The Daltons (Lucky Luke)


The Daltons are fictional outlaws in the Lucky Luke comics series and arch-enemies to Lucky Luke. They were created by artist Morris and writer René Goscinny. They are loosely inspired by the historic Dalton Gang of the United States, active in the early 1890s, and are billed as their cousins. While Morris depicts the historic Dalton brothers as evil and successful, these Daltons are portrayed as less skillful and more prone to fighting among the siblings. The four Daltons are depicted as identical except for height and intelligence. The oldest brother Joe is shown as the shortest and smartest, and the youngest brother Averell as the tallest and dumbest.
Their storylines often begin with the gang escaping from prison. They are followed by prison dog Rantanplan as they try to carry out whatever plans Joe Dalton, or their mother Ma Dalton, has in mind. Usually the gang is captured and back in jail at the end of the story, while Lucky Luke rides off into the sunset. The characters have appeared in the comic book version of Lucky Luke, as well as in the adaptations of the 1983 animated TV series, the 1991 film, and the 1992 TV series. A spin-off animated series, Rantanplan, also featured them, and they starred in a short-story, animated show that made its debut in 2010.

The original gang's appearance

The "real" Daltons—Bob,, Bill and Emmett—appear in the Lucky Luke adventure "Hors-la-loi" written and drawn by Morris in 1951. Morris drew them absolutely identical in everything but height: Bob was the shortest and also portrayed as most dangerous, and Emmett was the tallest.
At the end of this adventure, all the Daltons are killed in an attempted double bank robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas. Historically, Bob and Grat were killed there, but Emmett survived severe wounds and was imprisoned for 14 years, while Bill did not take part at all.
In the most recent Lucky Luke story, Emmett is shown as having survived the Coffeyville shoot out, and has since fathered a son which the cousins Daltons are now laying claim to. Emmett Jr. is characterized as taking after Averell in his gluttony and childish nature.

The fictional cousins

Morris regretted killing off the Dalton gang, who were popular with readers. Thus, he created a second quartet, introduced as cousins of the historic persons. By this point, he had made the series more humorous, with violence featured as slapstick and less lethal. The entirely fictional brothers are Joe, Jack, William and Averell. They look just like their "cousins". Each is taller than the previous one, though they vary in personality: from Joe the hot-tempered leader to the dim-witted, childlike Averell who thinks chiefly about food. These Daltons are featured in many of Lucky Luke's adventures, typically breaking out of jail at the beginning and being sent back by Luke at the end. The prison dog Rantanplan is often assigned to help Luke in tracking them down.
The Daltons also appear in a spin-off series Rantanplan, as well as many episodes of various Lucky Luke animated series. In another spin-off, Lucky Kid, they appeared in a story titled "Oklahoma Jim," in which they meet Lucky Luke for the first time as kids.

Joe Dalton

The shortest, oldest, angriest, and least stupid of the brothers, Joseph "Joe" Dalton, is the leader of the gang who frequently masterminds their prison breaks and various schemes. Perpetually furious and motivated chiefly by an obsessive hatred of Lucky Luke and Rantanplan, Joe frequently beats up his youngest brother Averell for his dim-wittedness. Joe is quick to draw his gun but is fortunately not much of a shooter.
When the brothers split up in "Cavalier seul", Joe is the only one who continues robbing banks, stagecoaches and trains; he settled in a ghost town to revel in his new wealth. He sometimes sings a parody of Lucky Luke's signature tune. Instead of "I'm a poor lonesome cowboy and a long, long way from home," he sings, "I'm a rich lonesome outlaw and a long, long way from home".

William and Jack Dalton

The middle of the quartet, William Dalton and John "Jack" Dalton are the middle brothers. They have somewhat colorless personalities and mostly act as buffers between Joe and Averell, calming down the former and shutting up the latter. They often repeat the same sentence: "Calm down, Joe" and "Joe, calm down". In their first appearance, Jack was a trigger-happy arms maniac and William a master of disguise, but those characteristics were not kept in subsequent albums. When Morris created the brothers, William was usually the shortest of the two, but in some stories, as well as animated series, William becomes the tallest of the two. Yet their personalities stay the same.
In "Cavalier seul", William becomes the boss of an illegal gambling hole, while Jack becomes a corrupt politician. In both cases when Lucky Luke arrives with warrants for their arrest, he finds that each brother has made use of his new status to gain legal impunity.

Averell Dalton

Averell Dalton is the tallest, youngest and most stupid of the Daltons. Obsessed chiefly with food, Averell is sometimes prone to eating various non-edible items such as soap, which he finds delicious. His very limited understanding of any situation and tendency to goof make him the weakest link of the gang. Averell is actually rather good-natured and not particularly interested in criminal activities, but he has almost no will of his own and simply follows his brothers. He likes rather girlish things such as sewing and dancing. As a result of his good behavior his rewards for his capture are often very low unlike his brothers.
However, as shown in several albums, Averell is perfectly capable of taking care of himself when out on his own. He boldly calls Lucky Luke out for hand-to-hand combat in the album in which he is introduced. And after the brothers split up in "Cavalier seul", Averell befriends an Italian chef who he helps by working in the kitchen, expanding the line of dishes and later becomes involved with extortion of other surrounding restaurants and Mafia practices to expand the brand. Again as Lucky Luke arrives with a warrant for his arrest, he finds that Averell, thanks largely because of his new "family" has gotten legal impunity.
Despite usually being tender-hearted, Averell sometimes is quite nasty. He also has a changing relationship with Rantanplan. In some books, he seems to like him, but in others he hates him, swears about him and kicks him. Notably, despite his enormous affinity for food, Averell is a mediocre cook at best, but hates having the quality of his food questioned as seen in Dalton City, where he asks for Joe's gun when Lucky Luke criticizes his specality, curry and eggs.

Other Daltons

There were other Daltons that either appear or are mentioned where they are the fictional relatives of the historic Daltons:
The Dalton brothers appeared in the following Lucky Luke albums:
  1. Lucky Luke contre Joss Jamon
  2. Les Cousins Dalton
  3. L'Évasion des Dalton
  4. Sur la piste des Dalton
  5. Billy the Kid
  6. Les Collines noires
  7. Les Dalton dans le blizzard
  8. Les Dalton courent toujours
  9. Les Dalton se rachètent
  10. L'Escorte
  11. Tortillas pour les Dalton
  12. Dalton City
  13. Jesse James
  14. Ma Dalton
  15. L'Héritage de Rantanplan
  16. Le Cavalier blanc
  17. La Guérison des Dalton
  18. Le Magot des Dalton
  19. La Ballade des Dalton et autres histoires
  20. "Les Dalton prennent le train" dans "La corde du pendu et autres histoires"
  21. Daisy Town
  22. Fingers
  23. La fiancée de Lucky Luke
  24. Nitroglycérine
  25. "Olé Daltonitos" and "Un cheval disparaît" in "L'alibi"
  26. Le Pony Express
  27. L'Amnésie des Dalton
  28. Les Dalton à la noce
  29. Belle Starr
  30. Oklahoma Jim
  31. Marcel Dalton
  32. Le prophète
  33. La légende de l'ouest
  34. La Corde au cou
  35. Lucky Luke contre Pinkerton
  36. Cavalier seul
  37. Les tontons Dalton

    The Daltons in film and television

Several animated Lucky Luke films feature the Daltons, including:
The Hanna-Barbera cartoon in the 80s called Lucky Luke featured the fictional Dalton Brothers with Joe Dalton voiced by Frank Welker, Jack Dalton voiced by Rick Dees, William Dalton voiced by Fred Travalena, Averell Dalton voiced by Bob Holt, and Ma Dalton voiced by Mitzi McCall.
The animated TV series of the early 1990s, which closely adapted the comics, also featured the Daltons, including in "Hors-la-loi" in place of the original Daltons.
The Daltons appeared also in the first live action movie Lucky Luke and the follow-up TV series, in which they were portrayed by Ron Carey, Dominic Barto, Bo Greigh and Fritz Sperberg. Note that "Averell" was constantly misspelled as "Averill".
The Daltons also starred in a 2004 movie titled simply Les Dalton, in which Luke barely appeared and which got poor reviews.
The TV animation series The New Adventures of Lucky Luke includes the four Dalton brothers in most episodes.
The 2007 animated film Go West! A Lucky Luke Adventure produced by Xilam stars the Daltons as the main characters, even though the comic The caravan that served as inspiration to the film does not.
Xilam has also produced an animated television series titled The Daltons, focusing on the characters of the Daltons. The series contains 78 episodes each lasting for 8 minutes and premiered in fall 2010 in France.

In other media