Trivia

In 1988, after Morris had his "poor, lonesome cowboy" quit smoking (after 40 years and dozens of albums) -- replacing Lucky Luke's trademark cigarette with a just-as-ubiquitous blade of grass -- he (the Belgian artist, not Luke) was awarded a medal from the World Health Organisation.

In 1993, Morris won the special 20th anniversary Grand Prix of the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême.

Creator of "Lucky Luke" comic books. Over 300 million copies sold world wide.

He cites animator Walt Disney as an influence on his work.

In his youth, Morris attended the well-known Jesuit college in Aalst. His math teacher told his parents the youth would unfortunately never succeed in life, as he passed math classes doodling in the margin of his math books. The student uniforms required there inspired his choices for those of the undertakers in his "Lucky Luke" comics.

Morris stayed in the United States for six years (1948-1954). He went with fellow cartoonists Jijé and André Franquin to see the country and to meet American comic artists.

Morris started his career after college drawing in the Compagnie Belge d'Actualités (CBA) animation studios. This was a small and short-lived Belgian animation studio, where he met fellow artists Peyo and André Franquin.

Morris had a deep fascination with the Wild West, and his trip to the States provided him with enough documentation to adapt his "Lucky Luke" comic (as well as get him in touch with his collaborator René Goscinny in the States, who in the 1950s was still relatively unknown.

Morris was one of the so-called "La bande des quatre" (Gang of 4), with Jijé, André Franquin, and Willy Maltaite. He did not work at Jijé's studio, unlike the other two, but all four became very good friends, stimulating each other artistically.

He met Jack Davis and Harvey Kurtzman while in the US, and assisted them with founding their Mad magazine at EC Comics.

Morris' "Lucky Luke" stories often featured fictionalized versions of 19th-century historical figures, but the stories often combined figures and events from different decades. Lucky Luke (the titular protagonist) has been depicted assisting young journalist Horace Greeley in the 1830s, joining the Pony Express in the 1860s, serving as a bodyguard of Sarah Bernhardt in her 1880-1881 American tour, taking part in Oklahoma's Land Rush of 1889, killing the original Dalton gang in 1892, and taking part in the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s. Luke never ages, and his appearance remains the same despite the stories being set in different eras.