Joe, William, Jack and Averell Dalton, known together as The Daltons or the Dalton brothers, are fictional characters in the Lucky Luke Western comics series. Four brothers and outlaws acting as the most recurring enemies to protagonist Lucky Luke, they were created by artist Morris and writer René Goscinny. Loosely inspired by the real-life Dalton Gang active in the United States in early 1890s (who themselves appeared in the 1954 Lucky Luke story "Outlaws"), The Daltons first had a one-panel cameo appearance in the 1958 comic Lucky Luke versus Joss Jamon, before being prominently featured later that year in the comic The Dalton Cousins (named as such because the four are billed as the cousins of their real-life counterparts within the Lucky Luke universe). While Morris depicted the real-life Dalton brothers as evil and successful, the fictional Daltons are dysfunctional, messy and less skillful. They are strictly identical except for height: Joe, the oldest and shortest brother, is the smartest and most cunning, while Averell, the youngest and tallest, is dumb and wholly incompetent; William and Jack, the middle brothers, have relatively colorless personalities and less dialogue than their other siblings. Their storylines often begin with the gang escaping from prison, followed by prison dog Rantanplan, and later Lucky Luke, as they try to carry out whatever plans Joe, or their mother Ma Dalton, has in mind; they are traditionally captured or back in jail by the end of the story. The characters have appeared in a variety of adaptations, including the 1984 animated TV series, the 1991 film, and the 1992 TV series; they even acted as protagonists of several derived works, such as the 2004 film Les Dalton and the 2010-16 TV series The Daltons. The original gang's appearance The "real" Daltons—Bob, , Bill and Emmett—appear in the Lucky Luke adventure "Hors-la-loi" written and drawn by Morris in 1951. Morris drew them absolutely identical in everything but height: Bob was the shortest and also portrayed as most dangerous (he led the historical gang), and Emmett was the tallest (also the youngest, historically). At the end of this adventure, all the Daltons are killed in an attempted double bank robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas. Historically, Bob and Grat were killed there, but Emmett survived severe wounds and was imprisoned for 14 years, while Bill did not take part at all. In a later Lucky Luke story, Emmett is shown as