as to how they could finally escape.

Iznogoud The Infamous is a quick fun read for adults and, with its selection of short stories, would be a good introduction to humorous graphic novels for youngsters who as yet would find the 48 pages of an Asterix story too long.

There are more details of the current British Iznogoud books on the Cinebook website.

There are more details of the French Iznogoud books at the Tabary Editions website (in French).

There are more details of Iznogoud around the world at the Iznogoud World website.

In Review: Lucky Luke - The Judge

Cinebook continue their English language translations of the Lucky Luke books with their 24th book The Judge based on the real life Judge Roy Bean who lived in Texas during the late 1800s. While the character is probably best known to British audiences through the 1972 Paul Newman movie The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean, if even half the tales of the real Judge Bean are true then he is an obvious character to be incorporated into a humorous western strip like Lucky Luke.

The story begins with Lucky Luke agreeing to lead a cattle drive from Austin, Texas to Silver City, New Mexico during which he is arrested by Judge Roy Bean as a cattle thief. Frustrated by the bizarre trial that the judge conducts in his own saloon, Luke escapes and ends up helping Judge Bean against an even more crooked judge attempting to set up his court in the same town.

The story uses many of the quirks of the real Judge Bean from holding court in his own saloon to expecting jurors to buy drinks during the court's recess. Indeed it would seem that the more bizarre the judicial method related in the book, the more likely it is to be based on fact. Even the illustration of his saloon, The Jersey Lilly, with its hoardings advertising both justice and ice beer is based on the real building in Langtry, Texas.

While Cinebook credit the book solely to Morris (Maurice De Bevere), the character's creator, this is actually the fourth of the Lucky Luke series to be written by Rene Goscinny with art by Morris. Also while this book's copyright date is given as 1971, this story first appeared as Le Juge in Spirou issue 1021 in 1957 and would go on to be published in 1959 as the 13th Lucky Luke book. Yet despite The Judge being over fifty years old, it has lost none of its wit and humour. Nor does the Lucky Luke series seem to have lost any of its popularity with comic book readers despite its age since the latest book regularly goes to the top of Cinebook's own sales chart with the previous one issued often in the number 2 slot.

From the Chinese undertaker trying to help his own business along during the trials by crying "Give him rope!", to the tame liquor swilling bear, Lucky Luke -The Judge is a fun read for both children and adults.


• There are more details of the Lucky Luke books on Cinebook's website.

• There are more details on Lucky Luke on the official Lucky Luke website (in French).

In Review: Iznogoud And The Magic Carpet

"I want to be Caliph instead of the Caliph!"

Baghdad's grand Vizier Iznogoud is an arrogant, conniving man with ideas above his station and that station is as number two to the placid and rather dim Caliph Haroun Al Plassid. Fortunately for everyone concerned the Caliph is oblivious to Iznogoud's, and his ineffectual manservant Wa'at Alahf's, attempts to dethrone him.

The humorous attempts of Iznogoud to become Caliph were written by Asterix author Rene Goscinny and illustrated by artist Jean Tabary beginning in Record magazine in 1962 before moving into Pilote in 1968. Jean Tabary continued the series after Goscinny's death and to date there have been 28 albums published and it has been made into a cartoon series and even a live action film.

Iznogoud And The Magic Carpet was originally published in French in 1973 as Le Tapis Magique and has been translated into English before appearing in the UK in 1980 published by Egmont/Methuen and again in the short lived Iznogoud Monthly in 1996. Unlike his Asterix books which were one story per book, Goscinny wrote the Iznogoud books as multiple short stories so as well as The Magic Carpet this book also includes Incognito, The Tiger Hunt and The Box Of Souvenirs.

In The Magic Carpet Iznogoud attempts to give the Caliph a magic carpet which will transport its rider to China and not bring him back again. In Incognito Iznogoud persuades the Caliph to dress as a beggar and go out into the city to hear what his subjects really think of him while, at the same time, ordering the palace guards to imprison any beggars that appear at the palace gates. The Tiger Hunt has Iznogoud persuading the Caliph that he needs a tiger skin rug and that the best way to get one is to attempt to hunt a tiger himself. In The Box Of Souvenirs a Japanese tourist arrives at the palace with a camera that reduces objects and people to mere photographs.

The basic premise of each story is the same, to eliminate the Caliph so that Iznogoud can take his place, and so the concept has the potential to get old very quickly. However Goscinny's writing is of a good enough standard that the reader's interest is retained often by using the national stereotypes that are also common in the Asterix books. Here we have Japanese tourists with cameras and the haggling of middle eastern market traders taken to extremes. For the British reader the story of the magic carpets may be the most interesting with the Scottish(!) magic carpet seller named Khaledonyahn. Tabary's artwork is much looser than Uderzo's is on the Asterix books but works for the stories of the manic Iznogoud and his depictions of life in the streets of Baghdad are particularly detailed.

Any good translation of a humorous story depends heavily on the translator and the Iznogoud stories, which are so full of puns, perhaps depend more than most on a good translation. Unusually for a Cinebook title there is no translator credited and no modern copyright on the translation. The original British translations of the Iznogoud books were by the excellent team of Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge and if this isn't their translation then it certainly feels like it and that is a very good thing.


Iznogoud And The Magic Carpet hits the mark well with its dastardly plots, witty puns and often manic artwork.

There are more details of the current British Iznogoud books on the Cinebook website.

There are more details of the French Iznogoud books at the Tabary Editions website (in French).

There are more details of Iznogoud around the world at the Iznogoud World website.