Readers loved Morris' take on the western genre and his funny drawings, that were clearly still very much inspired by Disney and other American cartoons. His next short stories 'Lucky Luke and his horse Jolly Jumper' ('Lucky Luke et son cheval Jolly Jumper') and 'The Look-Alike of Lucky Luke' ('La sosie de Lucky Luke') were published in issue 503-527 in 1947 and collected in his first hardcover album, published two years later in 1949 (today, the short stories with Jolly Jumper are collected together with Morris' first story in the second book titled 'Arizona').
Working together with Franquin and Jijé, comic artists that made Spirou magazine such a great succes, they traveled overseas to the US in 1948, where they continued to draw their comics for Dupuis. Morris was the only one that stayed until 1955. It wasn' t in Belgium, nor France but in the US that he and René Goscinny met for the first time and talked about him taking over the scriptwriting for Lucky Luke. Goscinny, who would become world famous for his creation of 'Asterix' with Albert Uderzo in 1969, agreed and started writing for Lucky Luke with the story 'Rails on the Prairie' ('Des Rails sur la Prairie'), first published in Spirou magazine on August 25, 1955. It wasn't until their tenth collaboration on 'The Rivals of Painful Gaulch' ('Les Rivaux de Painful Gulch') in 1962 that Goscinny stepped into the light and received credit as the writer. Until then, every book had only mentioned Morris as the author, crediting him 'story and drawings by Morris'.
Below: Watchful eyes surely have seen Morris' signature in the last image of the page posted above, this time secretly mentioning a certain 'R.G' beside Morris, which of course was René Goscinny. Morris did it on every page of this story, but following stories don't mention Goscinny until his official first credit on 'The Rivals of Painful Gaulch' in 1962.
Below: Cover of the French first edition of 'The Rivals of Painful Gulch', clearly crediting Goscinny (click to enlarge). Right, Morris' signature on the first page of the story, clearly mentioning Goscinny as co-author, as it would be from then on (Dutch version).
'Phil Wire'
While most of Goscinny's stories for Lucky Luke were comedy driven, the stories that Morris himself wrote before 1955 were all typical westerns, resembling western movies and TV series that were so popular back then in the US.
One of the best examples of this can be found in the the last story Morris did himself, 'Phil Wire' ('Lucky Luke et Phil Defer'), which was the first story not published in Spirou. Instead, it appeared in 'Le Moustique' magazine issues 303 to 337 in 1954 (followed by the short story 'Lucky Luke et Pilule' in issues 338-346). The story, about two saloons in a very small town that compete with each other until one of them hires a gunfighter to end the fued, was taken directly from the succesful western 'Shane'. Produced by Paramount pictures in 1953, it starred Alan Ladd as Shane but most importantly, Jack palance, as the gunfighter who is hired to get rid of some farmers that come into conflict with local livestock owners. Not only did Morris take most of the plot, but also the likeness of the antagonist for his comic book. The movie, based on the 1949 book by Jack Schaefer, received six Oscar nominations, one of which was for Jack Palance. So it was definitely a movie that made a huge impression at that time.
Above: Cover of the Dutch edition of the comic book 'Lucky Luke and Phil Wire' with the scene where Phil enters the town and everybody, even the dogs, make for their escape. In the movie there are several situations where Palance enters a scene and scares the guard dogs away. Below: Jack Palance as the ruthless gunslinger hired to kill all settlers opposite actor Elisha Cook Jr.
In 1967, 'Shane' would again show it's impact on both Morris and Goscinny, as they created the 29th comic book in the series titled 'Barbed wire on the Prairie' ('Des Barbelés sur la prairie'). Like the movie 'Shane', it is about a group of ranchers trying to settle and grow crops, while the livestock owners in the surrounding area need the land to herd and graze their cattle. Just like in the movie, they try to scare off the farmers and trash their land several times. Numerous scenes from the movie made it directly into the book.
Above: cover and some images from 'Barbed wire on the Prairie', showing the cattle people mean business chasing the new settlers away by deliberately destroying their farm land. Below: two scenes from 'Shane' were local wannabe farmers are threatened, their crops trampled by their horses or by the livestock they run over their farm land.
Just like in the movie, the farmers in the comic book don't have any good fences to secure their property. The local saloon, which also serves as hardware store is reluctant to cooperate with them. In the movie, Shane helps the farmers and goes shopping for them, to make sure they get what they need and helps them to build barbed wire fences. In the comic book, it's Lucky Luke who goes to the local shop to make sure the farmers get their 'Barbed wire on the Prairie'.
By the way, later in the movie, Shane (alan Ladd) returns to the store, accompanying the settlers to secure their safety, and visits the saloon while waiting for their supplies. Instead of Whiskey he orders a soda, which is a huge joke to the rest of the cowboys at the bar. Of course it turns into a barfight where Shane gives the gangsters what they deserve. Morris used this as the basis for a second short story in 'Lucky Luke and Phil Wire', about a silly small guy who goes to the saloon and orders water instead of Whiskey. He's ridiculed for it, but then saves the town by accident from a bunch of gangsters and becomes the sheriff.
Above: Three movies based on the western novels by Jack Schaefer. 'Shane' in 1953, and 'Monte Walsh' in 1970. Funny enough, Jack Palance starred in both of them. In 2003, 'Monte Walsh' was remade for TV starring Tom Selleck. All frames from 'Shane' were taken from the recently released Blu-ray from Warner.
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