Mac Coy

The character of Mac Coy first appeared in 1974 in the monthly magazine Lucky Luke, before being featured in other publications and eventually released as albums by Dargaud. French writer Jean-Pierre Gourmelen and Spanish artist Antonio Hernández Palacios recount the adventures of Alexis Mac Coy, a Confederate officer taken prisoner at the end of the Civil War, later rehabilitated by the Union and appointed sergeant major at Fort Apache, where he reunites with his loyal companion Charley. A long-running European Western, the series follows in the footsteps of Blueberry, with a hero more inclined toward conversation and a good drink than rushing headlong into danger. But it is above all Palacios’s artwork that left a lasting impression on readers: dense, sculptural drawing, created with vibrant direct colors and often enhanced by deep reds, which earned him the Yellow Kid Award at Lucca in 1974. Combining historical accuracy with spectacular visual storytelling, Mac Coy remains a benchmark of Franco-Belgian Western comics, carried by Palacios’s extraordinary artistic virtuosity.