He shoots faster than his shadow. Everyone knows Lucky Luke, famous comic book hero. A cult character, who has already had the honor of an adventure in the cinema, and who should soon come back to life on screen in a series prepared by France Télévisions. Lucky Luke has no less than 80 albums released over 70 years. Heir to the saga since 2016, Jul, creator of the series Silex and the cityhas already written the scripts for four comics, while awaiting the imminent release of the next opus (see below). He is also the main character in the documentary In Lucky Luke's bootsbroadcast this Saturday, November 2 on Arte from 8:50 p.m., in which he goes to the United States to confront all the archetypes of comics (the Colt, the Stetson, the Indians, the saloon, etc.) with historical reality . A fascinating project, which spans three parts and around twenty different themes, with improbable, moving, surprising encounters. A show in which the artist, not to be confused with his namesake rapper, who welcomed the Olympic flame in May 2024, takes us behind the scenes.
Jul: “Comics are fun, it’s the place of childhood”
Télé Loisirs: How did you prepare this show unlike any other?
Jul : We went on a real speleological expedition inside the Lucky Luke with director Xavier Lefebvre. 80 years of album is huge. We had to be sure of ourselves, we re-read all the albums, put little post-its at each cactus, each saloon. It was a job of dissecting, we had a sort of mental dictionary of Lucky Luke images. Then we had to find the people and places we wanted to go.
How was the filming of the different sequences?
Jul : We filmed in ten states in total, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana and Mississippi. We sometimes traveled 700 kilometers to shoot a sequence. I had brought an old Lucky Luke in French in the trunk of the car. He helped us a lot to make contact. Comics are fun, they're the place of childhood. Everyone reads comics, Lucky Luke was an unexpected ticket.
Jul: “I really liked cooking alligator”
What was your craziest encounter?
Jul : Those we call in the documentary the old timersthese two old people on their wheelchairs. It was with them that we stayed the longest. We were a little forced, because the drone we used for the wide shots crashed into a tree, obviously the tallest in the area and extremely thick. The whole village came to help us. I climbed to a height of 30 meters to retrieve the drone. Otherwise, riding a horse was also a huge challenge, I didn't want to look ridiculous on screen. There's also a sequence where I'm bathing in a stream, in fact, I crashed into the rocks.
What was the most fun moment of filming?
Jul : I really enjoyed cooking alligator. It was very strange, in a house on the bayou, lost in nature. I had slept there, I could hear the insects, the birds around.
Jul: “In the next Lucky Lukes, we will talk about Indians differently”
Your comments take a big place in the documentary…
Jul : I wanted them to be very well written, for the adjectives to be chosen. It had to go beyond what we see, to give another dimension, a historical depth or meaning. This took me weeks to make.
What do you keep from this adventure at the end?
Jul : This project and this trip made me want this series again. Lucky Luke's new album (A cowboy under pressureto be released on November 15, 2024, editor's note.) stems from what I learned while making the documentary. I had the idea for this album, in which Lucky Luke has to stop a strike in a beer factory, while filming in South Dakota and Milwaukee, where 70% of the population has German origins. This is where we find the inventors of Ketchup and hot dogs. Furthermore, the great plain fascinated me, I wanted this setting to be almost a character. I also want to talk about the Navajo Indians. I'll never do it right again “Indians”each time they are different Indians, with different cultures. In the next Lucky Lukes, we will talk about Indians, but differently.
