The man who shoots faster than his shadow is back this Friday in an album signed by screenwriter Jul and designer Achdé. The eleventh in the new series taken over by the latter, who succeeded the creator of the character, Morris, and who remains very faithful to the graphics of his master. But, for this adventure, we had to renew ourselves: it takes place essentially in a large city, Milwaukee, and settings typical of the Industrial Revolution, very little if ever addressed by Morris.
“Everything was complicated, because, well, I don’t like being in the city. I admit it, I have always said it: I took up Lucky Luke because I wanted to draw deserts, cacti and cow heads,” recalls the designer. So did he enjoy representing these pipes, tanks, manufacturing lines and other brick warehouses? “No way. But it’s funny, let’s say that’s the challenge. Where we take pleasure is when we succeed,” he replies.
Lucky Luke, far from his Wild West, his Great Plains with ranches, small isolated towns and open horizons, is called to the rescue to reconcile brewer bosses and workers on wages and working conditions. He is full of good will. But he knows nothing about this world of Miller, Blatz and other Schlitz, marked by the German or Nordic origin of its population and by the balance of power between social classes.
Jul wants readers to find that “it resembles the Lucky Lukes of the great era, which we love and, at the same time, it brings something new”. Hence, among other things, the collision between the Daltons and Karl Marx – the outlaw brothers are convinced that he holds a big fortune nicknamed “Capital”. Or the presence of a Bavarian immigrant, Friedrich Trump, owner of a saloon and brothel – even if, in reality, Donald’s grandfather was not based in Milwaukee.
The documentation consulted for “A Cowboy Under Pressure” showed to what extent beer, served in the saloon, was important in this Wild West. “It was often very developed. We had cold beer because we made ice cream, we managed, we brought back mountains of it…”, according to Achdé. “It must have been cooler in Arizona than in Montana!” according to Jul. “Lucky Luke stopped smoking but he still drank. He’s a cowboy after all. If we take that away from him, I don’t know what he’ll have left,” says the designer.
In addition to bookstores, the man who shoots faster than his shadow also arrives in auction rooms. Friday, Christie’s Paris is auctioning 50 original plates signed Morris. Dating from 1949 to 2001, they are estimated at prices ranging from 20,000 to 80,000 euros.
