The film is loosely based upon the Blueberry, Lt. Blueberry and Marshall Blueberry comic series. They were written and drawn by Jean-Michel Charlier and Jean "Moebius" Giraud. While the film infuses mysticism and psychedelic imagery into the story, the comics were very much in the vein of classic spagetti western stories.
Of the original comic book cast, the only characters to fully carry over into the film were Mike S. Blueberry (only called "Mike" in the film), Wallace Blount (called Blount Wally in the comics), Jimmy McClure (Mike's deputy in the film, a prospector in the book) and Prosit (Who is quite a bit older in the comics).