The man from Washington

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Rutherford B. Hayes

The man from Washington (French original title: L'homme de Washington ) is a Lucky Luke album by the Belgian artist Achdé . The volume, published as number 84 in the 2009 Ehapa comic series, was texted by Laurent Gerra . The volume caricatures the election campaign of the American presidential candidate and later President Rutherford B. Hayes before the election of 1876 .

action

Lucky Luke is called to Washington, DC , where he is told in the Senate that the state is on the brink of a second civil war unless an honest candidate becomes president. The official candidates are Samuel Tilden for the Democrats and Rutherford B. Hayes for the Republicans. Luke is supposed to protect Hayes, who has got it into his head to go on a campaign tour to the American West . But the Senate fears that it will not survive this, especially because a certain Perry Camby is also running for the Republicans and is getting his support through dirty money.

"Lemonade Lucy" Hayes, wife of Rutherford Hayes

So Luke travels west by train with Hayes, his wife, his servant, his secretary and his cook. The first stop is Columbus in Kentucky , the end of the "civilized world" at that time. While trying to have a drink in the saloon there, Lucky Luke can barely prevent the attack of a knife thrower. Lucy , the future First Lady , who is also called "Lemonade Lucy", is not at all happy that her husband is even in a saloon and gives him and Luke a hearty sermon. Since his actual election campaign appearance is ignored at all, he has posters printed for his arrival in the next town. But that goes very wrong and instead of a lot of listeners he suddenly has a lot of bounty hunters on his heels - the campaign posters were written in the form of a profile .

The next stop is Hermann , a place of German immigrants, including Oktoberfest with beer garden - but also with a stick of dynamite in the roast. When an attack is carried out on the train, Luke is certain that there is a traitor among Hayes' companions. Unfortunately, he can't make it out. To repair the train, Luke “obliges” some guys in Ku Klux Klan costumes who are about to lynch the black pianist Scott Joplin .

While performing in the music city of Memphis , Hayes is gunned down, but survives thanks to the hip flask in his jacket pocket. Finally, the group travels by stagecoach through the desert to Texas . After the obligatory torture stake scene , from which the travelers can buy their way out by offering them smuggled fire water (much to Lucy's displeasure), they finally reach the state of Texas. There Perry Camby is already campaigning and throwing promises and a lot of money around.

While a big debate is being organized, the candidates are campaigning properly. The debate then starts off rather one-sided, as Perry apparently paid people to sabotage Hayes' speeches and throw rotten fruit at him. However, the anger turns against Perry, as Luke the prompter is a "new" text to read aloud, in which it represents itself as a shameless exploiter of his position as president. When Perry notices what is being played, he tries to shoot Hayes, but to everyone's surprise he pulls faster and shoots the revolver out of Perry's hand. Now the traitor shows up: It was Vattel, the cook. However, his attempt on Hayes goes wrong because Luke removed the ammunition from his revolver.

Perry eventually flees to the Middle East to look for oil, and Hayes actually becomes the 19th President of the United States.

publication

The book Der Mann aus Washington was published in 2008 in the French original and in 2009 in the comic book format of the Ehapa publishing house, which is known in Germany . It counts as volume 84 of the series. The translation is by Klaus Jöken.

While the volume as a whole can be viewed as a caricature of an American election campaign in the 19th century, it contains many facts that could actually have happened in one way or another - such as Lucy's rejection of alcohol. Hayes was also the first president to travel west. In addition, the volume also contains allusions to modern America, for example in which Hayes Joplin draws attention to the fact that a Black could one day become president - when the volume was published in 2008, Barack Obama's election campaign was in full swing.

expenditure