The Emperor of America

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The Emperor of America (French-language original title L'empereur Smith ) is a Lucky Luke comic, which was drawn by Morris and Goscinny was the text. The volume parodies the story of Joshua Norton (* 1811; † 1880), who actually declared himself "Emperor Norton I", "Emperor of the United States " and "Protector of Mexico " in 1859 . The German-language edition was published in 1976 as volume 14 by Koralle-Verlag (reprinted in 1989 as volume 57 by Ehapa-Verlag ).

action

Lucky Luke made a strange acquaintance in the city of Grass Town: Smith, the rancher, suffers from a Napoleon complex and has proclaimed himself “Emperor of America”. Like all of his loyal followers, he wears uniform, lives in a huge palace and, which Lucky Luke worries, has huge working artillery . While all other citizens, even his servants, who only play because of the payment, consider Smith a harmless madman, Luke is concerned about the numerous weapons and fears that the self-appointed emperor could abuse them. It soon turns out to be true: after hearing about the artillery, the coarse bandit Buck Ritchie enters Smith's service and is named "Prince of Phoenix ". Ritchie reveals to Smith what people actually think of him. To prove it, he sends Smith's right-hand man, Colonel Gates, into town to get all the money from the bank, whereupon Gates is laughed at by the bank director. Furious, the emperor lets himself be persuaded to raid the bank in retaliation. This provokes protests from the population, which is why Smith brought them to trial for high treason. For fear of him, the defendants claim to have always stood on his side, for which he accepts them into his service and assigns them titles of nobility. When Judge Barny, who has previously considered the emperor harmless, is the only one to give him his honest opinion, he is thrown into prison. Lucky Luke, exiled by the Emperor, sneaks into a party and kidnaps Smith. Buck Ritchie and Colonel Gates then decide that Gates is now the new emperor. Under Gates' leadership, the Imperial Army attacks the town of Longhorn Gulch, but Lucky Luke gets the soldiers to turn back by asking who should pay them now, since Smith is his prisoner and Gates is broke. Gates is defeated, but Ritchie returns with a cannon from the artillery to Grass Town to shoot open the new bank where he had deposited the money from the last imperial bank robbery and to take the money with him. Luke can prevent it by causing the cannon to explode with an aimed shot into the barrel. Afterwards, everyday life returns to Grass Town: the judge, who was previously disapproved of as an outcast, is celebrated, the former nobles apologize for their behavior and claim that they were only joking. Lucky Luke releases Smith, who is tied up in a hut, in the hope that his sanity will slowly return. Smith gives him a declaration of abdication before he, like his role model Napoleon , he notes, goes into exile.

literature

  • Morris, Goscinny: Lucky Luke - The Emperor of America ; From the French by Gudrun Penndorf; Egmont Ehapa Publishing House; Berlin 2009