Rantanplan is a fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

al hound dog

Dog

The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

 created by Belgian comics artist Morris

Morris (comics)

Maurice De Bevere , better known as Morris, was a Belgian cartoonist and the creator of Lucky Luke. His pen name is an alternate spelling of his first name.-Biography:...

 and French writer René Goscinny

René Goscinny

René Goscinny was a French comics editor and writer, who is best known for the comic book Astérix, which he created with illustrator Albert Uderzo, and for his work on the comic series Lucky Luke with Morris and Iznogoud with Jean Tabary.-Early life:Goscinny was born in Paris in 1926, to a family...

. Originally a supporting character in the Lucky Luke

Lucky Luke

Lucky Luke is a Belgian comics series created by Belgian cartoonist, Maurice De Bevere better known as Morris, the original artist, and was for one period written by René Goscinny...

series, Rantanplan later starred in an eponymous series. Rantanplan is a spoof of Rin Tin Tin

Rin Tin Tin

Rin Tin Tin was the name given to a dog adopted from a WWI battlefield that went on to star in twenty-three Hollywood films. The name was subsequently given to several related German Shepherd dogs featured in fictional stories on film, radio and television.-Origins:The first of the line Rin Tin...

, as idiotic as Rin Tin Tin is clever. English versions of the books have renamed him "Rin Tin Can" and "Bushwack" in the 1983 Hanna-Barbera Animated Lucky Luke television series.

Publication history

The character first appeared in the earliest panels of the story Sur la piste des Dalton, published on February 4, 1960 in the comics magazine

Franco-Belgian comics magazines

Belgium and France have a long tradition in comics. They have a common history for comics and magazines.In the early years of its history, magazines had a large place on the comics market and were often the only place where comics were published. Most of them were kids-targeted.In the 1970s,...

 Spirou

Spirou (magazine)

Spirou magazine is a weekly Belgian comics magazine published by the Dupuis company...

, and latter as an album in 1962. The character remained a fixture over a long series of Lucky Luke publications, resulting in a series of its own publications starting in 1987. Ten years after the death of Goscinny, for the production of the Rantanplan series, Morris collaborated with scenarists such as Jean Léturgie, Bob de Groot

Bob de Groot

Bob de Groot was born on 26 October 1941 in Brussels, to Dutch and French parents and is a Belgian comics artist and writer.-Biography:While still a young art student de Groot got his first comics experience as an assistant to Maurice Tillieux on Félix. He began creating shorter work for the comics...

 and Vittorio Leonardo

Vittorio Leonardo

Vittorio Leonardo, born in Italy in 1947, is a colorist of some famous Franco-Belgian comics series. He worked for the Spirou magazine, and founded the Studio Leonardo, which continued his work.-Biography:...

.

Character

Rantanplan is a prison guard dog often tasked with watching over the Dalton brothers

The Daltons (Lucky Luke)

The Daltons are fictional outlaws who regularly appear in the Lucky Luke comic book series and are recurrent villains. They were created by Morris and writer René Goscinny...

 or assisting Lucky Luke track them down each time they escape. However, he is unable to understand this (or anything much) and mistakes Joe Dalton, who hates him psychotically, for a beloved owner. As well as stupid, Rantanplan is incredibly slow and accident-prone, and cannot even swim.

Lucky Luke's horse Jolly Jumper

Jolly Jumper

Jolly Jumper is a horse character in the Franco-Belgian comics series Lucky Luke, created by Belgian artist Morris. Described as "the smartest horse in the world" and able to perform tasks such as chess-playing and tightrope walking, Jolly Jumper accompanies his master in their travels across the...

, a very intelligent animal, holds Rantanplan in contempt, regarding him as one of Nature's great mistakes.

Animated series

In 2006, the production company Xilam produced an animated series of Morris' Rantanplan stories in 90 second episodes, broadcast on France 3

France 3

France 3 is the second largest French public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5, and France Ô....

. It is broadcast in Canada on YTV under the name Rintindumb.

External links

• Rantanplan TV series official site