Lieutenant Blueberry

Lieutenant Blueberry (or simply Blueberry) is a French western comic series that began in 1963. by the scriptwriter Jean-Michel Charlier and the cartoonist Jean Giraud for the magazine Pilote that narrates the adventures of Cavalry Lieutenant Mike Steve Donovan, aka "Blueberry&# 34;, in his travels through the Old West of the United States. Blueberry is an atypical western hero: not a lawman who rides wandering bringing wrongdoers to justice, nor a handsome cowboy who rides into town, saves the ranch, is named the new sheriff, and marries the school teacher. In any situation, he sees what he thinks he has to do and does it. In 1981, the same authors created a second character whose adventures take place in the American Wild West: Jim Cutlass.

Jijé was going to be the cartoonist for the series, but he proposed Giraud, who was his student. Jijé did the cover for Fort Navajo (it's signed by him) and stood in for Giraud's Storm in the West for a handful of pages, while Giraud traveled to Mexico to become a Moebius. His are from the moment Blueberry escapes the Indians in the canyon until he returns to Fort Navajo and finds Crowe on the wall: all the cactus, Mexican, and Tucson part. He then came back to fill in for Gir in The Lost Horseman, which is almost all his own.

Trajectory

In Spain, these comics were also published in magazines such as Bravo, Gran Pulgarcito or Mortadelo by Editorial Bruguera.

After Jean-Michel Charlier died, Giraud took over the series, although the first of his scripts, a mix of western and fantasy titled Blueberry 1900, was rejected by the Belgian screenwriter's son.

Plot

In 1861 Mike Donovan, the son of a Southern Georgia planter, is accused of murdering the father of his fiancée, Harriet Tucker. Pursued by the real killer, a runaway slave helps him cross over to the northern lines just as the Civil War breaks out. He adopts the name Mike S. Blueberry and becomes a bugler in the cavalry regiment. Rowdy, fond of gambling, alcohol and women, he is an upright, bold and strategic soldier who rises to be named Lieutenant at the end of the Civil War.

The Lieutenant's adventures lead him to meet and save the life of Northerner General Dodge during the war. He will return the favor later, interceding for Blueberry with President Ulisses S. Grant. Blueberry will live for a time among the Apaches where she is known as Tsi-Na-Pah (Broken Nose) and will come to have the friendship of the Great Chief Cochise and the love of his daughter, Chini. Likewise, he meets and confronts the older Apache War Shaman, Gokhlayeh, later known as Geronimo, in an adventure that takes him to Tombstone where he meets Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday during the events of the OK Corral.

Among the female characters that appear in Blueberry's adventures, there is one that is the only one that obsesses him: the cabaret artist known as Chihuahua Pearl (also known as Lilly Calloway in other volumes).

Assessment

For Jean Giraud himself, the series has been very important, since, as he himself states,

With this series I learned the mechanisms of the narrative of the traditional comic. In addition, it has allowed me to maintain a long relationship with the public, because it is a well-known character, and has given me the possibility of living in a pleasant way. The books I sign like Moebius are sold much less, although curiously they have given me the greatest artistic reputation.

Albums

So far the adventures of Blueberry have been told to us in three series of albums:

• Blueberry

Finalised original series that would perform Charlier and Giraud until the death of the first, that would continue to perform Giraud solo performing also the scripts.

• The Youth of Blueberry

Still developing series that also started Charlier and Giraud, for the magazine "Super Pocket Pilote"in which they narrate the adventures of young Blueberry during the U.S. civil war, and that they have then been performing other authors both in scripts and in drawing.

• Marshall Blueberry

Series finished parallel and created by Giraud that guides, leaving the drawing to other artists.

Blueberry

The Apaches issue is marked #0 because chronologically it falls between Blueberry Youth and the first Lt. Blueberry book: Fort Navajo

Blueberry Youth

Marshall Blueberry

Other media

In 2004, an adaptation of the comic to the cinema (Blueberry. The Secret Experience) was made by Jan Kounen, which garnered little critical and public success and starred Vincent Cassel (Mike S. Blueberry), Juliette Lewis (Maria Sullivan) and Michael Madsen (Wallace Sebastian Blount). Contributed by Carlo de Boutiny.

Additional bibliography

• Martínez-Pinna, Eduardo (15 October 2004). Lieutenant Blueberry. Editorial book of a work that became franchise». Tebeosfer. First time (17). ISSN 1579-2811. Retrieved August 14, 2019.