“I Knew Killing a Man Would Kill You”: Lucky Luke Shaped by Myth and History

Abstract

Robert Warshow describes western film as a genre that allows little variation and in which the hero “could not fulfill himself if the moment did not finally come when he can shoot his enemy down”. Although in many ways the comic book hero Lucky Luke corresponds to Warshow’s description, the fact that the former has never killed anyone is central to the plot of James Huth’s 2009 film adaptation of the comic series. When Lucky Luke, the “lonesome cowboy”, is tricked into thinking that he has killed someone, he hangs up his Colt and begins living the life of a family man. When Lucky Luke finds out the truth, the brains of the operation states: “I knew killing a man would kill you”. In reality, however, Lucky Luke has killed six men in the comic series: Mad Jim, Phil Defer and the Dalton brothers. If “[y]ou can’t live in the West without a gun”, and if Lucky Luke is “man who shoots faster than his own shadow”, why is it that he cannot kill in the film? Why was it possible for him to kill Mad Jim? How can a series feature duels and executions but almost no deaths? I suggest that the answers are to be found in the history and the myth of Lucky Luke. In this essay I therefore propose to explain why killing a man would kill Lucky Luke, by considering the historical context of the creation of this comic series, its inner workings and its myth.