Given that Journal Spirou was suffering from the absence of Morris’s Lucky Luke, which had been shelved since the summer of 1953, Paul Dupuis suggested to Joseph Gillain, aka Jijé, that they ought to think about creating a Western. Jijé has just turned forty and his visit to the USA and Mexico had focused his mind on wide open spaces, and here was a whole new historic chapter beginning for him!“Monsieur Paul Dupuis said to me one day: ‘What’s lacking in Spirou is a good Western. You’re good at drawing horses. You should do one!’ Paul Dupuis has always had a sharp eye, you know, and not only for the business side of things” (interview with Jijé conducted by A. Leborgne, J. M. Dehousse and J. Hansenne in 1975, published in HOP no. 40).So it was that, on 4 March 1954, Jerry Spring and Pancho made their grand entrance in the pages of Spirou no 829. It was at the time that Franquin was publishing his "Le Dictateur et le Champignon" (The Dictator and the Mushroom), Peyo his "Maître de Roucyboeuf" (Master of Roucyboeuf), and Will his suspenseful "Oscar et ses Mystères" (Oscar and his Mysteries)...The album appeared the following year under the title Golden Creek and qualified for a hardcover edition. The back cover was to carry this night scene under the Milky Way worthy of the very best illustrators of Westerns.This legendary scene is one of the 9th art’s most iconic images and one of the most iconic ever published by Éditions Dupuis. Jijé dedicated it to Thierry Martens, celebrated editor of Journal Spirou from 1968 to 1978, also known as the “Monsieur Album” of Éditions Dupuis, comic strip historian and expert, and author of a number of books and articles on the subject.