The Daltons (Lucky Luke)

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The Daltons
The Daltons, from the top to the bottom: Averell, Jack, William and Joe. In earlier appearances (as well as the Xilam animated series), William and Jack swap sizes, making the order Averell, William, Jack and Joe.
Publication information
Publisher	Dupuis, Dargaud, Lucky Comics [fr]
First appearance	1958
Created by	Morris and René Goscinny

Joe, William, Jack and Averell Dalton, known together as The Daltons or the Dalton brothers, are fictional characters in the Lucky Luke Western comics series. Four brothers and outlaws acting as the most recurring enemies to protagonist Lucky Luke, they were created by artist Morris and writer René Goscinny. Loosely inspired by the real-life Dalton Gang active in the United States in early 1890s (who themselves appeared in the 1954 Lucky Luke story "Outlaws"), The Daltons first had a one-panel cameo appearance in the 1958 comic Lucky Luke versus Joss Jamon, before being prominently featured later that year in the comic The Dalton Cousins (named as such because the four are billed as the cousins of their real-life counterparts within the Lucky Luke universe).^[1]

While Morris depicted the real-life Dalton brothers as evil and successful, the fictional Daltons are dysfunctional, messy and less skillful. They are strictly identical except for height: Joe, the oldest and shortest brother, is the smartest and most cunning, while Averell, the youngest and tallest, is dumb and wholly incompetent; William and Jack, the middle brothers, have relatively colorless personalities and less dialogue than their other siblings. Their storylines often begin with the gang escaping from prison, followed by prison dog Rantanplan, and later Lucky Luke, as they try to carry out whatever plans Joe, or their mother Ma Dalton, has in mind; they are traditionally captured or back in jail by the end of the story.

The characters have appeared in a variety of adaptations, including the 1984 animated TV series, the 1991 film, and the 1992 TV series; they even acted as protagonists of several derived works, such as the 2004 film Les Dalton and the 2010-16 TV series The Daltons.^[2]