A Lucky Luke Adventure #18

The cover of this eighteenth Lucky Luke adventure sets the tone perfectly: Lucky Luke himself — white hat, yellow shirt, red kerchief — sits in the desert dirt shackled by the ankle to a scowling, dark-hatted prisoner, the two of them wedged awkwardly against a towering saguaro cactus while a bleached cattle skull lies nearby. Morris's clean, expressive linework makes the comedic tension between the reluctant pair instantly readable, and paired with Goscinny's storytelling, *The Escort* promises exactly the kind of dry wit and Western absurdity that has made this Franco-Belgian series so enduring. A fine addition to Cinebook's English-language run of Lucky Luke albums.