Jul and Achdé, we are sitting here in the building of your German publishing house in Berlin. When you came here, did you obediently stop at every red pedestrian light?
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Jul: When I’m abroad, I always try to make a compromise between my desire to always contradict authority as a typical Frenchman and trying to adapt to the country I’m in. So here in Germany I stopped at every other traffic light.
In the new Lucky Luke volume, Lucky comes to Milwaukee, to this day the most German city in the USA, to pacify a workers’ strike. But first he has to learn that you don’t run a red light, even if there isn’t a single person on the road. Is this one of the images the French have of Germany?
Jul: I wanted to list and play through all the clichés that people have about Germans abroad. But I had decided not to write about the past of the Second World War, Hitler and the Nazis. I was more interested in the clichés that revolve around discipline, order and regulation. I was able to incorporate these themes into my story in a much more interesting and subtle way. But I designed this volume not to repeat clichés, but to caricature them.
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New Lucky Luke volume: The Frenchman Achdé has been drawing the cowboy for 23 years
The illustrator Achdé took over the great legacy of Lucky Luke inventor Morris 23 years ago.
Source: Kristian Teetz
There are a lot of clichés about us Germans: sauerkraut, beer, Richard Wagner, and once there’s an allusion to the Second World War. Do you want to use your new story to test whether the biggest cliché about us Germans is true, namely that we can’t laugh at ourselves?
Jul: Well, I never had that impression of you. There are many Germans who make me laugh.
Achdé: Yes, especially the politicians.
The new Lucky Luke is about the beer brewers in the Wild West, almost all of whom came from Germany, and the topic of labor disputes. Why did you choose it now?
Jul: I hate being anachronistic. If I include current topics in a Lucky Luke, then only if they really fit into this era and have a connection to it. I found it very interesting to discover that, historically speaking, the birth of the modern industrial world and the associated modern and contemporary social conflicts and class struggles can be located at the same time as the era of the cowboys.
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The new Lucky Luke has to save the beer industry
In the end, of course, he rides off into the sunset again. But in the 102nd volume of the Lucky Luke series, this time it will be more German than ever. In the new story “Last Round for the Daltons” (Egmont Ehapa, 48 pages, softcover 7.99 euros, hardcover 15 euros, from November 12th), social life in cities like New Munich suffers from the fact that beer is no longer delivered becomes. The reason for the dry tap is due to an ongoing labor dispute in Milwaukee. In the 19th century, the large breweries Pabst, Schlitz, Stroh and Miller, all of which were founded by German emigrants, were located in the city in the state of Wisconsin, which still has a German influence today. The illustrator Achdé took over the great legacy of Lucky Luke inventor Morris 23 years ago. The 63-year-old Frenchman’s real name is Hervé Darmenton – his stage name is made up of the French pronunciation of his first letters (in French, “H” is pronounced “ash”). The author Jul also comes from France. The 50-year-old has written a Lucky Luke adventure for the fifth time since 2016. His comic series “Silex and the City” has been broadcast on Arte since 2012.
This is really a surprising observation.
Jul: Yes, and there are many contemporary historical parallels: It was also enlightening to see that Karl Marx wrote a column every week in the “New York Tribune” during the time in which the Lucky Luke adventures were set. Additionally, the first socialist mayor ever elected in America was a German in Milwaukee. And last but not least: Why is May 1st celebrated today as Labor Day?
Tell us!
Jul: Because there was a massacre in Chicago in 1886 – not far from Milwaukee. At that time, a workers’ strike was bloodily suppressed at the Haymarket in Chicago, and this was then declared a holiday of the labor movement. This also has its origins in the time of Lucky Luke.
But why did you choose the topic of industrial action and unions now?
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Jul: I always look for topics that appeal to and touch readers today. But it also has to be content that, as I said, actually existed at the time of Lucky Luke, which we can then, above all, use humorously. First and foremost, we want to amuse and entertain. But with my stories I always try to help us understand our world today a little better with the help of Lucky Luke.
Today, the social question is no longer only addressed by the left, but also by right-wing parties. Is this also a current topic for you?
Jul: The extraordinary thing about this series, which has been around for 80 years, is that it appeals to all generations and all social backgrounds. The stories are likely to be read by people with different views, whether on the left or right or in the middle of the political spectrum. Therefore, we have a great responsibility to create something interesting and intelligent on such topics and not elitist literature but popular literature.
To accomplish what?
Jul: That’s what makes Lucky Luke so unique. The figure has a unifying function across all classes and age groups.
How is finding topics going between you two? Do you decide together what the content of a story will be?
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Achdé: Yes, actually. It always depends on the respective band. We have been pursuing the idea of connecting a Lucky Luke with the Germans and the topic of labor disputes for a long time.
Achdé’s work: A sketch of Lucky Luke currently drawn in Berlin. The Daltons probably stole the missing “h” in “raised.”
Source: Kristian Teetz
Are you free to decide which story you want to consider?
Achdé: The idea still goes to the publisher. You also have to talk to him about whether he likes the story. We do not own the rights to Lucky Luke. The publisher and Morris’ family always have them…
… the legendary inventor of Lucky Luke.
Achdé: Once we have come to an agreement, we will exchange a little bit with them about what appears in the comic. But Jul’s job is then to design a concrete scenario, and I then have to implement this visually and practically design something like a film.
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Jul: I always have the impression that I am presenting Achdé with a big challenge with my scenario. But I’m always absolutely amazed at what he creates with it and what the end result, the finished volume, looks like.
Achdé: You can actually compare our work to a film. A script is first written and the director has to turn it into a functioning story. In this exciting work, we can and must influence each other.
New Lucky Luke volume: The Frenchman Achdé has been drawing the cowboy for 23 years
The illustrator Achdé took over the great legacy of Lucky Luke inventor Morris 23 years ago.
Source: Kristian Teetz
How would you describe your individual contribution, Achdé?
Achdé: I’ve been drawing the Lucky Luke series for 23 years now, since Morris’ death in 2001. Jul is now the fifth scenarist I’ve worked with. He brings a very unique style. But I am responsible for ensuring that the graphic tradition of comics remains intact. Of course, I also implement what Jul gives me, but sometimes, like a good film, I have to lengthen the plot a little and sometimes make it shorter. This is the only way to create the necessary reading flow.
The Lucky Luke comics are also known for their Easter eggs, i.e. hidden allusions and references. In the new volume, for example, Marlene Dietrich can be seen on a poster singing a Wagner opera. Did the ideas for Easter eggs like this come from both of you?
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Jul: I bring most of the ideas with me, regardless of whether they are graphic or textual allusions. For example, in the scene in which Lucky Luke looks out over Milwaukee from a mountain, I had the famous painting by Caspar David Friedrich “The Wanderer in the Sea of Fog” in my head. But when I look at the finished drawings afterwards, I still discover one or two things that Achdé has included.
When reading it is difficult to choose a side, the striking workers have good arguments and so do the beer entrepreneurs. As always, the story is very compromised in the end. Does this forgiving quality remain inscribed in the Lucky Luke stories?
Jul: Yes, that’s actually typical of Lucky Luke. We find this pattern in many old stories, which often featured feuding families or groups. The Lucky Luke stories have shown one side as well as the other. In the end, Lucky Luke always manages to reconcile everyone.
You could use one of these in the real world today.
Jul: Yes, if you take the picture further, you can say: The USA is more divided today than ever. It would take someone like Lucky Luke to bring people back together.
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Achdé: Of course it shouldn’t be too heavy-handed, along the lines of: In the end, everyone always gets married and has children or something like that. But you mustn’t forget that we want to entertain our readers. And entertainment must end as amicably as possible. In the end, Lucky Luke always rides off into the sunset, lonely but with a reconciling ending.
And this time with a special punchline at the end. But of course it won’t be revealed here. Are you actually afraid that artificial intelligence could replace you?
Jul: I think we’ll perish from an environmental catastrophe or something similar. Of course I am also afraid of developments in artificial intelligence, but that is not my main concern.
Achdé: I’m worried. The moment artificial intelligence makes or saves money, it will prevail. The Internet was a nice idea in the beginning. But now it’s saturated with advertising, you’re always supposed to buy something. And if AI can produce comics more cheaply than humans, it will be used. Not because it’s better, but because it’s cheaper. I don’t rule out that maybe in ten years’ time comics will have to write the statement: This volume was drawn by hand.
A change can be observed in the more recent Lucky Luke stories written by you, Jul: The cowboy always has everyday problems, this time he suffers from back pain. Why is this new facet so important to you?
Jul: Since the fifties and sixties, heroes have been shown differently. Back then, main characters in comics or films were absolute heroes. This changed, among other things, in the Italian Western films, which also portrayed Western heroes as guys who sweat, who bleed, and who also go to pee.
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And today?
Jul: Today a modern type of hero is mostly portrayed who also show weaknesses. We see this in films, in television series, in novels. And that’s exactly what we wanted to introduce to Lucky Luke. We also want to break the classic stereotypes and show heroes as people, with back pain, among other things.
