Previewing ‘Rin Tin Can: The Godfather’ — More Of The Same Stupid, More Of The Same Brilliance

by Richard Bruton

Another perfect bit of Morris‘s comic craft in another ridiculously funny adventure of the world’s dumbest dog, Rin Tin Can.

Created by Morris and Rene Goscinny as a supporting character in Lucky Luke, Rin Tin Can (Ran-Tan-Plan in French) is simply the dumbest mutt in the world – and his adventures are just the silliest, funniest, and perfectly comedic things you’ll have read in some time.

I’ve already had plenty to say on the subject of Rin Tin Can and the first volume – both in a preview and a review. Here’s a little bit from the review…

“Rin Tin Can … thanks both to Goscinny’s writing and dialogue and Morris’ always sublime artistic skills, was, and is, funny. Very, very funny indeed.

Of course, Luke’s horse Jolly Jumper would completely disagree with that assessment. But on this one Jolly Jumper’s so wrong. Whether it’s the complete failure as a prison guard dog, the immense appetite for seemingly anything in front of him, the accidents, or the terribly misplaced devotion to Joe Dalton, one of the Dalton gang that he’s meant to be guarding most of the time, Rin Tin Can‘s appearances in Lucky Luke were always good for plenty of great gags.

So, a solo Rin Tin Can series was a natural next step. Launched 10 years after Goscinny’s death, Morris leans on writers and art assistants – but thankfully they’re all on board and make this pure Morris at his best. It’s funny, it’s fabulous cartooning, it’s just so damned good.”

Frankly, The Godfather is simply more of the same, set-up from the very beginning with a gag over Rin Tin Can mistaking the prison guard’s wages for Baklava. Look, it just happens, okay. You run with it and then let everything flow from that.

And what flows from that is just more of the same stuff, more complexities flowing from that first confused gag, prison escapes, Rin Tin Can misunderstanding what’s going on and making a break for it, finding a new home with a couple of sheep herders being targeted by wool thieves. As with the way of these things, the two robbers, Giuseppe and Aldo, are hunting for one very particular sheep, one particular sheep skin which happens to have a treasure map tattooed on it, all to try and get their dad out of jail.

And of course, as you’d expect, it’s Rin Tin Can that links all of these things, going from being the jail guard dog to the sheep herders’ guard dog (and being terrible at both) until eventually, through a magnificent series of gags and forced twists and turns, Rin Tin Can has a huge price on his head as the leader of the thieves.

That’s how Morris et al have put every one of these Rin Tin Can volumes together, much the same as the more out and out comedies in Lucky Luke would play out – just take an idea and spin it out, go off on as many flights of fancy you can imagine, going from one silly set-up to another, up and up and up in the stakes and the ridiculousness. But just because the basic DNA of every Rin Tin Can volume is essentially the same, doesn’t mean that each volume is anything less than a great read, playing around with the stupidity of the situations and just going for it.

On top of that, you have Morris on the art, heavily assisted by Janvier no doubt, seeing as this was first published in 1987 towards the end of his career, but still packed full of the great comedic chops that means there’s perfect comedy timing, great slapstick, wonderful sight gags, and plenty of really great long-running bits going on all the way through.

Yes, another essential book for your burgeoning Euro Comics collection right here.