Lonesome Cowboy

I’m Poor lonesome cowboy ….
And a long long way from home ……. 

What's in your mind when you found that verse? Loneliness? Wild-west emptiness? Well, listen, this is not about a sad story!! I'm not in the mood of talking about sadness. Come on, rejoice yourself and use your imagination!! 

Great, this is about Lucky Luke, the fictional character of Morris and Goscinny. Look, this is him, with Jolly Jumper (his horse as well as his best friend), and Rantanplan (prison guard dog that often follows Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper). Those three are totally cool and funny characters. Lucky Luke is the one cowboy who can shoot faster than his own shadow (I do like this imagination). While Jolly Jumper is the smartest horse in the world (according to the comic, and I can see it throughout the adventure), In contrast, Rantanplan is the dumbest dog in the world and even dumber than his own shadow (hahahaha).  

I remember these comic characters following my visit to the Crime and Punishment museum at DC last weekend. The part of wild-west characters in the museum opened my memory for Lucky Luke, especially when I found the pics of Jesse James and Dalton gang. Those two last characters were frequently appeared in Lucky Luke adventures. Check this out.

Real Dalton gang, Jesse James and the comics characters of Dalton brothers and Jesse James

Besides those two renowned characters, Lucky Luke also meets some other real wild-west characters such as Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Buffalo Bill, Sarah Bernhardt, and Calamity Jane. How cool is that?! I recall the stories of all wild-west characters from my childhood books (some are from comics entitled famous story album or album cerita ternama). The album is a series of world famous stories (translated into Bahasa Indonesia), including the story of Buffalo Bill or William Cody, the legend of Pony Express riders.

Yes, the adventure of Lucky Luke and Jolly Jumper reminded me the famous Pony Express, the fastest mail service in Great Plains, Rocky Mountain and California, which was based in St. Joseph Missouri. Before came to US, I don't even know where it was, in which part of America. Yet, three years ago, I was too much exited to pass a small town during the trip from Kansas City MO to Brookings SD (along I-29), which was named St. Joseph Missouri, and I found sign of Pony Express, cool huh? Besides Pony express, Lucky Luke also reminded me the Wells Fargo bank, as he was the guard of Wells Fargo stagecoaches.

Look, above pic is a stagecoaches. Does the pic link your thought to wild-west adventure? Yeah, for sure!! I took that pic at Wells Fargo office downtown DC. While the below snapshot I took it at ghost town SD (along I-90). The stagecoaches identical to Wells Fargo, the 4th biggest bank in US. A stagecoaches with six horses was the logo of Wells Fargo and mostly used for pic of their merchandises. And believe me, I knew Fells Fargo bank from the story of Lucky Luke and don't even know if that's real bank in US.

Other memorable characters in the story, beside Lucky Luke himself and Jolly Jumper, are Rantanplan and the Dalton brothers. The Dalton is real but a full of imaginative characters in the comic. especially Averell Dalton, the youngest and tallest Dalton who always hungry and even can eat soap when he wants to. Other is his eldest brother: Joe Dalton who is the shortest, the leader of the brother but has bad-tempered. Jack and William are the other two brother's members, yet they are not so memorable. Rantanplan loves Joe and feels bounded to him, but Joe doesn't feel the same way (hahaha). The comical Dalton brother is different from the real Dalton gang, though in reality they have a family relationship, including the Mom (whom also famous in the comic). Here are some books of Lucky Luke.

However, don't even think that the American familiar with the adventure of Lucky Luke, though the story is about the classical wild-west life. The comic is a Franco-Belgian comic, and popular mostly in Europe and Asia. I read this comic in Bahasa Indonesia, and don't even know that most places and names used in the adventure are real.

What I always remember: Lucky Luke rides Jolly Jumper (the well-known scene in the every end of their adventure), and they went toward the sunset and sang .....

I’m Poor lonesome cowboy ….
And a long long way from home ……. 

Hm ... honestly, the above verse does make sense for me, doesn't it?