Maurice de Bevere, known by the pen name "Morris" (December 1, 1923 - July 16, 2001), was a Belgian comic book artist and writer, and illustrator.
He's perhaps the ultimate example of One-Hit Wonder out of all Franco-Belgian Comics authors, even moreso than the likes of Hergé, Peyo or Albert Uderzo. Once a co-worker of André Franquin and Jijé, he created the iconic Western comics character of Lucky Luke, a cowboy who shoots faster than his own shadow and drifts in The Wild West, in 1946 (inspired to him by a stay in the United States) and he didn't work on a single other series otherwise. He is also the popularizer (though not the originator) of the expression "The Ninth Art" for Comic Books.
In the beginnings of Lucky Luke in the Spirou magazine, it quickly appeared to Morris that he vastly preferred drawing over writing stories. That problem with with stories was definitely solved once he met Asterix's future co-creator René Goscinny, who went on to usher in a "Golden Age" of stories for the series that hasn't been replicated to this day, by making them into Affectionate Parodies of the Western genre's characters, tropes and clichés. The result became the second highest seller in history among European comics behind Goscinny's own Asterix, and one of the longest-running as well.
Morris worked on Lucky Luke until his passing at age 77 in 2001 from pulmonary embolism resulting from a fall. The franchise has largely outlived him with Achdé, who renders a perfect imitation of his drawing style.
Works Morris was involved in include:
- Lucky Luke:
- Lucky Luke (comics series, 1946-2001, creator, artist, writer)
- Lucky Luke: Daisy Town (animated film, 1971, director, writer)
- Lucky Luke: Ballad of the Daltons (animated film, 1978, director, writer)
- Lucky Luke (animated series, 1983-1991, director, writer)
- Du Raisiné sur les Bafouilles (one-shot comic book, 1956)
Tropes & Trivia in his works:
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Morris was a cinephile, and he gave several characters of Lucky Luke the faces of famous actors be they from the Western genre (such as Lee Van Cleef, Gary Cooper, James Coburn, Kirk Douglas, Randolph Scott, Jack Palance etc) or elsewhere (Boris Karloff, Wallace Beery, David Niven, John Barrymore, Sean Connery, Jean Gabin, Louis de Funès etc). Achdé has kept this going.
- No Smoking: He stopped having Lucky Luke smoke cigarets in 1983, replacing them with wheat stalks. This move was lauded by the World Health Organization, no less.
- Take That!: He had the habit of drawing unsavory Lucky Luke characters such as the undertakers with the faces of people he didn't like.
- What Could Have Been: Morris and Goscinny created a gangster comic book story in 1956, Du raisiné sur les bafouilles
◊. They intended to turn it into a series, but Lucky Luke (and Asterix as well for Goscinny a few years later) took too much of their time to materialize it.
