By Achdé & Gerra
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 978849181495
As already mentioned elsewhere amongst these reviews, there’s a new Asterix book out this month, and the creators have done an excellent job taking over from the retiring Uderzo. Like Asterix, Lucky Luke has new creators, and that’s been the case for some time now, and also like Asterix, they’re doing a rather brilliant job of capturing the spirit and fun of the original comics.
Cinebook chose, back at the beginning, to print the books out of sequential order, and in doing so you get a flavour across all the creative ages of the strip, from Morris working on his own, through the golden Goscinny years, the collaborations with other writers, and the strips from the new creatives, and it says a lot for the love and respect of the strip that these latter day books are as well-crafted as those that went before and slot in so well amongst the older work.
Luke’s been summoned to Washington (interrupting a gunfight with Billy the Kid) to escort Republican Senator Hayes on a tour of the West to drum up votes in the coming presidential elections. The problem is that a rich Texan oilman, Perry Camby, has thrown his hat into the ring for the Republicans too, and his money and his scruples look like they may trump the more well meaning Hayes. So Luke must protect Hayes from the more despicable aspects of the frontier, and possibly Camby’s hired hands too.
This sees Luke fending off Indians, bounty hunters, assassins, the Klu Klux Klan, and the unions to bring Hayes through in one piece, and all the time attempting to stay on top of an Agatha Christie style mystery with Hayes’ own staff.
There are a few recurring faces from past Lucky Luke adventures to look out for, but possibly the cheekiest (and deservedly so) cameo being that of Perry Camby being drawn as George W Bush. Excellent.
It’s never going to be quite as funny as when Goscinny was writing it, but that’s taken as read. What it is is the perfect continuation of the adventures of one of the world’s greatest cartoon creations.
And if you liked that: Plenty more adventures to come!
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