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Recurring Antagonists
The Daltons
- See the Dalton Family page.
Billy the Kid
Voiced in French by: Guy Piérauld (Lucky Luke) | Donald Reignoux (The New Adventures of Lucky Luke)
Played by: Michaël Youn (Lucky Luke, 2009)
A teenaged outlaw who's been a criminal since he was 6 years old.
- Arch-Enemy: Lucky Luke's greatest and most recurring enemy after The Daltons.
- Berserk Button: Being treated like the brat that he is, rather than for the greatest outlaw he believes himself to be.
- Bratty Half-Pint: For all his villainous actions and how feared he is, in the end he really is just as immature as you'd expect from his age.
- Card-Carrying Villain: So much that people acclaiming him as a hero ended up putting him in a Villainous Breakdown.
- Characterization Marches On: Much like Calamity Jane, he made earlier cameos with a completely different design, portraying him as a Fat Bastard adult. Eventually this was dropped, and he was reintroduced as a slimier Enfant Terrible Psychopathic Manchild.
- Comedic Spanking: Luke can't exactly shoot him, so his go-to punishment before hauling Billy to jail is a thorough spanking.
- The Dreaded: Exaggerated; in his first appearance, he scared the crap out of people so much that nobody dared complaining about his actions, arresting him or putting him on trial. Later, in one book, he manages to rob people just by leaving a sign stating he is around. This causes people to leave their goods in front of the sign for him to take when he will be back.
- Enfant Terrible: This version of the character literally started his outlaw career as a child, and is still very young by the time he meets with Luke.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Played for laughs. He says that it's indecent to be nude in public, though his definition of nude means being without a gun.
- Evil Redhead: He is very evil, very evil-looking and very redheaded.
- Evil Is Petty: When Luke was taking him to New Mexico to stand trial for crimes he comitted there, he's warned to avoid the hot sauce at a restaurant, ignores the cook, and drenches his food in the sauce. He ends up draining three water troughs afterwards. After he manages to escape Luke and gets his hands on a gun, he goes back to the restaurant and forces the cook at gunpoint to drink two whole bottles of hot sauce before moving on.
- Faux Affably Evil: He was this to Luke at first, due to being amused by the fact Luke wasn't afraid of him. It quickly disappears when Luke gets the better of him.
- Green-Eyed Monster: He cannot stand being overshadowed by another outlaw, becoming jealous and hostile toward Lucky Luke after Luke feigns becoming a bandit and becomes more feared than him.
- Historical Domain Character: Based on the real life Billy the Kid, albeit a literal interpretation of his nickname.
- Kids Are Cruel: Committed his first robbery at the age of 6, and when he was punished for it by his father, he ran away from home and embarked on a life of crime.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Well, he is a real child, but the comic still tends to play up his childish antics as Comedic Sociopathy. He forbids a Saloon owner to sell anything else than lemonades and threatens a man with a gun so he would tell him a bedtime story, amongst other things.
- The Rival: With Joe Dalton, both compete with each other over who's the better outlaw and who is Lucky Luke's greatest enemy.
- Sweet Tooth: Unsurprisingly for a child, he loves candy.
- Teens Are Monsters: By the time of the comics present, he's 14 and a sadistic, thieving monster.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Red toffees.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: As a baby the only thing that could stop him from crying was using his dad's revolver as a sucker (wasn't loaded). At 6, he committed his first robbery and at his current age, about 14, he terrorized a whole town.
- Unknown Rival: He takes his feud with Lucky Luke far more seriously than Luke does, as Luke just views and treats him as a brat, even completely ignoring him when Billy threatened to shoot him while he was shaving and singing.
Jesse James
Voiced in French by: Francis Lax (Lucky Luke)
An ex-confederate soldier turned outlaw alongside his brother Frank, obsessed with the myth of Robin Hood.
- Alliterative Name: Jesse James.
- Badass Longcoat: Exaggerated in the movie.
- Beard of Evil: Which may or may not have anything to do with his fanboying of Robin Hood.
- Characterization Marches On: Though unlike Calamity Jane and Billy the Kid, his earlier portrayal actually did somewhat look like his final design.
- Demoted to Extra: After his album and being the Monster of the Week, he never again became the main threat and was always a minor recurring player. Even in the new animated series he only made a cameo at the end of the episode that was about the rivalry of Joe Dalton and Billy the Kid as a third possible candidate for the title of worst desperado.
- Historical Domain Character: Based on the real life Jesse James.
- Hypocrite: After he started using the Loophole Abuse.
- Just Like Robin Hood: He tries to be this, but his approach of it is... a bit too literal.
- Lean and Mean: Very skinny compared to most characters in the comic, and most definitely a bad guy.
- Literal-Minded: He took the concept to "steal from the rich to give to the poor" a bit too literally; whenever he gives money to a poor, that person instantly becomes rich in his eyes, causing him to steal from him. He ends up using a Loophole Abuse to share the money with his brother and his cousin, by having them taking turns in playing the "Poor" role.
- Wicked Cultured: Downplayed; he is a big fan of the Robin Hood book, which is pretty tame by today's standards, but considering he lives in a setting where literature isn't exactly common amongst outlaws, he is perceived as one. Played straight in the movie, where he frequently quotes Shakespeare. In his debut album, that was the trademark of his brother Frank making this version of the character a Composite Character.
One-Shot Antagonists
Elliot Belt
Voiced in French by: Patrice Baudrier (Lucky Luke) ; Éric Legrand (The New Adventures of Lucky Luke)
One of the most infamous and tenacious bounty hunters of the West.
- Ascended Extra: Appears more in the cartoons.
- Bounty Hunter: His job and a really unscrupulous one at that, ready to start a war with a nearby native tribe to get his bounty.
- The Cameo: He appears briefly in The Man from Washington as one of the bounty hunters after presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes.
- Chronic Villainy: Even he knows he wasted time turning over a measly bounty while he has a a bigger bounty to track but he can't help himself.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Based on Lee Van Cleef in his many western roles, perhaps most significantly Angel Eyes/Sentenza from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
- Cruel Mercy: At the end of The Bounty Hunter, Luke decides to let Belt go despite all the trouble he caused, and his repeated attempts at murdering him, because Belt now has a high price on his own head, and will know what it feels like being on the run for the rest of his life.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Not only does he not understand, nor does he care, why people hate him for turning in their friends and loved ones wanted by the law, sometimes for pathetic amounts of money, he doesn't understand why Luke isn't interested in teaming up with him.
- Hated by All: Bounty hunting is the most despised profession in the old west, considered even lower than outlaws, and Belt is the most hated of them all. He gets his bounty money thrown at his feet instead of it being to him from hand to hand, the saloon's The Chanteuse, her dancers and the piano player refuse to perform when he walks into the saloon, and the bartender just pours his drinks right on the table, because while the law says he has to serve Belt, it doesn't say he has to serve him in a glass.
- I Lied: In The New Adventures of Lucky Luke, he tricked the Daltons into turning themselves in to take the bounty for himself and left them to die by hanging.
- Loophole Abuse: While they may be enemies, Lucky Luke can't arrest him for bounty hunting, since he is technically on the law's side.
- Money, Dear Boy: In-universe example. The only thing he cares about is his profits, he doesn't even seem to mind he can't really enjoy the money since everyone hates him so much.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Exaggerated in the episode "For a Fistful Of Dalton" in The New Adventures of Lucky Luke, Belt appears bearing his usual name in "Lucky Luke Meets Lucky Luke". Later however, a character identical to Belt (as in, same character design, characterization, same horse with the same name and same voice actor) appears but is called "Rattlesnake". It could be justified, as the show being a sequel to the comics meant that Belt had to change his name to escape justice for what he did in his first appearence.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He's been like this ever since he was a child, constantly telling on his classmates for preferential treatment and rewards. He also held a child at gunpoint because he mistook a help wanted sign for a bounty.
"Dr." Samuel Doxey
Voiced in French by: Jacques Ferrière (Lucky Luke)
A travelling medicine salesman and self-proclaimed doctor, whose main product is a fake cure-all elixir.
- All-Natural Snake Oil: One of his scams, which he markets as not just all-natural, but tasty as well. It would be, since it's actually just lemonade.
- Beardness Protection Program: After escaping from prison following his first defeat by Luke, Doxey shaves off his beard and mustache, and changes his name to Oxide. It works for a while, until his cover is blown by a kid.
- Believing Their Own Lies: Despite being a charlatan, he delusionally views himself as a great doctor and benefactor of humanity.
- The Bus Came Back: He returns in the Animated Series episode, "Battle of The Doctors".
- Combat Pragmatist: He tries to surprise and eliminate Luke by feigning to have a broken arm, with a bandage only to shoot him with his arm hidden in it. Though it fails as Luke saw it coming and dodged before neutralizing Doxey.
- Evil Genius: While he is a charlatan, he is still an intellectual by western standards.
- Gargle Blaster: His original "miracle elixir", about the only medicinal thing about it is that it doesn't outright kill whoever drinks it, and not for lack of trying.
- Mustache Vandalism: Luke realizes who "Oxide" is when a child Doxey scammed draws a moustache on Doxey's picture on the side of his wagon, giving it the same mustache and beard Doxey had before shaving them off.
- Never My Fault: When any of they people he's scammed come for revenge, he calls them ungrateful for his "help".
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite being a charlatan and not being much of a fighter, he's not without cunning and he has enough chemical skills to improvise an explosive bottle which he used to knock Luke out and lose him.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: After escaping from prison, Doxey decides to change his identity... by shaving off his beard and changing his name to "Oxide", and nothing else, he even still wears the same clothes! Somehow, it still works, Luke doesn't recognize him when they meet again.
- Snake Oil Salesman: In the classic western tradition, Doxey's "elixir" is 100% nonsense, and he'll do anything to trick people into buying it, including poisoning the local water to make everyone sick.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Certainly, saying thank you to the passer-by who kindly lent you his horse to get you out of a sticky spot hardly exemplifies gratitude, when you run away with it immediately afterwards.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Not Doxey himself, but his assistant Scraggy, who disappears after the first part of the story. The animated version adds a scene where Doxey yells the alarm on Scraggy after they break out of prison to cover his own escape, and Scraggy later turns up again in the ending, now running his own snake oil scam after Doxey is recaptured by Luke.
Judge Roy Bean
Voiced in French by: Henri Labussière (Lucky Luke)
The self-proclaimed "law west of the Pecos" who runs a makeshift courtroom out of his bar in Langtry, Texas, despite not being an actual judge, nor a lawman of any kind.
- Bears Are Bad News: Has a tame bear who doubles as a bodyguard and enforcer.
- Cool Old Guy: Despite his old age he's a great gunslinger, who survived and escaped an encounter with an Amerindian tribe, who captured Lucky Luke twice, and knocked Luke out with a civil code book.
- Hanging Judge: Has a reputation as one, and his real-life counterpart was possibly an Ur-Example, but ultimately averted in-universe, as Bean never actually sentences anyone to death, mostly limiting himself to confiscating illegal bets (that he himself encouraged people to make) and cattle, though he also likes handing out prison and labor sentences for crimes he mostly make up on the spot. Bad Ticket, the judge who briefly replaces him, turns out to really be one of these. Bonus material explain that the real Roy Bean was mostly known to just fine people and charging five dollars a wedding.
- Karma Houdini: Is never really punished for his crimes, as Langtry didn't have any official judicial system set up, so even after the cavalry shows up to restore order, Bean is still the closest thing to an actual judge the town has, and gets to sentence himself. He does admittedly judge himself guilty of corruption and "being a no-good scoundrel", but his only punishment is hanging up his outdated lawbook for good, and settles down as a bartender.
- Never Learned to Read: Humorously, despite constantly quoting from an old civic code book, Bean is actually almost illiterate, and is just making everything up or accusing people of random terms he manages to decipher (like casus belli, leading the accused to claim they've never heard of Cassius Belly). Later he's seen reading the book in full, and is amazed to find that it's full of things that are interesting and even useful for a judge to know.
- The Nose Knows: He can smell cattle coming from miles away and know they aren't ones he had confiscated yet. His own bear is in admiration toward Roy's "predator instinct".
Joss Jamon's Gang
A group of ex-confederate soldiers who struck out on their own as outlaws after the end of the American Civil War. The group was led by Joss Jamon, and consisted of Bill The Cheater, Joe The Indian, Jack The Muscle, Steve The Wishy-Washy, and Sam The Farmer. The gang ends up on Luke's radar after they plunder the small town of Los Palitos and frame him for their crimes.
- Adapted Out: Sam the Farmer did not appear in the animated version, his role mostly taken over by Steve.
- Card Sharp: Bill The Cheater, in typical western style.
- Dirty Coward: Steve The Wishy-Washy, who is stated to have switched sides between the Union and the Confederacy dozens of times over the course of the war, depending on who was winning.
- Dumb Muscle: Jack, serving as Jamon's enforcer and eventually a Corrupt Cop.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Sam takes full advantage of his humble and trustworthy looks, making everyone think he's an honest farmer, while in reality he's a vicious criminal.
- Frame-Up: The gang manages to pin their attack on Los Palitos on Luke by having Sam claim he recognizes Luke as a member of the gang, and Luke only narrowly avoids being hanged by promising to bring the real criminals back to the town.
- Mayor Pain: Jamon sets himself up as the corrupt mayor of Frontier City, and gives cabinet positions to his henchmen.
- Opportunistic Bastard: Again, Steve, constantly joining up with whoever seems to be winning. Even tries to surrender and join Luke near the end, but Jamon was expecting this and just pulls a gun on him to force him to stay.
- The Bus Came Back: The gang make a return in a one-shot, Wanted Luck Luke.
- The Remnant: Ex-Confederate's turned outlaws.
- The Savage Indian: Joe The Indian, though the ending implies at least part of it might just be an act.
- Self-Deprecation: Steve is a caricature of Goscinny himself.
- Suddenly Speaking: Joe's dialogue consists entirely of "Ugh" for the entire album, only for him to suddenly deliver an eloquent monologue after the gang is cornered, including latin phrases.
- Token Minority: Joe the Indian is the only one who isn't white.
The O'Timmins and O'Hara's
A pair of feuding families whose incompetence and stubbornness might not lead to many fatalities on their rivals, but is slowly destroying their hometown of Painful Gulch.
- Altar Diplomacy: How the feud is finally settled for good, with intermarriage between the two clans. The son produced by this union, Aloysius O'Timmins-O'Hara (who had both the family traits), eventually became mayor of Painful Gulch and went on to become a Texas congressman.
- Berserk Button: The other family or anything related to it. Lucky Luke was chased from the O'Hara's farm just for having accidentally suggested that the O'Hara should get water from the O'Timmins' river, and had to flee the O'Timmins' farm with bullets flying around him, for saying that he went to the O'Hara's farm.
- The Clan: Both families are ridiculously large, each having at least dozens of members, which is helped by the fact that they are too poor shots to actually cause casualties to each other in their war. Both families are also led by their respective grandfather.
- Evil Is Petty: They take their rivalry so seriously that they do very petty things for it. For example they keep sabotaging or blowing up buildings and progresses that the other family can benefit from such as a bridge that gives a shortcut to the people of Painful Gulch. Also during a great drought where the O'Hara suffered the O'Timmins taunted them by swimming in their river, even with a sneeze.
- Feuding Families: A parody of the real-life feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families, but the O'Timmins and O'Hara's are so bad at it that they've never managed to actually kill any of their enemies.
- Heel–Face Turn: The families eventually settle the feud after working together to put out a fire at the O'Hara ranch.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: At least when they are firing guns at each other, neither family actually manages to hit their intended target. In one case that the mayor shows to Luke, three of one family caught one of the other family, put the poor sap against a wall and shot at him for fifteen minutes. Despite this, they only managed to produce a bullet outline.
- Lethally Stupid: The real problem with their feud is that all their sabotage and shoot outs only ends up hurting innocents because of how dumb and poor shots they are.
- Moral Myopia: They are perfectly willing to blow up building and other things that the other clan use or can benefit from, however when they learn that one building they tried to blow up was destroyed by the other clan first they treat it as an unforgivable crime. Both clans also accuse the other of being cheaters at the feast organised by Luke, even if both sabotaged the other during the rodéo contest, and also mock the other for their huge nose/ears.
- Motive Decay: Neither side even remembers what the feud was about in the first place, but they refuse to stop fighting.
- Pride: At first they refuse to take part in Lucky Luke's feast for Painful Gulch, but Luke just have to insinuate that they are just afraid of losing contests to the other farmers and they agree to participate.
- Sore Loser: To say that they take losing contests to the other family during the feast organised by Lucky Luke not very well would be a huge understatement.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Each family has a distinguishing physical trait for all their members; huge red noses for the O'Timmins and huge ears for the O'Haras.
- Women Are Wiser: The women of each clan are understandably sick of the endless feud, and are the main force behind eventually settling it.
Emilio Espuelas
A Mexican bandito who terrorizes the area just south of the Rio Grande.
- Accidental Kidnapping: He and his gang accidentally steal an armored wagon that was transporting the Daltons to a new prison, thinking it was a gold or money transport.
- Hostage For Macguffin: Espuelas preferred mode of operation; kidnapping people, usually foreigners since the natives are too poor to bother with for the most part and the rich landowners too well protected, and demanding ransom.
- Villainous Friendship: He genuinely care for and gets along with his men as he comforts one of his men who's been reduced to tears after trying to teach the Daltons how to sing with disastrous results, and stops him from hanging himself to escape their terrible singing.
- Villain Team-Up: Joe Dalton manages to talk him into one of these, much to his later regret, since it leads directly to his downfall.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Is increasingly flabbergasted at the Daltons clumsy and poorly thought out approach to crime, culminating in when they kidnap Lucky Luke (disguised as the real target) and finds out they didn't bother disarming him!
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In a step a little hastier than that, he prepares to hang the Daltons simply due to not finding any usefulness for them to begin with. Fortunately for them, Joe finds a reason good enough to convince even him to reconsider.
Whittaker Theater Troupe
A travelling group of actors, Whittaker Baltimore, Gladys Whimple, Barnaby Float and Francis Lusty, who specialize in melodramas, especially their own creation, The Dashing White Cowboy. Secretly, the actors uses the troupe as a cover to commit robberies in the towns they visit.
- Barefoot Poverty: Gladys does this for her role as "Linda" in "The Dashing White Cowboy" to show how poor Linda and her little brother are, wearing only a ragged dress and no shoes. Francis does the same when he's forced to play the role.
- Beneath Suspicion: The groups real leader isn't Whittaker, it's Francis Lusty, who's the one who came up with the whole scheme in the first place, even though he spends most of the story in the background and only has a handful of lines.
- Creepy Crossdresser: After the gang ends up in prison, Francis is forced into playing the Linda role when they put on shows for the other inmates, since Gladys wasn't arrested (and even if she was, would have gone to a women's prison).
- Dastardly Whiplash: Barnaby Float, who specializes in villain characters. He looks virtually identical to the trope namer. Expectedly he isn't quite as theatrical about his villainy in his real life.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: The money the villains have stolen is hidden inside the doll used to portray Gladys' baby brother in the play.
- Heel–Face Turn: Gladys Whimple, who eventually gets sick of her compatriots' criminal ways and returns to her old job as a saloon dancer.
- The Hero: Whittaker Baltimore, the gangs leader, specializes in these roles.
- Light Is Good: The title character of the play, who wears an entire cowboy outfit entirely in white to show what a good guy he is.
- Orphan's Ordeal: Linda and her baby brother were orphaned at some point before the play begins, leaving them in poverty and under constant harassment from Barnaby's villain character Mortimer, though they at least have the protection of The Dashing White Cowboy.
Cass Casey
A rich and influential cattle baron who demands total control of the prairie grasslands for himself and his cattle, harassing and attacking the farmers who try to set up their own homes there.
- Berserk Button:
- As Luke explains cattle barons like Cass see barbed wire as a personal insult. To the point nearby store and diligences refuse to bring the stuff as it will end up with them wrapped in their product.
Store owner: He [barbed wire vendor] sells only silk ropes now.- Also, insulting his cattle or the quality of their meat.
- Fat Bastard: Massively overweight and a real asshole at first.
- Heel–Face Turn: An unusually sudden one; after the farmers agree to share their well water during the drought for the cattle, winning over the other cattle barons, Casey reluctantly seems to realize what a jerk he's been and tells his mooks they just have to own up to it and hope the farmers are willing to forgive.
- I Gave My Word: The drought ends minutes after a peace agreement is reached, and Casey could just have ignored it, but at that point, he seems to have decided to change his ways.
- It's All About Me: "The prairie belongs to the cattle, and the cattle, that's me!"
- Real Men Eat Meat: Seems to subsist entirely on steaks, at the peace dinner at the end, he doesn't even seem to know what vegetables are.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The cattle barons absolutely do not have exclusive claims to the grasslands, but Casey uses his wealth and influence to basically make him the de-facto ruler of the area.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Villainous example, nothing infuriates him more than the farmers trying to divy up the prairie with barbed wire.
- Verbal Tic: When he's angry, Casey bellows like a bull.
Phil Defer
Voiced in French by: Henry Djanik (1983 animated series)
Also known as "The Spider", Defer is a very tall, gangly hitman hired by O'Sullivan, the corrupt owner of the Ace of Spades saloon, to kill his competitor O'Hara, only to come in conflict with O'Hara's friend Lucky Luke.
- Bowdlerisation: In the original version of the album, Luke actually shot him dead. In later editions, he's simply injured and left unable to hold a gun again.
- Career-Ending Injury: In the censored version, his hitman career is permanently ended by the shoulder injury Luke inflicts on him.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: His face was modelled after actor Jack Palance.
- The Dreaded: Is a very famous hitman whose reputation alone is enough to make most people run. His skills with his guns are also such that O'Hara tries to dissuade Luke from fighting him in a duel.
- Dub Name Change: In the English version, his name is Phil Wire.
- Expy: Of Jack Palance villain Jack Wilson from Shane.
- Fatal Flaw: He is very superstitious which Luke uses against him by putting a black cat, a skeleton, a old calendar with a friday the 13th on it and a bell which rings 13 times in O'Hara's saloon to terrify him.
- Gun Fu: He uses his thinness to his advantage by drawing his hand behind his back only to shoot at the other side. He is also capable of standing on his arms then draw them to shoot a target before putting his arms on the ground quick enough to not fall.
- The Gunslinger: He's an exceptionally fast and good gunman, actually enough to be an actual challenge to Luke. As a result Luke rather uses his cunning than his skills to beat him.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Enough to shoot targets with perfect accuracy despite standing on his hands.
- Lean and Mean: Shown as almost comically tall and skinny, especially for the 19th century, to the point that he's too tall for the bed he sleeps in.
- Meaningful Name: His punny name means "iron wire" and his body is thin, like a wire.
- Out-Gambitted: In his duel against Luke he chooses to wait until Lucky Luke has shot the six bullets in his gun before counterattacking. Unfortunately for him he had no way of knowing that Luke had the only seven-shot gun in the west, allowing Luke to defeat him.
- Professional Killer: The first hitman in the series.
- Punny Name: His name sounds like "fil de fer", meaning "iron wire".
- Red Baron: "The Spider"
Dean Smith, Emperor Of the United States
A wealthy rancher whose success and riches has made him delusional, making him believe he's the Emperor of the United States.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Genuinely believes himself to be the legitimate ruler of the U.S, and has his cowboys wear army uniforms and even issues edicts and currency for Grass Town to use.
- Decapitated Army: After Luke kidnaps Smith, his army realizes that with him gone, no one is paying them to keep up with this nonsense, and disperse, ending the rebellion.
- The Dragon: Gates, Smith's former cook and currently second-in-command, who's just as delusional as his boss is.
- Everyone Has Standards: When the judge is tried for "treason" and condemned to execution by firing squad by Gates, he directly addresses Smith and warns him that if he becomes an accomplice to his unlawful murder that his will soon follow and he will be hanged. Smith promptly reduces the sentence to life-imprisonment.
- Evil Chancellor: Buck Ritchie, a notorious outlaw, who drives Smith from a harmless eccentric to attempting to conquer the United States for real.
- Expy: Of Joshua Norton, the real-life self-proclaimed Emperor of the United States.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: While Smith was manipulated and not truly a villain, he was still far more antagonistic than his real life counterpart. Whereas Joshua Norton was considered a lovable coot who ultimately didn't do any harm and was popular with the citizens of San Francisco, Dean Smith is an antagonist who nearly went to war.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Smith never really snaps out of his delusion, but after his defeat, he seems to at least grasp that his actions were "a kind of madness", and agrees to formally abdicate and go into exile.
- Napoleon Delusion: Does not actually believe he is Napoleon himself, but takes a lot of his mannerisms, including his costume, his hand-in-jacket pose and other aesthetics.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: He didn't even really start out as a criminal, since the people of Grass Town mostly just humored him and his edicts, but once Buck Ritchie started influencing him, Smith quickly proved why a delusional man with a fortune and an army can be a real threat.
- Royal "We": Refers to himself with the "we" pronoun.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He doesn't knowingly do this since he genuinely believes himself to be the legitimate ruler of the U.S, but effectively does this since his wealth is why his men humor him and what allows him to take over Grass Town.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Knowing that Smith is genuinely mentally ill rather than evil, Luke kidnaps him and hides him away while he finishes up dealing with Ritchie. Afterwards, rather than arresting him, he lets Smith go, telling him that his "reign" is over and he has to go into exile. Smith agrees, hands Luke his official abdication declaration and leaves Grass Town, and the U.S, behind for good, disappearing into Mexico.
Jack Ready
A corrupt rancher and long-time rival of Luke's friend Baddy. After Baddy's death, Ready had hoped to finally buy up Baddy's land and add them to his own, only for Baddy's nephew Waldo, a "tenderfoot" from England, show up to claim his inheritance, something Ready refuses to accept.
- Dirty Coward: After he seemingly misses during the duel with Waldo at the end, Ready falls to his knees and begs for mercy, promising Waldo his lands if he's allowed to just walk away with his life.
- Duel to the Death: After his scheme is exposed, Ready is challenged to a duel by Waldo, but unlike the typical western "high noon" affair, it's in the traditional European style of ten paces, using flintlock pistols with only one bullet.
- Faking the Dead: After all his efforts to terrorize Waldo fails, Ready fakes his own death and frames Waldo for his murder, hoping that Waldo will either flee the territory or get lynched by the townspeople.
- Gave Up Too Soon: Thinking he had missed with his only bullet during the duel, Ready quickly gives up and begs for his miserable life. As Waldo reveals, Ready had actually hit him in the arm which is why he didn't shoot back, but his British Stiff Upper Lip meant he didn't show the slightest amount of discomfort at the injury.
- Glove Slap: Gets one courtesy of Waldo as part of his challenge.
- Luxurious Liquor: Only drinks expensive whisky imported from Scotland just for him, which tips off Luke that Ready is still alive and the town bartender is in on it, because the bottle in the saloon keeps decreasing despite Ready being the only person who can afford it.
- Tar and Feathers: After he loses, he's tarred and feathered before being chased out of town.
August Oyster
Voiced in French by: Francis Lax (Lucky Luke)
The owner of the local saloon in the town of El Plomo. Unbeknownst to the townsfolk or the nearby cavalry base, the saloon contains a secret tunnel that Oyster uses for smuggling weapons to a local Apache tribe. That is, until he runs afoul of Calamity Jane.
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: Idiotically bet his saloon in an arm-wrestling contest between Jane and his Giant Mook, not realizing that Jane is much stronger than she looks, even holding back at first just so she could rake it in from anyone else dumb enough to bet against her.
- Arms Dealer: His true profession, the saloon just being a valuable cover since selling guns to the indians is insanely illegal.
- The Dandy: While they were certainly around in the Old West, you wouldn't expect to find this kind of character in a frontier town like El Plomo.
- Dry Crusader: After he loses the saloon to Jane, he lies to the local women's teetotaler group about having a change of heart, and giving up his former life of vice and sin, hoping to use the group to get the saloon shut down so he can resume smuggling.
- Sissy Villain: In direct contrast to Calamity Jane, Oyster is a ridiculous dandy who dresses in a pink suit and douses himself in perfume. He's also not much of an action guy, relying on his Dumb Muscle minion for most physical tasks.
Frank Malone
Originally the guide for a caravan of pioneers heading to California, Malone tried to extort the groups leader, Andrew Boston, for more money when they were barely halfway, and when Boston refused, tried to shoot him, only to be disarmed by Lucky Luke who happened to be nearby. Humiliated, Malone swore revenge and hid himself in the caravan disguised as an old woman, waiting for an opportunity to strike back.
- Beneath Suspicion: There's no hint that the old woman is anything other than one of the unnamed members of the caravan.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Is absolutely determined that the caravan fail, or even better, all die out in the wilderness, all because he was angry at Luke and Boston.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Malone spends almost the entire story in disguise on one of the wagons, appearing on-panel several times throughout, but it's not revealed it's him until the climax.
- I Lied: Malone had already been paid quite a bit to guide the pioneers to California, but he still called a stop in the middle of nowhere and tried to blackmail them for even more money, knowing that they'd have no way of continuing without an experienced guide.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Has Luke in a perfect ambush position during the climax... and promptly missed all six bullets in his gun. Justified as he himself points out, since he's been sitting in a bumpy wagon knitting for weeks on end, so his hands were shaking like leaves.
- Vehicular Sabotage: Malone sabotages several of the wagons throughout the journey, including sawing through a wheel axel, cutting the harness for the horses, destroying the water barrels and blowing up the weapon supplies before entering indian territory, the latter two which could easily have resulted in his own death.
Bull Bullets
Voiced in French by: Francis Lax (Lucky Luke)
An outlaw working of Senator Orwell Stormwind, a corrupt U.S Senator, living high off his employers dime and serving as a go-between for Stormwinds illegal alcohol and weapon sales to the indians in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. When a project to open up the Hills for settlement is proposed, Bullets is tasked with making sure the expedition fails by any means necessary.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Tries to prove that the "firewater" he's been selling the Indians is perfectly fine by drinking a whole bottle of it by himself, then drunkenly slurring about how he can "take on any man in this here saloon" (they're in an Indian camp in the middle of nowhere at the time). He then tries fighting Lucky Luke, and can't even land a single hit on him, even though Luke is standing still right in front of him.
- Arms Dealer: He's the one doing all the selling for Stormwind's operation.
- The Chessmaster: Well, for an outlaw, he sure knows how to pull a few strings on someone else's account.
- The Dragon: Bullets is really just the right-hand man for Stormwind, but he still serves as the The Heavy for The Black Hills.
- Non-Action Guy: He does eventually get his hands dirty, but only as an absolute last resort. Normally, he prefers using sneakier tactics such as traps, ambushes, theft, and hiring other people to do the work for him.
Patronimo
The chief of an Apache tribe that is feuding with the cavalry garrison led by Colonel O'Nolan, Patronimo is intent on continuing the Indian Wars, and blames the colonel for the loss of his father Bisteco, the tribe's original chief.
- Ascended Extra: The Animated Adaptation feature him in some other episodes than his own, sometimes as an ally to Lucky Luke.
- Boomerang Bigot: Despite his hatred for the white man, Patronimo is actually half-white, as his father Bisteco was actually a Bohemian named Laslo Byztek, who had been kidnapped as a child and reared among the Apaches as one of them. He had grown tired of the endless bloodshed years ago and returned to Europe, but Patronimo refused to follow him.
- Category Traitor: When he finds out that the tribe's medicine man is actually O'Nolan's long lost son, having been reared by the Indians since childhood, he wants to execute him immediately just for being white, despite having spent his life as an Indian.
- The Savage Indian: He acts like a normal person for the most part, but wholeheartedly embraces the stereotype when dealing with the cavalry in his desire for revenge against the white man.
- Trap Is the Only Option: Since O'Nolan refuses to deviate from regulations by going around the titular Apache Canyon, because doing so would not be taking the shortest route, Patronimo always stages a trap there by dropping boulders on their wagons, and the cavalry always destroys their camp in retaliation afterwards. Both sides know that the traps are coming, and know how to avoid it, but refuse to stop.
Denver Miles and Colorado Bill
A pair of card cheats and scam artists who have a tendency of getting themselves tarred and feathered for their crimes, only to immediately go right back to their craft in the next town over. When they accompany Luke to the abandoned boom town Gold Hill, they see yet another business opportunity.
- Burn the Witch!: One of their plans to get rid of Powell is convincing the townsfolk they saw Powell performing black magic and try to get him lynched.
- Card Sharp: Both of them, though Miles is better at it than Bill.
- The Con: Their plan is to buy Powell's seemingly worthless mine, salt it with gold, and then cash in on the resultant inflated value. Problem is, Powell refuses to sell it.
- Dirty Coward: Big words come easily out of both of them when they have an even bigger crowd to hide behind.
- Obviously Evil: For a supposed Con Man Bill can never resist the impulse to bet, lie and cheat whenever the opportunity seemingly presents itself, even when it turns that it is mostly an opportunity to expose himself even further.
- The Runt at the End: Colorado is seen in Daisy Town as the last member of a bunch of tougher thugs, as they break their bottles to gang up on and stab Lucky aaand he fails and keeps trying to for the entirety of the brawl, until Lucky Luke helpfully breaks it for him, on his head.
- Tar and Feathers: They're introduced this way, and it's not the last time.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Our cowboy offering them a free ride only serves to make him a mark in Denver's eyes, to rob blind in the dead of the night.
Otto Von Hiimbergeist
A visiting scientist from Austria, who's a pioneer in the fledgling field of psychology and psychiatry, Von Hiimbergeist has theorized that crime is a mental disorder that can be cured through therapy, and has come to the United States in the hopes of testing his theories on some of the worlds most notorious outlaws — the Daltons.
- All Psychology Is Freudian: Despite predating Freud himself, the ending even mentions that Hiimbergeist's work will go on to influence Freud (who's still a child by this point in time).
- Berserk Button: He doesn't take being called crazy well at all.
- Evil Feels Good: One of the reasons for him becoming an outlaw is that he finds it far more exciting than life as a honest man.
- Face–Heel Turn: His goals were noble at the start, but spending enough time around the Daltons makes Hiimbergeist decide that the outlaw life is far more exciting than his chosen profession and decides to become a criminal himself.
- Freudian Excuse: Ironically as he tries to cure others of theirs, he has his own. It's implied that he always wanted to become a rich man, but that his strict intellectual father prevented from going into business as he wanted, which was only made worse by him being penniless after university. Exposition to the Daltons and their backstory reawakened his frustrations and greed, and caused him to become a criminal.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He managed to cure Averell of his outlaw ways, which Lucky Luke uses to have Averell causing him and other Daltons caught. Lucky Luke was also able of finding him and the Daltons in part thanks to a man he had cured of his alcoholism, with the man starting to make conferences against the dangers of alcoholism, and telling Luke about a bank having been robbed under mysterious circumstances in one of the towns he went to.
- Karma Houdini: Downplayed as he gets arrested by Luke and is sent to prison, but thanks to his talents as a psychologist and manipulator he's able of making his stay in prison very comfortable with him manipulating the guards into doing his work while he relaxes.
- Manipulative Bastard: He uses his psychology techniques to great efficiency after becoming a criminal, using them to make bankers willingly open their safes and giving him and the Daltons the money. He later uses it in prison to make the guards do his work while he rests.
- Pride: After becoming a criminal he becomes furious when anyone questions his genius, methods and role as gang leader and he takes Luke with him and the Daltons on one of their robberies just to prove them after Luke called him crazy.
- Psycho Psychologist: Not at first, but once he decides to become a criminal himself, it applies. He even uses his psychology techniques for crime.
The Anarchist
An unnamed anarchist assassin who serves as the main threat in The Grand Duke, having followed Grand Duke Leonid from Russia to the United States with the intention of murdering him for political reasons while the Duke is unprotected on foreign soil during his diplomatic trip.
- Bomb Throwing Anarchist: An almost exact replica of 19th century caricatures of anarchists, right down to his clothes and weapons.
- Butt-Monkey: He might be a violent, murderous terrorist, but it's hard not to feel bad for him, nothing goes right for him.
- Catchphrase: "Missed!", or rather "Неудауа!".
- Eat the Rich: As a member of the anti-tsarist movement, he's very much in favor of violently murdering the rich, nobility especially.
- Mad Bomber: His preferred weapon, even though they have a tendency to backfire on him.
- Sheathe Your Sword: Has a perfect shot at taking out the Duke right at the end... then overhears that thanks to the success of the trip, the Duke will recommend that the Tsar himself make a visit to the U.S in person. The Anarchist quickly decides to spare the Duke, passing up his original target in exchange for a much higher-profile one.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: In the animated adaptation, he eventually becomes rich when one of his failed attempts to blow up the grand duke reveals that a seemingly exhausted gold mine in fact still contains gold. With his new fortune, he decides to let the Duke be and starts a new life.
- Unknown Rival: Due to his ridiculously bad luck, neither the Duke or Lucky Luke ever even notice that the Anarchist is following them on their journey, or his constant attempts at killing them.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: He insists on continuing to try and take out the Duke through the use of explosives. At the end of the story, he finally wises up and tries his luck with a firearm... only for what's detailed under Sheathe Your Sword to happen.
Barry Blunt
A Texas lawyer turned would-be oil baron, Barry Blunt is the leader of a gang of claim jumpers trying to seize control over the oil wells in the small town of Titusville through force, and there is no one around who can stop him because almost every person in authority has deserted their jobs to look for oil.
- Amoral Attorney: He was debarred and is technically not a lawyer anymore, but he's certainly still a scumbag who uses his extensive knowledge of the laws to avoid openly breaking any. That makes it incredibly difficult for Luke to pin anything on him.
- Arch-Enemy: With Colonel Drake, the man who first discovered the oil deposits.
- I Own This Town: Due to the lack of authority in the town, Blunt is able to essentially conquer it with his gang since there's no organized authority to stop him.
- Too Dumb to Live: Keeps rehiring his henchman Bingle, despite Bingles insistence on getting re-arrested, because he found oil under his cell when he was in prison the last time.
Derek Flood
A disgraced former soldier and deserter from the 20th U.S Cavalry Regiment, Flood has set himself up as an arms dealer and allied himself with the local Cheyenne tribes led by Yellow Dog.
- Arms Dealer: Has been selling weapons to the Indians on top of all his other crimes.
- Dangerous Deserter: An unrepentant thief, smuggler and murderer who thinks nothing of assisting the Cheyenne in massacring his former comrades.
The Boss and Double-Six
A diminutive card cheat and his dim-witted henchman from Poker Gulch, The Boss and Double-Six realize that the newly invented "one-armed bandit" (aka the slot machine), a creation by the gadget-obsessed Caille brothers, will put the livelihoods of crooked gamblers like themselves in jeopardy, since machines can't be hustled, and set out to destroy the machine by any means necessary.
- Card Sharp: While Double-Six can't be trusted to play a game of solitaire by himself, The Boss is a card cheat through and through, to the point that when Luke shakes him upside-down to disarm him, his jacket turns out to be full of ace cards.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: The Boss is a caricature of famous French actor Louis de Funès, while Double-Six is one of Patrick Préjean
. - Dumb Muscle: Double-Six might as well be the guys IQ score.
- Evil Luddite: The Boss wants to destroy the prototype slot machine, because it threatens his career as a cheating gambler, as machines can't be cheated or hustled the way human dealers can.
- Heel–Face Turn: In what is likely the most abrupt one in the history of the series, the Boss is offered employment by the Pony Express after one of their managers see how fast he can get around while riding Double-Six. With the promise of a fair wage and three meals a day, the Boss immediately decides to abandon his former life as a cheating gambler, and instead turns over a new leaf as a Pony Express deliveryman, using Double-Six as his mount.
- Hidden Depths: Despite barely being able to walk upright, Double-Six turns out to be incredibly quick on his feet, to the point that he's able to outrun Jolly Jumper, much to the shock of Jolly and Luke.
- No Name Given: Double-Six only ever refers to his employer as "Boss", and it's the closest thing to a name he's given.
- Sapient Steed: After Luke scares off their horses and strands the two in the wilderness, the Boss starts using Double-Six as his new steed, which surprisingly turns out to be very effective.
Captain Lowriver
Captain of the riverboat "Asbestos D. Plower", with a questionable past and more than willing to use every low-down trick to get rid of the competition so he will have the Mississippi to himself.
- Pirate: Captain Barrows calls him this, and he certainly has the methods of one. At one point he forces his passengers at gunpoint to dig his stranded boat out, and in the final stretch he dumps all his remaining passengers in Memphis, even those that had paid for the full trip to St. Louis.
- The Rival: Of captain Barrows of the "Daisy Belle", a straightforward honest captain.
- Tim Taylor Technology: Ultimately tries to win the boatrace by disabling the safety valve of his steam engine. This does not end well for him.
- The Unfought: He never confronts Lucky Luke directly, relying on hired goons instead.
Cards Devon
The first of Lowriver's hired goons, a notorious gambler and con man.
- Card Sharp: Is a cheater and crook, which is why Lowriver hired him to delay the "Daisy Belle", by playing with Bang, the Daisy Belle's mechanic, and making him lose all of his money so he would be too busy trying to get his money back instead of helping the "Daisy Belle" catch up with the "Asbestos D. Plower".
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Gets in a fist fight with Lucky Luke, which is over before anyone can place their bets.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: What Lucky Luke uses on him to get him to admit he was hired by Lowriver.
Hardhead Wilson
The second of Lowriver's hired goons, a notorious brawler.
- Achilles' Heel: He's ticklish, which is what ultimately defeats him.
- Crushing Handshake: He gives one to Lowriver after agreeing to work for him.
- The Dreaded: Nearly everyone is afraid of him for good reasons due to his strength and aggressive nature. His sole presence is enough to make the Daisy Belle's crew wants to desert until Luke promises to protect them.
- Mugging the Monster: After Luke manages to throw him in the river, an alligator attacks him. He headbutts it unconscious without a sweat.
- No-Sell: Lucky Luke's hardest punches have almost no effect on him.
- Super-Strength: Can throw large bales of cotton hard enough to flatten Lucky Luke against a wall, using only one hand.Lucky Luke: A good thing the Daisy Belle isn't transporting scrap iron. That... hurt.
- Super-Toughness: He's so tough that Luke's best punches can only make him tickle. His head is also extremely hard to the point that it can damage machines and deflect bullets.
- Use Your Head: As his name implies, his head is nearly invulnerable and he can do serious damage with a headbutt.
Explosion Harris
The third of Lowriver's hired goons, a saboteur specializing in making bombs. The Animated Adaptation renames him to "Slag" and makes him Lowriver's permanent sidekick.
- Ascended Extra: In the original, he appears in just a few pages, but the animated version expanded his role.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: When Lucky Luke calmly returns his 'lost' suitcase to him, orders a drink, sits around for a bit and unhurriedly leaves, he becomes convinced that Luke already found and disabled the bomb inside. Turns out this was not the case.
- Mad Bomber: As his name implies.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Naturally.
Pistol Pete
The fourth and final goon hired by Lowriver, a gunman and hired killer.
- Alliterative Name: Pistol Pete.
- Berserk Button: He can't stand having his gunman skills being questioned, which is how Luke defeats him by questioning his skills so he would waste his bullets into proving his aiming abilities.
- Counting Bullets: Lucky Luke captures him by tricking him into wasting all his bullets on trick shots.
- The Dreaded: All the other clients of the hotel where he resides have left because of his presence and people fear for Lucky Luke's life when he goes to confront him and run when he orders them to leave him alone with Luke.
- The Gun Slinger: Is an excellent gunman, to the point that captain Lowriver and many others believe that he can actually kill Lucky Luke. However Luke outplay him by tricking him into wasting his ammo on trick shots.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Can pierce coins and cut cards in the air with his bullets.
- Mugging the Monster: Even without his gun he proves to be too tough for an alligator.Lucky Luke: Good riddance. But aren't there alligators around here?
Captain Barrows: Yes... Not their lucky day, Pistol Pete is tough.
Alligator: I've been bitten by a human... - Professional Killer: Seems to have been in the game for a long time and with fixed prices one should add.
Mad Jim
An early enemy of Lucky Luke who happens to look exactly like him.
- Criminal Doppelgänger: Not only does he look just like Luke, but he dresses just like him too.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Jolly Jumper immediately can tell Mad Jim is not the real Luke as he tries to ride him. In fact, he is used to tell Jim and Luke apart later on.
- Killed Off for Real: He's the only villain Luke is known to have actually killed (Phil Defer was Spared by the Adaptation, and Bob Dalton's death was dropped at the sketching stage).
- Starter Villain: One of the earliest enemies ever faced by Luke, and the first notable one. He was preceded only by the somewhat forgettable Cactus Kid, Big Belly, and Cigarette Caesar.
Coyote Will, Beastly Blubber and Dopey
A trio of opportunistic criminals and land grabbers, using the colonization of Oklahoma as an opportunity to illegally grab all the best land for themselves.
- All for Nothing: The villains scheming turns out to be completely pointless as the poor land and arid climate of Oklahoma isn't suited for traditional settlements. It is rich in oil, but it wasn't a useful resource at the time.
- Creepy Mortician: After Dopey's heel-face turn, the local undertaker replaces him. He's one of the few undertakers in the series to actually join the bad guys instead of merely hoping that they will be good for business.
- Dumb Muscle: Both Blubber and Dopey serve as this for Coyote Will. Dopey gets better.
- Grew a Spine: Dopey after being elected mayor.
- Heel–Face Turn: In one of the best arcs of the series, Dopey goes from a Dumb Muscle mook to an honest politician with Luke's support. He completes it by turning on his former boss even after everything falls apart.
- Mayor Pain: Coyote Will was depending on Dopey serving as this for him after he's elected mayor of Boomtown, but Luke convinces Dopey to be an honest leader.
- Nominated as a Prank: Dopey's candidacy for mayor is considered hilarious by everyone. But since half the town is running and there are no clear favorites, people vote for him as a joke. He wins in a landslide.
- You Keep Using That Word: After things start going downhill, Coyote Will's newspaper keeps using the word "infamous" to describe Mayor Dopey. Will admits that people not knowing what it means is what makes it so effective.
Soapy Smith
A con man who runs the saloon in Skagway, sells worthless claims to the gold diggers there and operates a fake telegraph line, almost exactly like his historical counterpart. Luke encounters him when he and Waldo come looking for Waldo's old friend Jasper who went missing after finding gold.
- The Artifact: The name "Soapy" was a nickname given to the real-life Smith thanks to his prize soap racket in Denver in the late 1870's, where he sold bars of soap with dollar bills supposedly hidden in the wrapping as prizes (and the only people who ever got these "prizes" were his henchmen). This is not explained in the story, which takes place almost 20 years later after Smith set up shop in Klondike to take advantage of the gold rush.
- Engineered Public Confession: Luke manipulates him into admitting his telegraph is fake in front of the gold diggers.
- Historical Domain Character: A comic-book version of con artist and gangster Jefferson Randolph Smith II, aka "Soapy" Smith.
- Not Me This Time: Although he did sell Jasper a worthless claim and serves as the main antagonist of the story, he is actually not responsible for Jasper's ultimate disappearance.
- Running Gag: During every confrontation Luke forces him to twirl his gun around his finger, in the end making his trigger finger too swollen to actually operate his gun.
Quincy Quarterhouse
Also known as Q.Q., he's a rich asshole and Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan Lucky Luke comes into conflict with after inheriting a plantation.
- Alliterative Name: Quincy Quarterhouse.
- The Dreaded: As a member of the KKK and a psychotic plantation owner, black people are afraid of him.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: His racism prevents him from realizing that men like Luke don't view the world the same way he does and thinks that they're mad for not sharing his hatred of black people.
- Evil Versus Evil: He and the other KKK end up in a fight with the Daltons during the climax, with Joe strangling Quincy. It's one of the few times where the audience is expected to root for the Daltons.
- Killed Off for Real: It's all but stated that he was eaten by an alligator after the hurricane at the album's climax.
- Near-Villain Victory: He is about to burn Luke at the stake when the Daltons intervene, mistaking him and the other Klan members for a Native American tribe and buy Bass Reeves enough time to arrive with The Cavalry.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a Grand Wizard of the KKK and former slave owner.
- Slave Brand: He used to brand his slaves with "Q.Q.", which is why he's just called that by the black plantation workers.
Black Bart
One of several outlaws that try to rob the Wells Fargo gold shipment in The Stagecoach, and the one who came the closest to doing so, Black Bart is an unusually intelligent and sophisticated outlaw, and one of very few villains to get the drop on Lucky Luke.
- Adapted Out: He's not in the Animated Adaptation, his role being subsumed by Sinclair Rawlins.
- Affably Evil: He's very polite for a gangster, and even grants Jeremiah Fallings' request to take a photo of him.
- The Dreaded: Is far more feared by the Wells Fargo than any other outlaw, to the point that even with Lucky Luke's protection Hank Bully fears a confrontation with him and that the Wells Fargo has the gold transported in secret in another diligence. Even Luke himself treats him with more caution than the other criminals.
- Evil Genius: He's actually just a grade school teacher, but considering that the average western outlaw can't even read, Black Bart's education puts him far ahead of the curve. He makes a dummy of himself in the middle of the road, allowing him to ambush Luke, and likes to compose poetry for his crimes.
- Historical Domain Character: Based on the real-life Black Bart, AKA Charles E. Boles.
- Karma Houdini: Flees when Luke disarms him, and manages to escape the heroes since he knows the area better than they do. It would be several years before the law caught up with him.
- Secret Identity: Black Bart is in reality a mild-mannered teacher named Charles Boles, though none of the characters find this out.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Wears a hood and robe to disguise his real identity.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Underneath his mask, Black Bart is a skinny, middle-aged man with a moustache and a receeding hairline.
Sinclair Rawlins
A humble, travelling minister who joins the characters on their journey to San Francisco in The Stagecoach, hoping to spread the Good Word on the way - or so he claims. In reality, Rawlins is an outlaw, and the leader of the criminals that try to ambush the stagecoach at several points, hoping to steal the gold shipment it carries.
- Adaptation Expansion: His role is expanded in the Animated Adaptation, where he's the biggest threat faced by the characters instead of Black Bart.
- All for Nothing: The gold wasn't even on the stagecoach in the first place, being transported to San Francisco by other means while all the attention as on the coach, making all of his efforts pointless.
- Book Safe: His bible is hollowed out and hides a gun.
- Conviction by Contradiction: Luke figures out he's fake by the fact that he only has some basic surface knowledge about his own religion and doesn't know what he's talking about.
- Preacher Man: Pretends to be one, and even dresses the part. It's all a lie.
Abraham Locker
A psychopathic prison warden obsessed with locking people and animals up, he wants to use the site of the Statue of Liberty for a high-security prison instead and thus has the attempts to transport the statue to the US from France sabotaged.
- Expy: A very blatant expy of Donald Trump.Darn taco-munchers. We oughtta build a wall between our countries.
- Hate Sink: One of the very few villains to make Lucky Luke himself genuinely angry.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He ends up locked up in his own prison.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Unlike the typical Lucky Luke villain, he leaves all the dirty work to hired hands. In fact, there isn't an indication that he ever left his prison during the story's events.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He is openly racist, and he hates the very concept of freedom.
D.T Zilch
A wealthy businessman and organizer of the popular Fort Coyote Annual Rodeo, Zilch is willing to resort to drastic measures to ensure that ringmaster Erasmus Mulligan and his Western Circus won't be any competition for his rodeo.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Zilch has a large gap in his upper front teeth, which he covers with a large diamond. Unfortunately, it has a tendency to get knocked loose, and he talks like this without it.
- Heel–Face Turn: Zilch and Mulligan end up as business partners after the climax, when a visiting French businessman proposes that the rodeo and the circus merge together as a travelling Western show. The album ends with the group preparing for a tour through Europe.
- Removing the Rival: Zilch goes to extremes to get rid of Mulligan and his circus, including sending a hitman after them and inciting an Indian attack.
