This month, Cinebook will publish our 83rd (!) Lucky Luke adventure, Trouble Brewing, available in the UK from the 12th of December - barely three weeks after it came out in France.
On sale from Thursday 12th December
A Lucky Luke adventure in the style of Morris
TROUBLE BREWING
Script: Jul
Artwork: Achdé
Colours: Mel Acryl’ink
Depressed cowboys and gloomy saloons ...
NOTHING IS RIGHT IN THE OLD WEST ANY MORE!
A large-scale ’beer strike‘ paralyses the country’s breweries, leaving all the saloons dry and bringing them to a standstill!
The inhabitants of New München beg Lucky Luke to help them end the movement that threatens the way of life of the entire Wild West. The lonesome cowboy gives in and agrees to go to Milwaukee, but his arrival in the ’beer capital of America”, a largely industrial city with Germanic influences, is a shock. A meeting with his old Native-American friend Two-headed Eagle, who has become a factory worker and married a German woman, will help him navigate the ruthless world of breweries. Having to deal on the one hand with the all-powerful businessman and ’Beer Baron‘ Frederick Martz, and on the other with trade unionists following Karl Marx’s philosophies, our bewildered righter of wrongs will need double his usual efforts and skill to bring the Old West back to its former glory ... and that’s not even taking into account the Daltons’ interference!
Shootouts in factories, chases through the slums of the city, the fate of breweries decided at poker – will the man who shoots faster than his shadow, thrown into ’modern times‘, succeed in reconciling workers and bosses, and save the culture of the Wild West.
It’s a revolution in the Lucky Luke series: for the first time, this title confronts Lucky Luke with the modern industrial era of America! Unions, bosses, factory workers … What if the big city was wilder than the Wild West? Rooted in historical facts in true Lucky Luke fashion, this adventure features some of the most iconic symbols of America – hamburgers, hot dogs, ketchup and the Christmas tree – and their inventors, as well as the language of their community, which came this close to becoming the official language of the United States: German! Although often forgotten, German immigrants made up the majority of the northern population of the Old West. This thriving Germanic community, which counted among its members Donald Trump’s grandfather as well as the first communists on the continent, is an inexhaustible source of gags in this Lucky Luke title. So, put on your cowboy hat and your lederhosen, and you too can face the ‘Trouble Brewing’ , a fast-paced adventure that’s as hilarious as it is informative.
JUL
This former press cartoonist released his first graphic novel in 2005. His cult series Silex and the City was adapted for television by Arte, then made into a feature film. With Charles Pépin, he co-writes The Planet of the Wise and Fifty Shades of Greeks. Awarded the Goscinny Prize in 2007, Jul has been writing Lucky Luke’s scripts for ten years.
Dropping Lucky Luke in a factory is almost revolutionary, isn’t it?
I found it amusing to send him to a factory, as he embodies wide open spaces, freedom and individualism. For him, it is a real shock, but there is nothing anachronistic about this situation. The story takes place at the historical turning point when the United States tipped into modernity, represented by the industrial revolution. Lucky Luke seems to embody a resistance to this world.
Have cowboys ceased to exist in the United States?
Not at all. They’re still part of the American Midwest’s landscape, even if there are no longer large-scale cattle drives. They still compete in rodeos, go to saloons, and have a passion for weapons – just like in the adventures of Lucky Luke.
We discover that the German-speaking population played an important role in building the country...
As in previous albums, I wanted to champion the voice of a community that contributed to the formation of the United States, in the same way as the African-American and Jewish communities. Immigrants of Germanic origin settled in several waves starting in the 18th century, and German almost became the official language of the country! In States like Dakota, Wyoming and Wisconsin, the majority of the population is of German descent.
What mark did they leave?
They introduced the most iconic symbols of the American way of life such as the hamburger, ketchup and the hot dog. We also owe them the idea of Kindergartens and the Christmas tree.
Despite being a hero, like many people Lucky Luke has back problems...
That’s hardly surprising, as he carries all the justice in the world on his shoulders! I made him gain weight in The Promised Land, he got seasick in A Cowboy in Paris, the Daltons needed toilets in A Cowboy in High Cotton… Giving emotions to the hero and reminding us that he has a body is a way of humanising him while respecting the blueprint of the series. Something ‘Spaghetti Westerns’ did well, but Western comics had not dared attempt much so far.
ACHDE´
He bought his first Lucky Luke when he was nine years old … and a calling was born! After studying radiology and radiotherapy, he signed on with publishing house Dargaud, and worked on several well-known series (C.R.S = Distress / C.R.S = Détresse, The Wretched of the Road / Les Damnés de la route...), and of course The Adventures of Rin Tin Can. Since 2001, he has been illustrating the adventures of the Lonesome Cowboy, as well as the Kid Lucky books, which he also writes.
In this title, Lucky Luke faces a major culture shock…
He discovers an industrial world with which he is not familiar, as well as a different side of his country, the United States. As for me, I don’t like the city, and drawing an urban environment was no walk in the park! But this sort of artistic challenge forces me to leave my comfort zone and push myself, which is not a bad thing.
Your description of the United States does not match the traditional portrayal of the country…
Because of Hollywood movies, we have long believed that the population of the United States was homogeneous and everyone spoke perfect English. In reality, at the end of the 19th century, some towns were French, others were German, Danish or Russian. Nowadays, populations of foreign origin have melted in the proverbial pot. Thankfully, recent waves of Hispanic immigration continue to speak Spanish, and we are witnessing a resurgence of French thanks to African and Haitian immigrants. Bilingualism is always an asset.
Jul sent you a ‘panel by panel’ script, sometimes adding sketches to the dialogue. What was your margin of freedom?
The artist must not simply follow the instructions given to them to the letter. They’re there to magnify the scriptwriter’s work.
Therefore, I operate on the principle that it’s my job to take care of the staging, but not to the detriment of the original idea. Consequently, I haven’t always followed his layout exactly, and I’ve re-arranged it when I deemed it necessary. In cinema, the screenwriter does not tell the director how he should hold his camera ... By mutual agreement, our tasks are well defined. I always plan my scenes in advance, create the sets, choose my actors, and position my camera according to the action proposed by the script. Well, when I say ’camera‘, it’s really my pencil and my brushes! Attractive and readable art – that’s the key.
Has your job as the artist evolved since the previous Lucky Luke titles?
On this story, I have at times moved away from the traditional grid layout and instead drawn certain panels in a more modern way, often for the sake of efficiency, like the panel that shows Joe Dalton falling into a beer vat. Today’s readers are used to alternate layouts, and you have to keep the series evolving. Working away from the writer can also be an advantage, because it forces me to fend for myself when I am faced with a difficulty. But, I am never satisfied with the result: I re-drew the scene that takes place at the opera fifteen times! I finally found the solution by looking at an illustration from the beginning of the 20th century …
ACHDE´
He bought his first Lucky Luke when he was nine years old … and a calling was born! After studying radiology and radiotherapy, he signed on with publishing house Dargaud, and worked on several well-known series (C.R.S = Distress / C.R.S = Détresse, The Wretched of the Road / Les Damnés de la route...), and of course The Adventures of Rin Tin Can. Since 2001, he has been illustrating the adventures of the Lonesome Cowboy, as well as the Kid Lucky books, which he also writes.
© Charlie Ambrose
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