After 70 years of life and almost 70 translated volumes, it was high time English-speaking readers were offered a hardback collected edition. For this first volume we chose to start with title that herald the golden age of the series. Doc Doxey's Elixir (including Manhunt) and Phil Wire (including Lucky Luke and Pill) were first published in 1955 and 1956, and already Luke is much closer to the cowboy that we now have in mind. The third volume, Rails on the Prairie, was the first collaboration between Morris and Goscinny - ushering in 30 years of a legendary collaboration.