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“Black lives matter” in the new “Lucky Luke”? For the first time in its 74-year history, a black main character appears in the current volume. What does this say about addressing racism and stereotypes in comics?
By Alex Jakubowski, hr
Bass Reeves was the first Black Marshal west of Mississippi. It actually existed. Also descended from slaves, he is said to have arrested several thousand gangsters in his career. Play a starring role in the new band “Lucky Luke”. Author Jul says: “In his day he was truly a myth, a legend of the Wild West. As American historiography erased all blacks – all those who did not fit the Hollywood legend – it was gradually forgotten.” So now he rides alongside the cowboy, who is firing faster than his shadow, in the conscience of politically correct readers.
After Lucky Luke was last allowed to drive in Paris, the author duo Achdé / Jul sent him on the road again, this time to Louisiana. He inherits a cotton plantation there, wants to hand the plant over to black workers and makes an unpleasant acquaintance with the racist Ku Klux Klan. Eventually he finds himself in a difficult situation, receives unexpected support from his eternal opponents, the Daltons, and finally has Bass Reeves by his side.
How do you play slavery in comics?
“We asked ourselves: what topic was never covered in Lucky Luke, what topic, what area?”, Says Jul. “There are many tapes of ‘Lucky Luke’ in which our cowboy meets another group of American society: the Italians, the Irish, the Chinese.” But the eighty volumes lacked Jews and blacks, according to the author. “The fact that this album is coming out right now is a coincidence, but perhaps it simply stems from the fact that the authors and illustrators of comics are drawing on current events, drawing on everything around them.”
The two authors have already dealt with Judaism in the volume “The Promised Land”. Now it comes to the history of slaves in the southern states, which of course is full of atrocities. Therefore it was not easy for the producers to keep the same line that characterizes a “Lucky Luke” album. In addition, there was a great danger of falling into stereotypes with the drawings of the figures. Similar to how this is still the case in “Asterix”, where the black pirate is depicted in the lookout with thick, red lips, or in earlier tapes of “Lucky Luke” himself.
The draftsman Achdé absolutely wanted to avoid this:
“Then I was very careful not to make the same mistakes that were made before, which were the expression of a certain time. Morris (the first artist of” Lucky Luke “) was criticized – albeit much later – for the Blacks in the band “Am Mississippi” have thick red lips, and so on. I didn’t want that. I wanted to show that it’s a population group like any other, just with a different skin color. “
New awareness of racism in comics
In fact, the cartoonist’s awareness has changed today. Excess drawings, as common in comics – as they are in caricatures – are reconsidered and used more consciously. Comics expert Volker Hamann says, “Fortunately, stereotypes in comics have declined in recent years and nowadays are mostly about classic comics, most of which are still timeless and readable beyond their problem areas – if the readers can correctly classify historically relevant facts and circumstances. “
Meanwhile, at least in comic circles, there is regular debate as to whether or not some cartoonists pursued racist motives with the portrayal of their characters. The best-known example is probably the discussion of the artist “Tintin” Hergé, whose 1930/31 comic “Tintin in Congo” provoked repeated debate. Racism in comics is also examined from a scientific point of view. And addressing it is reflected in the behavior of cartoonists today.
Lucky Luke meets Oprah and Barack
The way we deal with racism in comics has obviously changed over the decades, says Hamann: “Stereotypes, regardless of whether or not they are racially motivated, are always grateful triggers of humor, which fortunately it has also become more differentiated over the years. And this is where racism and defamation have no place. “
The current “Lucky Luke” wouldn’t be a real “Lucky Luke” if the album didn’t include present-day allusions. Achdé and Jul named two black children, Oprah and Barack. One wants to be a journalist, the other president of the United States. Since they are both allowed to go to school, something may actually come from their blossoming imaginations.
And as the Lonesome Cowboy rides as usual into sunset at the end of the comic, his partner Bass Reeves has a dream based on Martin Luther King: “That blacks will someday be treated like all Americans. That they will finally be freer. of their Shadows’ live. “
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