At 80 years old, Lucky Luke continues to captivate audiences through the exhibition "Lucky Luke Still Galloping," presented at Quai des Bulles. Curator Joub has revisited the entire series to explore the story of the Morris cowboy through drawing, color, gags, and motifs spanning eight decades of albums. The exhibition, designed as a public tour, focuses on drawing and printed comics, aiming to encourage rediscovery of the character rather than simply celebrating an anniversary. Joub emphasized the importance of themes over a purely chronological approach, though part of the exhibition retains a progression in time, highlighting the series' beginnings, the arrival of Goscinny, and subsequent authors.
The exhibition was a collaborative project involving Dargaud as a co-producer and partners such as the Amiens Comic Strip Meetings and the Belgian Center for Comics. In the central space, chronological order gives way to recurring motifs such as villains, the cavalry, saloon brawls, caricatures, and color. Joub aimed for a playful, maze-like experience, allowing visitors to move between pages, sets, hidden areas, and interactive elements like drawing and tracing tables. The goal was to encourage multiple ways of engaging with the work rather than opposing knowledge with play.
Joub also addressed the economic dimension of the series, acknowledging its status as a commercial machine while emphasizing the richness of its constructed universe. The abundance of secondary characters, recurring motifs, and rules presents both a resource and a constraint for authors, requiring them to remain within an identifiable framework while addressing contemporary issues. Homage albums allow for more creative freedom and shifts in the series' codes.
The exhibition's scenography prioritized the line, favoring two-dimensional elements and superpositions that create a sense of volume over a realistic reconstruction of the Wild West. Even when sets exist, they retain elements from the comic book, such as black outlines, drawn shapes, and bold colors. The exhibition includes narrative sequences rather than simply displaying documents, allowing visitors to examine original pages, gags, scenarios, or panel sequences.
The exhibition also considered the younger audience, with two reading heights: one for adults and another lower for children. This design ensures that children can engage with the exhibition at eye level, with spaces for games, a booklet, drawing, and folding activities. Audiences are not separated, allowing for a complementary and mixed experience.
Joub emphasized the importance of returning to the albums, encouraging both adults and children to rediscover the characters through the pages. Graphic elements such as color become more apparent, with Joub noting the strength of the color composition. The exhibition does not aim to exhaust Lucky Luke but to provide entry points—line, color, gags, characters, and different levels of reading—so that visitors can return to the albums with a new perspective.
Lucky Luke exhibition explores 80 years of the iconic comic series
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