Saturday, April 28, 2012

Miscellaneous Meandering: Lucky Luke

Over time the local legend of the Furchtlose Schloss-Aufsatz-Bergsteiger-Frau and the always trusty sidekick New Mexico Man sent the Deutches Volk into a romanticized Wild West frenzy. The good citizens became enamored with anything vaguely Western. Young Europeans could be seen in American "Flying Ace" bomber jackets or T-shirts with Old West designs - we couldn't resist giggling at the surreal turn of events.

New Mexico Man's favorite carnival games were target shooting with B-B-Guns and knocking cans over with gold baseballs.  After awhile these games had new English signs proclaiming "Golden Balls Flying at Cans" and "Western Rifle Shoot". We felt right at home.

There was even a Wild West Cartoon and Comic book "Lucky Luke" which quickly became one of our favorites.   We  received many requests to autograph comic books, and often would receive the latest volume as a gift.  We still have a few, pictured here is one of our favorites.  
In 1993 writers collaborated with New Mexico Man on an episode featuring the Dalton Gang who's first robbery target was in Silver City, New Mexico. Here is the original intro...don't you think Lucky looks slightly familiar?



Set in the Wild West, today, Lucky Luke is one of the best selling comic books in Europe. Lucky Luke comics are available in 23 languages. At the end of almost every animated episode, Lucky Luck rides the sunset on his horse Jolly Jumper, singing (in English) "I'm a poor lonesome cowboy, and a long way from home...".