Characters / Lucky Luke - Protagonists

Main Character Index Protagonists | Lucky Luke's Allies and Others | Antagonists (The Dalton Family)

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Lucky Luke

Voiced in French by: Marcel Bozzuffi (Daisy Town) | Daniel Ceccaldi (Ballad of the Daltons) | Jacques Thébault (Lucky Luke) | Antoine de Caunes (The New Adventures of Lucky Luke) | Lambert Wilson (Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure) | Emmylou Homs (Kid Lucky)

Voiced in English by: Douglas Lambert (Battle of the Daltons), William Callaway (Lucky Luke), Marcel Jeannin (The New Adventures of Lucky Luke)

Voiced in Swedish by: Peter Wanngren

Voiced in Danish by: Ove Sprogøe

Played by: Terence Hill (Lucky Luke, 1991) | Til Schweiger (Lucky Luke and the Daltons; 2004 film) | Jean Dujardin (Lucky Luke, 2009)

The title character, a lonesome cowboy far from home, drifting around the West. Being slow on words, but quick on reflexes, he's known to shoot faster than his own shadow.

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• The Ace: Even without taking his Improbable Aiming Skills in account, he is physically strong enough to defeat much bigger opponents than him in a bare hands fight, cunning and smart enough to manipulate the enemies he can't defeat by force, Born Lucky and has more common sense than most people he meets.
• Addiction Displacement: Late in the Morris series he quits smoking, and takes up a habit of on chewing on a wheatstalk instead.
• Alliterative Name: Lucky Luke.
• Ambadassador: He's had to prevent wars between American Natives and either the US Cavalry or towns more than once.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He is selfless, altruistic, and always does the right thing... but you don't want to make him angry.
  Luke: Here, [hands a cigarette] savor it, you don't get to smoke much at the end of a rope.
• Born Lucky: Hence the nickname, he has great luck tracking. It serves as Plot Armor in situations where Luke would have been shot dead without ever being able to react to.
• Cannot Talk to Women: Usually subverted for the most part, as he's developed a sweet platonic relationship with Calamity Jane and he seems totally fine when he's given the chance, but when any woman tries to make a move on him, he instantly freaks out.
• Catchphrase: "Yep!"
• Celibate Hero: While this was frequent at the times in Franco-Belgian comics, Lucky Luke deserves a special mention in that he is explicitly stated to dislike the very concept of being in a relationship. In one book, when asked to escort a group of women to a new town, he freaks out at the mere sight of the women and almost refuses to provide his help until being convinced nothing will happen. He's also been quoted as saying "Marriage is nothing but a charming mistake two humans make together," and even his theme song, "I'm A Poor Lonesome Cowboy" includes a verse about not wanting any relationships.
  I'm a poor lonesome cowboy,
  But it doesn't bother me,
  For this poor lonesome cowboy
  Prefers a horse for company.
  Got nothing against women,
  But I wave them all goodbye.
  My horse and me keep riding;
  We don't like being tied.
• Chick Magnet: Kinda ironic, considering that he's a Celibate Hero, who has made it clear even in his Leitmotif that he's against the idea of settling down, but quite many female characters (and real life women for that matter) show affection towards him and find him attractive.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome:
  • Tends to bring his help to whoever he meets during his journeys. There are some occasions where he tries to leave them to their fate, frequently out of frustration about their stupidity (particularly when it comes to the Warden's inability to keep the Daltons contained in jail), but either he eventually comes back having changed his mind, or it turns out he was only faking his departure as part of a manipulation.
  • Averted in The Rivals of Painful Gulch. He wanted out but the bridge he was crossing blew up due to one of the families' antics. He came back solely for revenge.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: He is the only one who understands how Rantanplan thinks. One sketch had him ask the dog for various tools and him naturally bringing always the wrong one but Luke was happy because he knew he wouldn't get it right and deliberately asked for the wrong ones in order for Rantanplan to bring the right ones. This implies that he knows which items The Ditz will mistake for which.
• Combat Pragmatism: When faced by someone who can legitimately challenge him or by many foes, he prefers to use his cunning to defeat them. For example after one draw with Averell Dalton during their first fist fight, he introduces a mosquito in Averell's room during the night, so Averell will be too tired during their rematch. He also tricks Phil Defer into exposing himself during their duel, by making it look like he shot all his bullets while his gun is in fact a seven shot revolver, and later tricks Pistol Pete into wasting his ammo by playing with Pete's ego.
• Cruel Mercy: At the end of Bounty Hunter, towards titular Bounty Hunter Elliot Belt. During the album, Belt showed himself willing to provoke a war between the local Indians and settlers to capture a man and tried to kill Luke when the latter proved the man was actually innocent. Because of his actions, Belt ends up a wanted man himself, but after capturing him Luke asks the sheriff to release him... So that Elliot Belt would have to spend the rest of his life fleeing bounty hunters and would learn what it is like to be hunted down. And since the reward on his head is quite big, a lot of bounty hunters are going to chase after Belt. Beware the Nice Ones indeed!
• Deadpan Snarker: Being one of the few with a sound mind, he's sure to do this from time to time.
• The Dreaded: He is Lucky Luke, THE Lucky Luke. His name brings dread only to outlaws and villains however. In "The Tenderfoot" when he told a lynch mob that surrounded him to stand down, bring Waldo for due process and avoid a bloodbath (Luke only had Waldo and himself against almost ten person), they comply with one simply explaining: Ever saw Lucky Luke shooting?
• The Drifter: One of the most classic examples of the trope. Almost all his adventures can be summed up as him arriving in a particular place, helping the locals with their current issue, then leaving galloping toward the sunset while singing he is a poor lonesome cowboy.
• Fastest Gun in the West: Enough (and also iconic enough) to be the image for the page.
• Good Samaritan: It's as if he lived to help communities whenever he's around when they have a problem. Though he's annoyed by this sometimes.
• Guile Hero: Despite being best-known for his skills as a marksman, he actually defeats a lot of his opponents by outsmarting them rather than by force. The Daltons, especially, he usually takes down by outsmarting them rather than actually fighting them.
• The Gunslinger: Well, he is a cowboy.
• Half-Breed Discrimination: In the 2009 movie, his mother was an American Native, allowing the Politically Incorrect Villain to get in a few racist digs at him. The subject hasn't come up in the comics, though.
• Honor Before Reason: Has an unfortunate tendency of following this even in life-or-death situations. Eg. in the Daltons' Mother Ma Dalton came really close to shooting him dead, just because he refused to duel an old lady, despite the fact that he could own the rights to the Blasting It Out of Their Hands trope! Would not disarm a girl much?
• Humble Hero: He walks away before being thanked, turn down bounties by asking the sheriff to give it to charity and his only replies when someone ask him if he is THE Lucky Luke is a nonchalant "yep".
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Possibly the best-known example in Franco-Belgian Comics.
• Last-Name Basis: According to the 2009 movie, his full name is really John Luke.
• Leitmotif: "I'm a poor lonesome cowboy".
• Living Legend: Almost everybody in-universe has heard of him.
• Meaningful Name: He was possibly Born Lucky.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: He is rather skinny, but he can easily outmatch much bigger and more muscular people than him in brawl.
• Not So Stoic: It is rare to see Luke actually moved and when he does his expression barely changes. A Jewish mom notices he is touched by her grandson's violin performance when he lets his straw hang out of his mouth a bit more and after reading an old friend's last request he is unable to roll a cigarette.
• Only Sane Man: Quite often, due to him often running in towns full of crazy people. This typically tends to irritate him, as people are unlikely to listen to reason, forcing him to manipulate them into solving their problems.
• Parody Sue: He can easily face opponents bigger than him (despite not being drawn as physically strong), is a Living Legend in-universe, a skilled Gunslinger who is good at everything he does (well, except from talking to women) and sometimes he doesn't need to use his reflexes, as he can just outsmart his opponents. Considering that the series is an Affectionate Parody of The Western genre, it's all Played for Laughs.
• Phrase Catcher: "Lucky Luke? Not the Lucky Luke?"
• Relative Button: Jolly Jumper is the closest thing he has that passes for friend and family. When he is kidnapped, Luke is shaking down people by threatening to blow their head off.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: There aren't many people so willing to screw money as much as he is. He simply doesn't care. Heck trying to bribe him to do something immoral is a Berserk Button that once pressed activates the punching system.
• Smoking Is Cool: Until he replaced it with a wheatstalk. This has been Lampshaded and made fun of in both comics and adaptations.
  • In the 2007 animated movie, Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure there's a brief scene where he bonds with Native American Chief Crazy Wolf over the hardships of giving up smoking:
    Crazy Wolf: Ooooh, Crazy Wolf finally gave up smoking!
    Lucky Luke: Yep, me too!
    Crazy Wolf: Did you suffer from many cravings?
    Lucky Luke: Yep — I had to chew on a piece of straw for a long time.
  • In the 2009 live-action movie, there's a short scene playing during the closing credits, where Lucky Luke is sitting with his back to the camera, smoking a cigarette. Then he realizes the camera is on him, does a double take, throws away the cigarette and replaces it with the familiar piece of straw before turning back to the audience and saying, somewhat sheepishly: "Hello! My name is Lucky Luke. I quit smoking back in '83. I feel much better now."
  • It becomes an important plot point in the 2016 Darker and Edgier book L'Homme qui tua Lucky Luke ("The man who killed Lucky Luke") by Matthieu Bonhomme. In said book, Lucky Luke meets a man named Doc Holiday, himself a chainsmoker whose lungs are starting to get the better of him. Doc later notices Luke's hands shaking from withdrawal after he was forced to stop smoking for a few days due to a tobacco shortage in town. Worried about Luke getting fatally shot because of this, he impersonates him in a duel and gets shot in the back by his opponent's father, who then brags about being the man who killed Lucky Luke. He uses his Last Words to beg a distraught Luke to quit smoking before it is too late. At the end of the book, Luke is then seen picking up a piece of straw from Doc's grave and starts chewing on it as he leaves the town.
  • The comics themselves made a few jokes about Luke having quit smoking. In one album, a politician offered a smoke to Luke before remembering he had quit. He then offered a wheatstalk for Luke to chew on, but Luke politely declined, saying he was trying to cut down on wheatstalks.
  • In another album, the Daltons fake amnesia in order to get pardoned, and Luke tries to call their bluff by offering a feast to Averell... who unfortunately is the one brother whose amnesia is genuine, and who states he isn't hungry. Luke tries to tempt him by digging in and praising how excellent the food is, causing an overhearing Jolly Jumper to remark that Luke's appetite has certainly grown since he quit smoking.
• Super-Reflexes: Combined with Improbable Aiming Skills, it makes him the deadliest shooter the Old West has ever known. As time went on, he became faster and preferred Blasting It Out of Their Hands over plain killing.
• Super-Speed: A Running Gag is that he's consistently faster at drawing his gun than even his own shadow (except for that one time where his shadow was faster).
• Vague Age: Much like Asterix, Luke's age is never told, with the usual lampshading of "he looks good for his age" "what's his age, by the way?" happening from time to time. In L'Homme qui tua Lucky Luke, when asked about it, Luke says he forgot his age.

Jolly Jumper

Voiced in French by: Jean Berger (Daisy Town) | René Goscinny (Ballad of the Daltons) | Roger Carel (Lucky Luke, Season 1) | Bernard Demory (Lucky Luke, season 2) | Éric Legrand (The New Adventures of Lucky Luke) | Adrien Antoine (Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure)

Voiced in live-action by (French): Jean Rochefort (Lucky Luke and the Daltons; 2004) | Bruno Salomone (Lucky Luke, 2009)

Voiced in Swedish by: Gunnar Ernblad

Lucky Luke's wisecracking horse and only partner to remain at the his side at all times.

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• Alliterative Name: Jolly Jumper.
• Animal Talk: Can converse freely with any other animal in the series, and talks to himself (and by extension, the reader) a lot. Humans can't understand him, though Lucky Luke is hinted to at least get the general gist of it for the most part. In the 2009 movie, he's upgraded to Talking Animal.
• The Casanova: Downplayed for the most part, and of course nothing is ever shown that wouldn't be G-rated — but it's clear that where Lucky Luke is a Celibate Hero, Jolly Jumper most definitely is not. He's got an eye for the lady horses, and several albums has him flirting and getting with a pretty mare.
• Cool Horse: Usually the fastest horse in the West and when other horses tell him that they are trained to show up at their master's whistle Jumper one up them by whistling Luke to show up.
  Lucky Luke: You called old chum?
• Deadpan Snarker: Considering he has to keep up with Luke and deal with Rantanplan.
• The Drag-Along: While he'll always do what Lucky expects of him, that doesn't mean he'll do it quietly.
• Dub Name Change:
  • In the Turkish version, he's called Düldül.
  • In the Greek version, he's called Dolly. Specifically, "Dolly the Jumper". In fact, for quite many decades, he was written as female, until the 73th issue, and from now on, the publishers corrected his gender.
• Foil: To Lucky Luke's another Animal Sidekick, Rantanplan. Whereas Jolly is a Hypercompetent Sidekick who can do everything (though he does tend to complain), Rantanplan is a dumb dog who only makes things worse.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: He can make coffee, play chess (though badly), pick locks and bite off bindings. And he can climb trees!
• Punny Name: His Turkish name literally means "horse".
• Sarcastic Devotee: No matter how much he complains about Luke, he will never abandon him.
• She's a Man in Japan: For many decades, he was written as a mare called Dolly in Greece. Then, The Beautiful Province was released and "her" gender had to be changed to avoid turning into a "lesbian".
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: You won't find a horse with a sharper tongue anywhere.

Rantanplan/Rin Tin Can

Voiced in French by: Bernard Haller (Ballad of the Daltons, Season 1 of Lucky Luke) | Roger Carel (replacement voice in Lucky Luke) | Bernard Demory (Lucky Luke, Season 2) | Francis Perrin (The New Adventures of Lucky Luke) | François Morel (Rintindumb, Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure, and The Daltons)

Voiced in live-action by (French): Éric Métayer (Lucky Luke and the Daltons; 2004)

Voiced in Swedish by: Peter Sjöquist

A dog known for being among the best prison guard dogs in the West — a reputation that unfortunately is very exaggerated.

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• Affectionate Parody: Of legendary Heroic Dog and animal actor Rin Tin Tin. Mostly in the name, though.
• Animal Talk: Talks mostly to himself, since no humans can understand what he says (then again, he has problems understanding what humans say as well).
• Badass on Paper: Like Luke, his legend has spread in the West, and he's often considered a Heroic Dog on the level of Lassie or Rex The Wonder Dog, and to be fair, he's been involved in some very exciting adventures and fought all manner of villains - all of course by complete accident on his part, most of the time he's not even aware he's on an adventure!
• Big Eater: And quite often, he doesn't even care if what he is eating isn't food.
• Breakout Character: Very popular with the readers; he's starred in his own comics, both short gag stories and album-length adventures. In the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, he has a larger role than in the comics, and tends to show up even in episodes based on albums where he didn't appear at all. In 2006, he even got his own animated series, and he's a regular character in the 2010 animated series about the Daltons.
• Canine Companion: Sometimes to Lucky Luke (who doesn't mind him tagging along), sometimes to the Daltons (who do mind, but he never understands this).
• The Ditz: The only character in the comic stupider than Averell Dalton; he can't seem to get anything right.
• Dogs Are Dumb: Just as Lucky Luke is faster than his own shadow, Rantanplan is stupider than his own shadow.
• Dub Name Change: In the English translations of the comics, as well as the English dub of Ballad of the Daltons he's called Rin Tin Can. In the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, he's named Bushwack. In the English dubs of later animated projects (such as the New Adventures, Go West!, The Daltons and his own animated series), he's Rintindumb. In Scandinavia, he's called Ratata.
• Extreme Omnivore: An even worse case than Averell Dalton. Among other things, he's eaten coal nuggets, bath water and Averell's cooking.
• Face Plant: One of his signature gags is to try and leap into someone's, usually Luke's, arms like a loyal dog, only to misjudge the distance and face plant on the ground.
• Foil: To Lucky Luke's other animal sidekick, Jolly Jumper. Whereas Jolly is a Hypercompetent Sidekick who can do everything (though he does tend to complain), Rantanplan is a dumb dog who only makes things worse.
• Heroic Dog: A parody of the concept. He tries his best, but just isn't smart enough to pull it off. He's never an outright hindrance though, and has saved the day a few times, even if by accident.
• Horrible Judge of Character: A Running Gag; Joe Dalton couldn't make it clearer that he loathes Rantanplan, yet the dog remains firmly convinced he is a nice, caring person. At times, he goes as far as forgetting who the characters are, even mistaking Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper for Santa Claus and his reindeer.
• Incompetent Guard Animal: Despite being known as the best guard dog in the West. Said rumour is, unfortunately, exaggerated.
• Oblivious to Hatred: Is seemingly incapable of grasping how much the Daltons, especially Joe, hates him, and keeps mistaking them for caring masters, which couldn't be further from the truth. Downplayed example with Jolly Jumper, who doesn't outright hate him, but finds him incredibly annoying and wishes he'd go away for good. Rantanplan of course thinks they're good friends.
• Smart Ball: Surprisingly! Normally he's borderline Too Dumb to Live, but on some very rare occasions he'll have a flash of brilliance. These instances are almost always played for laughs (in one case he actually fainted after displaying intelligent behavior).
• Super Drowning Skills: He absolutely can't swim, to the point that even getting sprayed in the face by a clown's squirting flower caused him to pass out and requiring CPR to get rid of the water he inhaled.
• Too Dumb to Live: Literally in Tortillas For the Daltons, when the heroes split up to look for the Daltons in the desert because the dogs in the group (the other being the hacienda owner's incredibly intelligent chihuaua) seemed to have found two different tracks. Rantanplan just concluded that the hat he was given to smell wasn't edible and wandered off in a random direction, the rest of the group later found him nearly dead from thirst... a few feet away from a freshwater river. Also in "L'Héritage de Rantanplan" where he nearly dies of hunger and thirst and has to be rescued by an old cowboy who can't understand how it could have happened in a land rich in preys and rivers.

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