The Daltons (Lucky Luke)
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The Daltons regularly appear in the Lucky Luke comic book series and are the sworn enemies of the titular hero.
The "real" Daltons appear in only one story, being killed and buried at the end. A few stories later, fictional cousins of the Daltons appeared. They were brothers named Joe, William, Jack, and Averell. Each one of them is taller than the previous one. The Daltons appear in several of the following albums, since they often succeed in breaking out of jail until Lucky Luke puts them back in.
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" were it was shown, they met Lucky Luke for the first time when they were kids.
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[edit] Joe Dalton
The smallest, oldest and most intelligent of the brothers. He is choleric, hates Lucky Luke and the stupid dog Rantanplan, whom he gets chained to numerous times to prevent breakout. Joe always goes insane when he sees Luke or even hears his name. When he is angry Averell is usually the one who gets beaten. His tallest brother also has a talent of annoying him and it takes a lot of effort to calm Joe down again.
[edit] Jack and William Dalton
The middle brothers have somewhat colourless personalities and are normally busy with calming Joe down to prevent him from attacking Averell. In the first comic, William was a master of disguise and Jack an arms maniac, but those character traits weren't kept. It's uncertain which is which. When they were introduced the first time, William was smaller than Jack, but some later comics changed this: in "Dalton City", for example, Jack is the smaller of the two. The mistake was originally made by Morris, who originally introduced William as the smaller but at the end accidentally called him Jack. In "Dalton City", "Le prophète" and "La légende de l'ouest", the smaller one, was shown getting drunk very quick.
[edit] Averell Dalton
Averell is the tallest, youngest and most stupid of the Daltons. Averell is obsessed with eating and keeps asking the question "When do we eat?", which serve to annoy Joe. Averell likes Rantanplan a lot because they both enjoy eating and are of equal intelligence (if their level of stupidity can even be called intelligent). It's either Averell or Rantanplan who get beaten by Joe, when he is angry. Averell is good-natured and he even has an honest side, which Lucky Luke has used numerous times to get the Daltons back to jail.
[edit] Other Daltons
Later stories also feature the mother of the Daltons. Unlike her sons, Ma Dalton was a popular character in her area and the locals agreed to keep her well stocked in food. Not wanting to appear to be an object of charity Ma would do her shopping with an old gun, the way her male relatives would rob a bank. Customers and staff would just raise their arms and serve her with a smile.
Ma later returned to actual crime, allowing her sons to dress up as her in order to rob the banks more easily (the bank managers hesitant to admit that they had been robbed by an old woman.)
She loves Averell the most and doesn't even hesitate to thrash a grown-up Joe.
Never appearing himself, but often mentioned, is the Daltons' father. Joe is supposed to be very much like him. He was a safe-cracker but decided to try out dynamite and was killed.
One story features Marcel Dalton, a bank owner living in Switzerland, a disgrace to the Dalton family, because of his honesty.
In the animated movie "Ballade of the Daltons", a Uncle Henry Dalton is mentioned and seen on a "Wanted" letter. A statue of him is also shown (he look much like Joe). He is referred to as a great bandit and inspiration and idol to Joe, Jack, William and Averell. In the movie the boys are told that Henry has passed away by hanging ("a natural death" as Joe puts it). His will stipulates that the boys inherit his fortune if they will kill the judge and jury which sentenced him to death.
[edit] Appearance in Albums
The Dalton brothers appeared in the following Lucky Luke albums:
- Lucky Luke contre Joss Jamon (11) [this plot is set after "Les Cousin Dalton"]
- Les Cousins Dalton (12)
- L'Évasion des Dalton (15)
- Sur la piste des Dalton (17)
- Les Dalton dans le blizzard (22)
- Les Dalton courent toujours (23)
- Les Dalton se rachètent (26)
- Tortillas pour les Dalton (31)
- Dalton City (34)
- Ma Dalton (38)
- L'Héritage de Ran-Tan-Plan (41)
- La Guérison des Dalton (44)
- Le Magot des Dalton (47)
- Daisy Town (51)
- La Ballade des Dalton et autres histoires (55)
- L'Amnésie des Dalton (60)
- Les Dalton à la noce (62)
- Marcel Dalton (67)
- Le prophète (68)
- La légende de l'ouest (71)
- La Corde au cou (72)
[edit] The Daltons in films
Several animated Lucky Luke films feature the Daltons, including:
- Daisy Town (1971)
- La Ballade des Dalton (1978)
- Les Dalton en cavale (1983)
In 2004 there was a movie titled Les Daltons which featured the Daltons as the main heroes. In the movie Joe, Jack, William and Averell find out about a magic sombrero which makes people invincible, and try to steal it in order to rob a bank. Lucky Luke was only an episodic character in the movie. Ma Dalton was in the movie as well, and she had three friends, all mothers of famous Western criminals (Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid). The movie got poor reviews. Many fans complained that it lacked the humour and the spirit of the original books.
