Lucky Luke #36 Western Circus
Cover of the English edition
Series	Lucky Luke
Publisher	Dargaud
Creative team
Writers	Goscinny Morris
Artists	Morris
Original publication
Published in	Pilote
Date of publication	1970
Language	French
Chronology
Preceded by	Jesse James (1969)
Followed by	Canyon Apache (1971)

Western Circus is a Lucky Luke comic written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. It was originally published in French by Dargaud in the year 1970. English editions of this French series have been published by Dargaud.

Synopsis

Circus performers left New York City due to an enmity with real-life circus entrepreneur P.T. Barnum; but gambling drunkard (yet lovable) manager Captain Mulligan lost more and more of the circus in their tour, until they coincidentially meet Lucky Luke.

Zilch, rich organizer of a great annual rodeo, sees in the arrival of the Western Circus a harmful competition. He hires Rattlesnake Joe, a hit man, to put an end to it. In the end, the villainous Zilch and the kind director of the circus become partners and make a successful tour of Europe.

Characters

• Corduroy "Diamond Tooth" Zilch: The owner of the rodeo.
• Captain Erasmus Mulligan: Owner of the circus. modeled after actor W.C. Fields.
• Vanessa Mulligan: the owner's wife, a trapeze artist.
• Daphne Mulligan: daughter of the owner, a knife thrower.
• Zippy Kilroy (Zip): the owner's son-in-law, a clown.
• Andy: An Indian elephant. A recurrent joke in the story is that other characters had only seen elephants that were pink in color (a cliche hallucination of drunkards) - including the Indians.
• Nestor: A one-eyed lion who is always calm, except when nervous, named after Admiral Nelson who, like the lion, had lost one eye.
• Jules Framboise: French businessman.
• Rattlestnake Joe: Gun for hire.
• Lame Bull: Chieftain of a hostile tribe.
• Lulu Breechloader: Singer and artist (and a caricature of Mae West), she is said to have a reputation "because, they say, Joe Dalton was madly in love with her." This had happened in the album Dalton City.