By Achdé, Pennac & Benacquista
Publisher: Cinebook
ISBN: 978-1-84918-098-6
Always good to see a new Lucky Luke book, and I was quite looking forward to this one having seen it promoted for some time. When it arrived, instead of the usual Morris signature upon the cover there's this: 'Achdé, Pennac & Benacquista in the style of Morris'. What?
When you open the book it explains that Morris passed away in 2001 and new creative teams have worked on Lucky Luke since. And what a remarkable team this particular one is. The careful attention to match Morris's personal illustrative style is amazing, meaning you still feel utterly ensconced in the world of Lucky Luke. Everything looks and feels just as it should – it's an astounding accomplishment. The only noticeable difference is that Luke now sports a blade of grass dangling from his lips instead of his trademark roll-up, but that's understandable.
Actually, there is one other difference. René Goscinny was the driving force behind the writing for many years, and like with Asterix, the book lacks a little of the beautiful word play and rapid-fire gags he was so skilful at, but, also like with Asterix, it doesn't mean that Lucky Luke can't work without him. The humour's still there, the story still works, but it just plays out slightly differently.
In this tale Luke is up against Allen Pinkerton and his private detective agency. In reality they both aim to achieve the same goals, it's just that Pinkerton sees himself as the modern replacement for Lucky Luke's brand of justice. This means that Luke ends up with an usual fight on his hands to show that he's still relevant, and it takes him a while to work out how to achieve it.
There's a lot of love and respect in the work for what's come before, with gentle nods to characters and situations. I don't think Cinebook have got through all of the Morris and Goscinny books just yet, so it looks like we'll get the best of both worlds for a while.
This is a stupendous effort worthy of great applause.
And if you liked that: Check out Clifton, also from Cinebook
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