History ComicBook / LuckyLuke

** Slim, the FatBastard BigBad from "Barbed Wire on the Praire" has an unusually quick one when the plot wraps up; after the other cattle barons and the farmers have made peace and agreed to share land and resources on the prairie, one of Slim's mooks asks him what they'll do now. Slims response basically comes down to "we admit we acted like idiots and hope the farmers forgive and forget".

-->-- "I'm a poor lonesome cowboy"

* InkSuitActor: The colonel in "The 20th Cavalry" is quite obviously played by Randolph Scott, and in many ways an AffectionateParody of Scott's [[TypeCasting usual Western character]].

* {{Epiphora}}: A rare visual example, the series has each of its stories ending with the same panel of the titular hero horse-riding into the horizon and singing "I'm A Poor Lonesome Cowboy".

* EveryEpisodeEnding: Lucky Luke drives off into the sunset, while singing ''"I'm a Poor Lonesome Cowboy"''. A short comic book story, has the Daltons in hiding. Averell tries to warn the others that Lucky Luke is about to turn up, but they don't believe him. Then Luke appears and finds them. Averell explains that it is sunset, and that Luke always rides by this location at sunset.

* WrongGenreSavvy: When the circus lion Nelson escaped Luke says he and the circus clown will find him and shrugs it off as Nelson is fifty-six years old and vegetarian. The circus clown points out it's still a lion that is not used to walk out of the circus at all. Sure enough Nelson is aggressive and growls at the town sheriff so he can take the grub he serves prisoners. He even attacks Lucky Luke for interrupting his meal.

* MinecartMadness: Explosive Mine from the GBC title ''"Lucky Luke Desperado Train"'', complete with this trope's [[NintendoHard basic premise]] despite it can [[BestLevelEver get a lot better]] with practice (as pointed out in the page for the trope itself). It's the third-to-last level [[spoiler: and if you want to see it, the password is Gun-Gun-Star-Horseshoe]].

The most iconic characters of the series, though, weren't historical characters but the fictional ''cousins'' of historical characters. After Morris had Luke fight the real Dalton Brothers and showed their death on the page, Goscinny found this way to bring back a similar group of baddies, since the original Daltons' regularly descending sizes and identical ugly mugs made for lots of fun potential -- and did it work. At first, the Dalton cousins were hopeless bandit wannabes impressed by the fame of their relatives, but they quickly became feared outlaws in their own right in-story, while in the real world (in France, Belgium, and Quebec anyway) they completely [[ParodyDisplacement outshone their real-world counterparts]].

* TheAce: Lucky Luke is good at what he does. Very much so. It is said that he can draw faster than his shadow. A lot of the later Goscinny/Morris albums (especially those following the Daltons), tend to focus more on the villains trying to top Lucky Luke than Luke himself saving the day. Many of the movies also do this. There are a few cases where Luke is shown to be inept at something (he is paralysed by stage fright when he needs to act in a play and causes a huge mess when trying to pass himself as a Chinese in one AnimatedAdaptation) but they are few and far between.

* IgnoredExpert: In ''Travelling Up the Mississippi'', a steamboat race between to rival companies will determine the winner and sole steamboat operator of the Mississippi. [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope Captain Lowrider]] orders more wood thrown in the fire, much to the protests of the engineer who says that the boiler can't take it anymore. [[StuffBlowingUp No guess what happens next.]]

After Goscinny's death, lots of writers took over penning the stories, with very irregular results. Now Morris has passed away too, Achdé is in charge of the art, restricting himself to strict Morris imitation because his style was so particular. French comedian Laurent Gerra was for a while in charge of the storyline, with at-best-lukewarm results; however the early reactions seems to be more positive to the latest album, scripted by novelists Daniel Pennac and script-writer/novelist Tonino Benacquista (co-writer of ''Film/TheBeatThatMyHeartSkipped'', among others), so whether or not the series has become a bit of a FranchiseZombie at this point is open to question. As it has been so successful for over fifty years, it has also known several {{Animated Adaptation}}s, both with stories directly adapted from the comics and with original stories. The best and most well known are ''WesternAnimation/LuckyLukeDaisyTown'' (1971) and ''WesternAnimation/LaBalladeDesDalton'' (1978) which were made by the same animation studio that directed ''WesternAnimation/TheTwelveTasksOfAsterix'' (1976) and thus share a similar comedic style. It also helped that Creator/ReneGoscinny wrote the script.

* CuckooClockGag: In " Les Dalton à la noce" (The Wedding Crashers), several custom make Cuckoo Clock's can be seen: the undertaker has a Cuckoo Clock that has bones as clock handles, and instead of a cuckoo a skull pops out (though it still makes the classic "cuckoo" sound), the saloon has a clock where the cuckoo is replaced by a drunk man making the sound of an AlcoholHic, and the station master has a Cuckoo Clock where the cuckoo is a steam locomotive making the sound of a steam whistle. There is also a scene where Luke visits a clockmaker, and all the Cuckoo Clocks on the wall behind him go off simultaniously, which startles Luke into drawing his gun.

** The one-shot tribute ''The Man who Shot Lucky Luke'' could be described as "What if ''Lucky Luke'' was serious and realistic instead of humorous?" The drawing, the coloring and the mood is much darker. Lucky Luke is far more stoic rather than his usual laid-back self. There's some violence that's nasty rather than silly, both physically and because of [[AbusiveParents who's doing it to whom]]. Jolly Jumper doesn't speak, and Luke comes across as formidable but doesn't show any unbelievable ImprobableAimingSkills and isn't a completely InvincibleHero. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And smoking is bad for your health.]] (Actually, you probably won't laugh at that last one when you see how it's played.)

** Played straight with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bart_(outlaw) Black Bart]], the diligence's passengers who braved Indians, bandits and more with relative ease are unnerved to go in his territory (save the photographer who wants to take a photo of the famed outlaw), even with Luke on their side. He is also one of the few bandits to get the upper hand on Lucky Luke and would have stolen the loot if [[spoiler: the loot wasn't a decoy all along]]. One character even doubts that Black Bart is human.

** In ''The Wagon Train'', when the caravan of California-bound settlers was running out of water after crossing a desert.

** To be fair, Averell has been depicted as having great fighting skills and can put them to good use on occassion. However, he is childishly naive, gullible, and impulsive. People take advantage of him frequently. A running gag of the series involves the Daltons' wanted posters. The reward on his brothers can amount to several thousand dollars, while the reward on Averell at times is less than 50 dollars.
* HateSink: Bounty hunters are this in-universe. Elliot Bell has the worst reputation of all of them, to the point that saloon singers refuse to perform when he is present and the bartender spills his alcohol on the floor when he asks for a drink, even when he calls a round for everyone the barman just pour bottles on the floor.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/LuckyLuke_8441.gif]]

* BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord: Edgar Crook insists that his deals aren't "fraud", and that he isn't a "liar". It's just "business" and "marketing".

* BadassMustache: The Dalton Brothers.

The most iconic characters of the series, though, weren't historical characters but the fictional ''cousins'' of historical characters. After Morris had Luke fight the real Dalton Brothers and showed their death on the page, Goscinny found this way to bring back a similar group of baddies, since the original Daltons' regularly descending sizes and identical ugly mugs made for lots of fun potential -- and did it work. At first, the Dalton cousins were hopeless bandit wannabes impressed by the fame of their relatives, but they quickly became feared outlaws in their own right in-story, while in the real world (in France and Belgium anyway) they completely [[ParodyDisplacement outshone their real-world counterparts]].

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Averted. The Daltons are still alive at the end of the 1990's animated adaptation of "Hors-la-loi"... because these are the ''fictional'' Daltons, not their real-life "cousins".

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: [[spoiler:Cooper]] in the 2009 live-action film, when he makes a racist remark on [[spoiler:Luke's Native American mother]].

The most iconic characters of the series, though, weren't historical characters but the fictional ''cousins'' of historical characters. After Morris had Luke fight the real Dalton Brothers and showed their death on the page, Goscinny found this way to bring back a similar group of baddies, since the original Daltons' regularly descending sizes and identical ugly mugs made for lots of fun potential -- and did it work. At first, the Dalton cousins were hopeless bandit wannabes impressed by the fame of their relatives, but they quickly became feared outlaws in their own right in-story, while in the real world (in France and Belgium anyway) they completely [[WeirdAlEffect outshone their real-world counterparts]].

** Luke is pretty much composed, aside from bouts of EnragedByIdiocy. When he reads an old friend's postmortem letter he tries to roll a cigarette only to shake too much and tore the cigarette paper, showing he is moved. This get a CallBack when a jewish boy plays a song with his violin where his wheatstalk almost fall off his mouth.

** A follow-up to ''The Man who Shot Lucky Luke'' by the same author was realeased: ''Wanted: Lucky Luke''. A bounty has been put Lucky Luke's head. While hunted down, he try to escort a trio of sisters safely to their destination. The setting is as somber as its predecessor and the story dwells into GreyAndGrayMorality.
* DastardlyWhiplash: An in-universe use, when a travelling theatre company in one book puts on a melodramatic play and the villain of the play is this.