Blueberry



Blueberry is a Franco-Belgian Western comic series originally written by Jean-Michel Charlier and illustrated by Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Moebius). The title character is a veteran of the American Civil War who was later sent to the Wild West. Born Michael Donovan, he later changed his name to evade prosecution for a crime he was framed for.

When creating the series, Giraud was inspired by the time he had spent in the American West in the 1950s. The physical appearance of the character himself is based on French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. Already fairly realistic in the first episodes, the series took advantage of loosened censorship laws in 1968 to get Darker and Edgier, with more overt depictions of violence and sexuality. In 1973, Giraud decided to redefine himself as Moebius, leaving the series to Colin Wilson (not to be confused with the British writer), who then passed it on to Michel Blanc-Dumont. Giraud later came back to Blueberry as a scenarist, and after Charlier's death in 1989, took over writing duties.

A film adaptation was directed by Jan Kounen in 2004, focusing on Blueberry's experimentation with Native American shamanism and trance-inducing drugs.

Contains examples of the following tropes:

 * The Alcoholic: McClure.
 * American Civil War
 * Beauty Equals Goodness: Subverted with the appropriately-named Angel Face, a Bishonen Psycho for Hire.
 * Clear My Name: At least he gets blamed for crimes more than once...
 * Comic Book Fantasy Casting: The early version of the character closely resembles Jean-Paul Belmondo.
 * Expository Hairstyle Change: The comic takes a dark turn, and our hero loses his charmingly curling locks.
 * General Failure / Politically-Incorrect Villain: Blueberry usually has to deal with one of these every so often, often trying to make sure they don't end up riling the Native Americans for no damn reason.
 * Line-of-Sight Name: Blueberry's choice of assumed name came on the spur of the moment.
 * Rollercoaster Mine: In "La Piste des Navajos", Blueberry and McClure ride a chariot out of a collapsing mine.
 * Shout-Out : Corporal Blutch and Sergeant Chesterfield of Les Tuniques Bleues make an appearance in one album.
 * Spinoff Babies: A separate series relates Blueberry's years as a young soldier during the American Civil War.
 * Trippy Finale Syndrome: The film adaptation climaxes with a drug-induced trance.
 * Theme Naming: in universe, Eggskull names his dogs after biblical figures of evil. The first two are named Gog and Magog, the third one is named Baal.
 * The Western
 * You Fail History Forever : The album Trois Hommes Pour Atlanta features a monk. Seriously.