In Review: Lucky Luke - Fingers

Roll up! Roll up! That master of bandes dessinee humour Maurice De Bevere, also known as Morris, will astound and amaze you with his work illustrating the man who shoots faster than his own shadow, known to one and all as Lucky Luke, and introduces the prestidigitator, the one and only Gaston, also known (unfortunately) as Fingers.

The smart, handsome, immaculately dressed and intensely charming European illusionist Gaston has been arrested due to his inability to stop himself pick-pocketing anything and everything from those around him. Taken to the Texas prison that the four Dalton brothers are currently in, he lifts the prison keys from a guard and escapes with the Daltons. Lucky Luke has heard it all before, or so he thinks, before he realises that there are five prisoners that need rounded up and not the usual four. Catching the Daltons and Gaston just as they are playing cards, Luke discovers just how good Gaston is at sleight-of-hand as cards change, guns disappear and bullets become blanks.

With Gaston's help, Luke returns the Daltons to prison and petitions the Governor for amnesty for Gaston, who agrees provided that Lucky Luke takes responsibility for him. However things take a turn for the worse when Gaston lifts the feathers from three Indian warriors and the tribe's medicine man decides that the two paleskins must be sacrificed with a magic hatchet for the offence Gaston has inflicted.

Fingers dates from 1983, after the death of Morris' long time Lucky Luke writer Gene Goscinny, when he worked a variety of other writers on the books. This one was written by the rather spectacularly monikered Lo Hartog Van Banda whose plot is as sharp and quick as Gaston's fingers are. The story revolves around Gaston's apparent kleptomania, he even manages to lift a horse shoe from Jolly Jumper, and his ability to twist what is happening at any given time to his own benefit. Indeed for much of the book it is hard to decide if Gaston is actually the dandy-ish magician he portrays or actually a criminal mastermind who thinks so much faster than everyone else that his plan seems like little more that a game to him.

Morris keeps up with all the goings-on with a much larger cast of characters than normal in a Lucky Luke book as Van Banda plays with some of the conventions of the series including the traditional last panel of Luke riding off into the sunset happening in the middle of the book as well as the end.

Lucky Luke - Fingers is as fast moving as the titular character's digits and, for me, just as funny as any of the Goscinny titles.

• 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: 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.

Cinebook Titles On DVD

It has been a while since we reviewed any Cinebook titles here on downthetubes so this week we will be putting that right with a selection of reviews of various Cinebook releases from the last few months.

Before that, and with a eye to the wave of big budget films based on US comics hitting our cinema screens over the summer, it is worth remembering that Steven Spielberg's disappointing The Adventures of Tintin is not the only recent Franco-Belgian bandes dessinee series to hit the big screen.

Indeed the live-action The Extraodinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, directed by Luc Besson, was everything that the Tintin film should have been but, while it is readily available on DVD in the UK, that fact that it is subtitled will put off all but the most determined fans. The Adele Blanc-Sec books are published in English (or perhaps that should be American) by Fantagraphics but there are also three bandes dessinee series that are published in English by Cinebook that have recently have had live-action outings.

The Largo Winch series, written by Jean Van Hamme and illustrated by Philippe Francq, is the closest thing Cinebook has to James Bond and the French film industry thought so too as they took the character to the big screen in 2008 in Largo Winch: Deadly Revenge with Tomer Sisley as Largo and British actress Kristin Scott Thomas as the female lead. Moving the W Organisation from New York to the perhaps more picturesque skyscrapers of Hong Kong, the films tweaked Largo's origin story and built it into the feature film. The film is in a mixture of languages depending on the country any particular scene is set in although the main two languages are English and French with the British DVD having English subtitles for those sections that need them.

"Nerio Winch, self-made tycoon and head of the mysterious corporate empire known only as W Group, has been brutally murdered. Due to an absence of siblings Nerio's legacy is in danger of falling into the wrong hands. Without a suitable replacement the W Group will be destroyed. But Nerio had a dark past and a deadly secret: an adopted son by the name of Largo Winch. Adventurer, assassin, killer, maverick and international playboy, Largo Winch is the last of a dying breed. Now head of a global corporation he must fight for what's rightfully his and avenge his father's death. Bullets will fly and heads will roll in this highly explosive, spectacular thriller that gives Bourne and Bond a run for their money. Based upon the highly successful comic book series and novels by Philippe Francq and Jean Van Hamme, Largo Winch takes action cinema to another level. ...Largo Winch: Deadly Revenge."




Deadly Revenge was successful enough for a sequel to follow in 2011. The Burma Conspiracy again featured Sisley Tomer this time with Sharon Stone as his leading lady in a story that was even more like a Bond film than the original and, with Ms Stone rather than the Paris based Scott Thomas in it, the collection of languages featured were more weighted toward English.

"When the occupants of a Burmese village are massacred, the incident is linked to a billionaire playboy and international man of action and his deceased father's multi-national corporation. Determined to clear his name and hunt down the real culprits, he journeys into the hazardous terrain of the Burmese jungle in search of the truth, armed and loaded. Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct, Casino) and Tomer Sisley (Labyrinth, The Nativity Story) star in the explosive, high-octane thriller The Burma Conspiracy."




From the deadly serious Largo Winch to the much more humorous Lucky Luke and while there have been various television and cinema versions of Morris and Goscinny's cowboy character, the latest is the 2009 version simply entitled Lucky Luke with The Artist's Jean Dujardin as the title character (dealing with a horse rather than a dog) and the film also features Dujardin's wife, Alexandra Lamy, as Belle, Luke's romantic interest. With a multitude of Lucky Luke book characters featured, the film is completely in French as so is fully subtitled on its British DVD.

"Jean Dujardin (Oscar® and BAFTA® winning star of The Artist) stars as Lucky Luke, a crack-shot gunslinger with a lightning fast draw and a conscience to boot. After witnessing the savage murder of his parents at the hands of the vicious Cheater Gang, Luke dedicates his life to bringing the very wildest in the west to justice, that is with a non-lethal twist. Years later, when the President of the United States assigns Luke the task of cleansing the streets of his hometown, the crime-ridden cesspool known as Daisy Town, Luke is stirred back into action."




Finally there is the 2008 television mini-series XIII: The Conspiracy based on the early XIII albums written, like Largo Winch, by Jean Van Hamme and this time illustrated by William Vance. The XIII books share more than a numerical title with the 24 television series so it is perhaps unsurprising that US television would attempt a version of XIII while 24 was still popular. As this was made for America (unlike both the previous and more recent live-action XIII TV series) and so is in English with Steven Dorff as XIII, Val Kilmer as The Mongoose and Lucinda Davis as Jones, while the story diverges from the books by adding a new female character, Sam, played by Casino Royale's Caterina Murino.

"The first female US President Sally Sheridan is shot dead by a sniper during her Independence Day speech. Her assassin narrowly escapes the scene with his life, national security hot on his heels - or so it seems. Three months later, a wounded man is found. The young man (Stephen Dorff) cannot remember the slightest thing about his own identity. The only clue is a tattoo on his neck, "XIII". Could his lightning reflexes and killer instincts betray him?"




There are more details of the Cinebook publications of Largo Winch, Lucky Luke and XIII at the Cinebook website.

Jean Dujardin talks Lucky Luke

I've just been catching up on news about Cinebook's upcoming releases, but alongside info on their new titles the bande dessines publisher has offered a quick reminder that the live action Lucky Luke film is now available on DVD.

The release from Arrow Films, is well timed, considering the film stars Oscar winner Jean (The Artist) Dujardin stars as gun-slinging cowboy in this new comedy Western based on the best-selling French graphic novels.

When the President wants to restore law and order to Daisy Town there is only one man fit for the job ‘the man who shoots faster than his shadow’ – Lucky Luke! Accompanied by his faithful companion Jolly Jumper, the fearless Luke takes on Daisy Town’s worst criminals.

Crossing paths and gunfire with Billy The Kid, Jesse James, Calamity Jane and Pat Poker is there any cowboy star left for Luke to encounter?

First released in cinemas in 2009, web site Twitch praised the film's design, noting "the attention paid to the source material here is truly remarkable, the film looking like it simply leapt up off the printed page."

This fun spoof based on the classic comics by Morris and Goscinny also stars Michael Youn, Sylvie Testud and Daniel Prevost.

In a recent interview for the Huffington Post about the film last month, Dujardin revealed he's a huge fan of the original comic.

"At home, at your cousin's, in your godmother's bathroom, in the old cupboards of old houses in the country, there's always an old Lucky Luke around, often next to an old Tintin or Asterix," he said. "Out of the three comics, I've always felt closest to Lucky Luke. The drawings in Tintin are too minimalist, he always seemed too androgynous... I don't want to put the others down by comparison, but Lucky Luke was the only 'hero' to me. As a kid, I loved heroes on TV and in movies, and Lucky Luke was my comic book hero.

"I never doubted that I was Lucky Luke," he added, of playing the role. "It's very pretentious to say that, but I knew that I could be the character. Add something to him, give him masculinity, make him a movie hero. I'm convinced that if you worry too much about the way people see you, you become paranoid. You can't worry about what people think of you.  

"There's only one question to ask yourself: what do you really want to do? Go to Argentina for four months and be a cowboy? Then do it. Thanks to Lucky Luke, I had a western to do. A French western, but a western nonetheless."

In Review: Lucky Luke Vs The Pinkertons

Cinebook have been selective in their choices of Lucky Luke albums to translate into English, jumping around in the original French order and with Lucky Luke Versus The Pinkertons they have come completely up to date with their first English Lucky Luke book that was not created by Morris.

It is 1861 and Lucky Luke returns from a manhunt in Mexico to discover that his position of good guy bounty hunter has been usurped in his absence by Allan Pinkerton and his fledgling detective agency. With Pinkerton cosying up to President Lincoln, the President himself tells Luke that after all Luke's good deeds it is time for him to retire and hand over to the more modern methods of the Pinkerton Agency. Despite feeling unwanted he obeys this Presidential decree and watches as law and order slowly becomes unstuck around him. With the Daltons once again out of jail and gunning for Pinkerton, Luke sees the need to come out of retirement and do things the old way.

Lucky Luke was created by Morris (Maurice De Bevere) in 1946 for the Spirou comic magazine and he wrote and illustrated a total of nine albums by himself before Asterix's Rene Goscinny came on board as writer with his first story appearing in Spirou in 1955 . The pair produced 41 albums worth of Lucky Luke stories together. After Goscinny's death in 1977, Morris continued with a variety of different writers before he too passed away in 2001. Since then Achdé (Hervé Darmenton) has taken over the art chores and this is his fourth Adventures Of Lucky Luke book, as the non-Morris books are marketed, and the first with the writing team of Tonino Benacquista and Daniel Pennac in, as the book is at pains to point out, "the style of Morris."

Originally published in French in 2010 this was the first, and to date only, book by the new team so its theme of Luke's retirement before realising that he is still needed is somewhat appropriate. Indeed this concept of having Luke on the sidelines for a lot of the book means that it isn't so much Lucky Luke Vs The Pinkertons as 'The Daltons Versus The Pinkertons' and having Joe Dalton's fury, normally reserved for Luke, being aimed instead at Pinkerton is a neat twist on a recurrent panel that readers are used to seeing in the various Dalton books. This book, for a while at least, almost comes across as an alternative universe Lucky Luke story.

Achdé's art isn't quite as slick as readers would be used to with Morris' long run on the character yet it is closer to Morris' normal style than the earliest Lucky Luke albums that Morris produced which have a much more humorous and caricatured style. I wonder how many readers wouldn't really notice the difference between Morris himself and Achdé ghosting him?

It does feel somewhat like a passing of the baton story, and while it was actually the fourth non-Morris Lucky Luke published in French, it is the first to be published in English by Cinebook. Perhaps they are looking to see the reaction to a non-Goscinny book, although this does seem rather like diving in at the deep end rather than testing the water with one which at least has Morris on art duties.

Lucky Luke Versus The Pinkertons may not be a Morris book but it is still a fun story with humorous artwork and that, at the end of the day, is what we expect from a Lucky Luke book.

• 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: 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).

Cinebook Release Their Summer/Autumn 2011 Catalogue

The Canterbury based graphic novel publisher Cinebook have just released their catalogue for the second half of 2011 and it shows their continued dedication to bringing previously untranslated Franco-Belgian bandes dessinees albums to the English speaking world with an impressive selection of titles.

The twin backbones of Cinebook's releases continue to be the bimonthly releases of both the humorous Lucky Luke titles, written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Morris, and the XIII adventure titles, by writer Jean Van Hamme and artist William Vance. By the end of 2011, Cinebook will have published 10 of the by then 20 XIII albums and 32 of the 76 Lucky Luke albums - taking both series far beyond any previously published English language translations by other companies.

In addition they will continue publishing the new series Long John Silver and Crusade as well as returning to older favourites like Lady S and Thorgal. The Recounts aviation documentary series continues with Cinebook Recounts The Wright Brothers, a title previously scheduled in January 2009 as Biggles Recounts The Wright Brothers but which got cancelled due to events between the estate of WE Johns and the original French publisher that were beyond Cinebook's control.

Science fiction titles are also coming to the fore again with more Orbital and Valerian books as well as a return to the Worlds of Aldebaran series by Leo. Having published all five of the Aldebaran cycle from this series followed by all five of the Betelgeuse cycle, October will see the beginning of the Antares cycle.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the new titles will be Darwin's Diaries, the first book of which will be published in September and which has the police asking the famous naturalist to investigate a crime that may involve a legendary creature.

• Cinebook will be attending the Bristol International Comic Expo next weekend, 14/15 May 2011, and their latest catalogue is available as a PDF download from their website.

• Lucky Luke Books on amazon.co.uk

• XIII Books on amazon.co.uk

• Lady S Graphic Novels on amazon.co.uk

• Thorgal Books on amazon.co.uk

• Long John Silver Graphic Novels on amazon.co.uk

In Review: Lucky Luke - The Bounty Hunter

The Lucky Luke titles from Cinebook come thick and fast, one every two months and, while I don't review them all, how could I pass up The Bounty Hunter when it has Lee Van Cleef on the cover?

Bounty hunters are the lowest of the low, apparently willing to do virtually anything to get paid for bringing in their quarry and the most successful bounty hunter of them all is Elliot Belt. Lucky Luke is doing the job of a bounty hunter in Cheyenne Pass without accepting the bounty in return which, of course, means that he remains whiter than white. The two men separately set out to hunt down a missing thorough-bred horse called His Highness which the owner believes was stolen by the Indian Wet Blanket who he is offering an enormous bounty for the capture of. Elliot Belt can only see the dollar signs of the bounty for Wet Blanket whilst Lucky Luke is more interested in finding the horse to see if the Indian is really guilty of the crime.

Guest starring Lee Van Cleef portraying Angel Eyes, the "Bad" from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, as the conniving Elliot Belt, The Bounty Hunter unsurprisingly sets Lucky Luke up as the "Good", specifically in this case the Lone Ranger. The movie themes continue with the Indian medicine man and his trainee sporting Universal movie style Frankenstein's monster masks for no apparently good reason other than it is funny - and the book is funny.

Just as importantly though the book fleshes out its characters and it does it much more than I would have expected. Rene Goscinny's plot ranges around between the town, the reservation and the horse ranch, but it focuses on a fairly small set of characters allowing the reader to discover quite a lot about them from the trainee medicine man who does not really apply himself, to the Indian chief more interested in selling Custer souvenirs to the palefaces, to the horse ranch owner who is obsessed with horses to the point of his wife leaving him over it. But the star of the book is definitely Elliot Belt who is given almost two complete pages of back story to explain just how he became a bounty hunter and what lead him to where is is today.

Morris' art is a delight the whole way through from the horse ranch house with its saddle shaped stools to the reactions of the bar patrons and the dancing girls as the Indians march in demanding firewater. In a book that is so themed around horses, he even has Luke's horse Jolly Jumper rather haughtily giving Snowy-like asides to the reader. It all works so well.

I tend to prefer story driven adventure books to humour titles, whoever publishes them. A humour book has to be very good for me to rave about it so let me just say this - if you haven't tried a Lucky Luke book yet then The Bounty Hunter would be a very good place to begin.

• There are more details of the Lucky Luke books on Cinebook's newly redesigned web site: www.cinebook.co.uk

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

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: Lucky Luke - The Oklahoma Land Rush

Lucky Luke is the cowboy who can shoot faster than his own shadow and, in the French speaking world, is probably third in bande dessinees character popularity behind the behemoths of Tintin and Asterix with over 70 titles published - easily more than the other two put together. He was created for Spirou comic by Maurice De Bevere (Morris) in 1946 who wrote and drew it until 1955 when René Goscinny, in his pre-Asterix days, joined him as writer. Lucky Luke subsequently moved from Spirou into Goscinny's Pilote comic in 1967 and Morris and Goscinny continued their collaboration until Goscinny's death in 1977 when other artists and writers began to work on the title.

Surprisingly Lucky Luke has had quite some history in British publications, appearing first in the weekly comic Film Fun before being renamed as Buck Bingo in Giggle in 1967 before Giggle merged with Buster. English language books have been published by Hodder and Stoughton / Brockhampton in hardback in the early 1970s with the equivalent Knight softcovers in the mid 1970s. Hodder tried again in the early 1980s, while Ravette tried in the early 1990s and then finally Glo'worm in the late 1990s. However none of them have had quite the impact of the Cinebook publications which now number 20 different Lucky Luke titles - more than the rest of the UK publishers put together. According to Cinebook's newsletters, Lucky Luke is consistently their biggest seller with a new title released every other month and the latest is The Oklahoma Land Rush.

Cowboy Lucky Luke, on his horse Jolly Jumper, has been hired by the United States government to clear the territory of Oklahoma prior to the land rush for the territory in which settlers will stack a claim to the land and which is due to take place on 22 April 1889. Having ensured that the territory is clear of claim jumpers, he then follows the settlers as they stake their claims and build the town of Boomville which he effectively becomes sheriff of as he settles the squabbles and thieving of certain disreputable townsfolk.

This Morris and Goscinny book may be Cinebook's 20th Lucky Luke but it was originally published as the 14th album by Dupuis in 1960 as Ruée Sur l'Oklahoma with the story dating back to 1958 in Spirou. Goscinny's humourous story races along as Luke deals with each problem in turn as part of the overall story. Indeed the book perhaps shows its weekly comic origins in the multitude of stories within the main story covering as it does a much long period of time than you would expect of a typical humour story. Yet this is not a drawback as our hero often comes across the same characters that he had to deal with earlier in the story while Morris' art is fun and accessible despite having few backgrounds to play with during the land rush itself due to the desolate nature of the Oklahoman landscape.

Based on this book, it is easy to see why Lucky Luke is so popular. This is a quick, easy, fun read for adults which is eminently suitable for young readers and with Christmas coming up it could well be worth considering as a present for younger sons and nephews since, if they like this one, there are plenty more titles for them to collect.


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

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