Joe, William, John "Jack" and Averell Dalton

Joe, William, John "Jack" and Averell Dalton, also known as The Daltons or The Dalton brothers, are fictional characters in the Lucky Luke Western comics series. They are four brothers and outlaws who are the most recurring enemies of protagonist Lucky Luke. The Daltons were created by artist Morris and writer René Goscinny. They were loosely inspired by the real-life Dalton Gang active in the United States in early 1890s. 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. 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