L'Empereur Smith is a Lucky Luke adventure written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. It is the forty fifth book in the series and was originally published in French by Dargaud in the year 1976 and in English by Cinebook in 2010 as Emperor Smith. The story is loosely based on the life of the historical Emperor Norton of San Francisco.
In the small town of Grass Town, Lucky Luke meets Dean Smith, a wealthy rancher in the area who has lost his mind and imagines himself to be the Emperor of the United States. Thanks to his fortune, Smith was able to afford to hire a small army, equipped with cannons, and to put on a whole apparatus. Amused by this character who they consider harmless, the people of Grass Town play the game and pretend to take Smith seriously.
Emperor Norton
The situation escalates when Buck Ritchie, a notorious bandit of the region, gets to meet Smith, and convince him to use his army to occupy the city. Terrorized, the locals rank on the side of Smith, who sets out to reconquer all the United States, making Grass Town the new capital of the country.
Judged for high treason, Sheriff Linen and Whitman, the editor of the newspaper, cowardly plead their case, and are pardoned by the Emperor Smith who gives them a title and a ministry to each. Convicted, Barney, the judge, is sentenced to death, commuted to life in prison, while Lucky Luke manages to escape, and plans to neutralize Smith, and free Grass Town. He does this by infiltrating a ball and kidnapping Smith. Gates, his second-in-command, and former cook, attempts to lead them, but with no-one to pay them, his soldiers quit. Luke arrests Gates. Richie duels Luke, cannon versus pistol, with Luke firing a bullet down the cannon, exploding it.
Luke goes to Smith, locked in a small hut nearby, and advises him to cross the nearby Rio Grande into Mexico.
Characters
Dean Smith: Rich rancher of the region who has gone mad, and imagines himself to be the Emperor of the United States; he now calls himself "Emperor Smith," and speaks of himself in the plural.
Buck Ritchie: Notorious bandit, who manages to infiltrate Smith's army.
Colonel Gates: former cook of Smith, who became his right-hand man. His important role also made him lose his head.
Judge Barney: Judge of the city, he is the only notable of the city, helped by Lucky Luke, to oppose Smith when the situation degenerates.
Sheriff Linen: Sheriff of the city, he does not concern himself with Smith, who he considers harmless and fun before he takes over. Cowardice leads him to join him.
Rudolph Whitman: Director of the Grass Town Guardian, the city's newspaper, which publishes Smith's proclamations and decrees. He considers the latter as a picturesque figure before joining.
Lucky Luke is a Western bande dessinée series created by Belgian cartoonist Morris in 1946. Morris wrote and drew the series single-handedly until 1955, after which he started collaborating with French writer René Goscinny. Their partnership lasted until Goscinny's death in 1977. Afterwards, Morris used several other writers until his own death in 2001. Since Morris's death, French artist Achdé has drawn the series, scripted by several successive writers.
La Mine d'or de Dick Digger, written and drawn by Morris, is an album containing two stories from serial publication in Le Journal de Spirou during 1947, namely La Mine d'or de Dick Digger and Le Sosie de Lucky Luke. Together they were released as the first official Lucky Luke hardcover album in 1949 and in English by Cinebook in 2014 as Dick Digger's Gold Mine.
Rodéo, written and drawn by Morris, is an album containing three stories from serial publication in Spirou magazine during 1948–49, namely Grand rodéo, Lucky Luke à Desperado City and La ruée vers l'or de Buffalo Creek. Together they were released as the second Lucky Luke hardcover album in 1951, and in English by Cinebook as the 54th in 2015.
Billy the Kid is a Lucky Luke comic book written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. It is the twentieth title in the original series. The original French-language version was printed in 1962 by Dupuis. It is the first in the English versions published by Cinebook Ltd.
La Ville fantôme is a Lucky Luke comic written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. The original French-language version was printed in 1965 by Dupuis. English editions of this comic have been published by Dargaud, and Cinebook in 2006, under the title Ghost Town.
Dalton City is a Lucky Luke comic written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. The original Belgian/French comic was published by Dargaud in 1969. English editions of this Belgian/French series have been published by Dargaud, and by Cinebook in 2006.
À l'ombre des derricks is a Lucky Luke comic written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. It is the eighteenth title in the series and it was originally published by Dupuis in 1962, in French. English editions of this French series were published by Cinebook Ltd in 2007 as In the Shadow of the Derricks. The story is based on the historical oil rush in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859.
Lucky Luke contre Joss Jamon is a Lucky Luke comic written by Goscinny and Morris. It is the eleventh album in the Lucky Luke Series and the second on which Goscinny worked. The comic was printed by Dupuis in 1958 and in English by Cinebook in 2011, under the title Lucky Luke versus Joss Jamon.
Les Cousins Dalton is a Lucky Luke comic written by Goscinny and Morris. It is the twelfth album in the Lucky Luke Series. The comic was printed by Dupuis in 1958 and by Cinebook in 2011 as The Dalton Cousins.
Le Juge is a Lucky Luke comic written by Goscinny and Morris. It is the thirteenth album in the Lucky Luke Series. The comic was printed by Dupuis in 1959 and by Cinebook in 2010 as The Judge. The story is inspired by the historical Justice of the peace Roy Bean. As usual, Lucky Luke does not interfere unless injustice is done, or one party acquires an unfair advantage over the other. Siding with Bean takes place only for that reason, to the level that things are fair game again. The unsung side-kick of the Judge is Jacinto, a diminutive Mexican, who lightens up several details of the story.
Alerte aux Pieds Bleus is a Lucky Luke adventure in French, written and illustrated by Morris it was the tenth title in the original series and was published by Dupuis in 1958 and by Cinebook in English as The Bluefeet are coming!. It is unique in the sense that it was the only story published solo by Morris after starting a collaboration with René Goscinny.
Sur la piste des Dalton is a Lucky Luke comic written by Goscinny and Morris. It is the seventeenth title in the Lucky Luke series. The comic was printed by Dupuis in 1962 and by Cinebook in English in 2009 as On the Daltons' Trail.
Les Dalton courent toujours is a Lucky Luke adventure written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. It is the 23rd book in the series and it was originally published in French in 1964 and by Cinebook in English in 2012 as The Daltons Always On The Run.
L'Escorte is a Lucky Luke adventure written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. It is the twenty eighth book in the series and It was originally published in French in 1966. It was published in English in 2009 by Cinebook under the title The Escort.
Chasseur de primes is a Lucky Luke adventure written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. It is the thirty-ninth book in the series and it was originally published in French in 1972 and in English by Cinebook in 2010 as The Bounty Hunter.
Le Grand Duc is a Lucky Luke adventure written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. It is the fortieth book in the series and it was originally published in French in the year 1973 and by Cinebook in 2011 under the title of The Grand Duke. The story is loosely based on the Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia, who undertook a tour of America in 1870–1871.
La Ballade des Dalton is a 1978 French animated film written and directed by René Goscinny, Morris, Henri Gruel and Pierre Watrin starring the comic book character Lucky Luke. Two different adaptations of the film in book form were both published in French in 1978. The first, adapted by Guy Vidal, was in text form rather than comic strip, and was accompanied by images from the film. The second was a comic strip adaptation by an uncredited Pascal Dabère and formed part of the book, La Ballade des Dalton et autres histoires.
La Corde du penduet autres histoires is a Lucky Luke adventure written by Goscinny with Morris and illustrated by Morris. It was originally published in French in the year 1982. The album contains seven short stories.
Daisy Town is a Lucky Luke adventure written by Goscinny with Morris and illustrated by Morris. It was originally published in French in the year 1983 and in English, by Cinebook in 2016. The comic is an adaptation of the 1971 film Daisy Town.
Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure is a 2007 French animated western comedy film directed by Olivier Jean-Marie from a screenplay penned by Jean-Marie and Jean-François Henry with the kind collaboration of Anne Goscinny, who's one of the associate producers of the film and the daughter of René Goscinny. Based on the 2001–03 animated television series The New Adventures of Lucky Luke and loosely based on La Caravane by Morris and René Goscinny, the film was produced by Xilam, France 3 Cinéma, Pathé, Dargaud Média and Lucky Comics, and was released theatrically in France by Pathé Distribution on 5 December 2007.
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