Lucky Luke
Lucky Luke is a humorous comics series created by Belgian cartoonist Morris in 1946. Various writers scripted the series starting in 1955, beginning with French writer René Goscinny. French artist Achdé has continued the series as artist since Morris's death in 2001.
The series takes place in the American Old West and features the titular Lucky Luke, a cowboy known as the "man who shoots faster than his shadow", accompanied by his horse Jolly Jumper and in many stories a dog named Rantanplan. Lucky Luke is charged with restoring justice to the Old West by chasing down bandits, the most famous of whom are the Dalton Brothers. The stories are filled with humorous elements parodying the Western genre.
Lucky Luke is one of the best-known and best-selling comics series in Europe and has been translated into numerous languages. 68 albums have appeared in the series as of 2014, at first published by Dupuis, then from 1968 by Dargaud, and from 1999 by Lucky Comics. Each story was first serialized in a magazine:
in Spirou from 1946 to 1967, in Pilote from 1967 to 1973, in Lucky Luke in 1974–75, in the French edition of Tintin in 1975–76, and in various other magazines since. The series has been adapted to various other media, such as animated films and television series, live-action films, video games, toys, and board games. About half of the series' adventures have been translated into English. Lucky Luke comics have been translated into 23 languages, including many European languages, some African and Asian languages.