Asterix
Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix is a French bande dessinée series about Gaulish warriors, who have adventures and fight the Roman Empire during the era of Julius Caesar. The series first appeared in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote on 29 October 1959. It was written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo until Goscinny's death in 1977. Uderzo then took over the writing until 2009, when he sold the rights to publishing company Hachette; he died in 2020. In 2013, a new team consisting of Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad took over., 38 volumes have been released, with the most recent released in October 2019.
Description
Each Asterix comic starts with the following introduction:The year is 50 BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium...The series follows the adventures of a village of Gauls as they resist Roman occupation in 50 BCE. They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid Getafix, which temporarily gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonists, the title character Asterix and his friend Obelix, have various adventures. The "-ix" ending of both names alludes to the "-rix" suffix present in the names of many real Gaulish chieftains such as Vercingetorix, Orgetorix, and Dumnorix.
In many of the stories, they travel to foreign countries, though other tales are set in and around their village. For much of the history of the series, settings in Gaul and abroad alternated, with even-numbered volumes set abroad and odd-numbered volumes set in Gaul, mostly in the village.
The Asterix series is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world, with the series being translated into 111 languages and dialects.
The success of the series has led to the adaptation of its books into 13 films: nine animated, and four live action. There have also been a number of games based on the characters, and a theme park near Paris, Parc Astérix. The very first French satellite, Astérix, launched in 1965, was also named after the comics character. As of 2017, 370million copies of Asterix books have been sold worldwide, with co-creators René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo being France's best-selling authors abroad.
History
Prior to creating the Asterix series, Goscinny and Uderzo had previously had success with their series Oumpah-pah, which was published in Tintin magazine.Astérix was originally serialised in Pilote magazine, debuting in the first issue on 29 October 1959. In 1961 the first book was put together, titled Asterix the Gaul. From then on, books were released generally on a yearly basis. Their success was exponential; the first book sold 6,000 copies in its year of publication; a year later, the second sold 20,000. In 1963, the third sold 40,000; the fourth, released in 1964, sold 150,000. A year later, the fifth sold 300,000; 1966's Asterix and the Big Fight sold 400,000 upon initial publication. The ninth Asterix volume, when first released in 1967, sold 1.2 million copies in two days.
Uderzo's first preliminary sketches portrayed Asterix as a huge and strong traditional Gaulish warrior. But Goscinny had a different picture in his mind, visualizing Asterix as a shrewd, compact warrior who would possess intelligence and wit more than raw strength. However, Uderzo felt that the downsized hero needed a strong but dim companion, to which Goscinny agreed. Hence, Obelix was born. Despite the growing popularity of Asterix with the readers, the financial backing for the publication Pilote ceased. Pilote was taken over by Georges Dargaud.
When Goscinny died in 1977, Uderzo continued the series by popular demand of the readers, who implored him to continue. He continued to issue new volumes of the series, but on a less-frequent basis. Many critics and fans of the series prefer the earlier collaborations with Goscinny. Uderzo created his own publishing company, Les Editions Albert-René, which published every album drawn and written by Uderzo alone since then. However, Dargaud, the initial publisher of the series, kept the publishing rights on the 24 first albums made by both Uderzo and Goscinny. In 1990, the Uderzo and Goscinny families decided to sue Dargaud to take over the rights. In 1998, after a long trial, Dargaud lost the rights to publish and sell the albums. Uderzo decided to sell these rights to Hachette instead of Albert-René, but the publishing rights on new albums were still owned by Albert Uderzo, Sylvie Uderzo and Anne Goscinny.
In December 2008, Uderzo sold his stake to Hachette, which took over the company. In a letter published in the French newspaper Le Monde in 2009, Uderzo's daughter, Sylvie, attacked her father's decision to sell the family publishing firm and the rights to produce new Astérix adventures after his death. She said:
... the co-creator of Astérix, France's comic strip hero, has betrayed the Gaulish warrior to the modern-day Romans – the men of industry and finance.
However, René Goscinny's daughter, Anne, also gave her agreement to the continuation of the series and sold her rights at the same time. She is reported to have said that "Asterix has already had two lives: one during my father's lifetime and one after it. Why not a third?". A few months later, Uderzo appointed three illustrators, who had been his assistants for many years, to continue the series. In 2011, Uderzo announced that a new Asterix album was due out in 2013, with Jean-Yves Ferri writing the story and Frédéric Mébarki drawing it. A year later, in 2012, the publisher Albert-René announced that Frédéric Mébarki had withdrawn from drawing the new album, due to the pressure he felt in following in the steps of Uderzo. Comic artist Didier Conrad was officially announced to take over drawing duties from Mébarki, with the due date of the new album in 2013 unchanged.
In January 2015, after the murders of seven cartoonists at the satirical Paris weekly Charlie Hebdo, Astérix creator Albert Uderzo came out of retirement to draw two Astérix pictures honouring the memories of the victims.
List of titles
Numbers 1–24, 32 and 34 are by Goscinny and Uderzo. Numbers 25–31 and 33 are by Uderzo alone. Numbers 35–38 are by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad. Years stated are for their initial album release.- Asterix the Gaul
- Asterix and the Golden Sickle
- Asterix and the Goths
- Asterix the Gladiator
- Asterix and the Banquet
- Asterix and Cleopatra
- Asterix and the Big Fight
- Asterix in Britain
- Asterix and the Normans
- Asterix the Legionary
- Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield
- Asterix at the Olympic Games
- Asterix and the Cauldron
- Asterix in Spain
- Asterix and the Roman Agent
- Asterix in Switzerland
- The Mansions of the Gods
- Asterix and the Laurel Wreath
- Asterix and the Soothsayer
- Asterix in Corsica
- Asterix and Caesar's Gift
- Asterix and the Great Crossing
- Obelix and Co.
- Asterix in Belgium
- Asterix and the Great Divide
- Asterix and the Black Gold
- Asterix and Son
- Asterix and the Magic Carpet
- Asterix and the Secret Weapon
- Asterix and Obelix All at Sea
- Asterix and the Actress
- Asterix and the Class Act
- Asterix and the Falling Sky
- Asterix and the Picts
- Asterix and the Missing Scroll
- Asterix and the Chariot Race
- Asterix and the Chieftain's Daughter
- Non-canonical volumes:
- * Asterix Conquers Rome, to be the 23rd volume, before Obelix and Co. - comic
- * How Obelix Fell into the Magic Potion When he was a Little Boy - special issue album
- * The Twelve Tasks of Asterix - special issue album
- * Uderzo Croqué par ses Amis - a comic
In 1996, a tribute album in honour of Albert Uderzo was released titled "Uderzo Croqué par ses Amis", a volume containing 21 short stories with Uderzo in Ancient Gaul. This volume was published by Soleil Productions and has not been translated into English
In 2007, Les Editions Albert René released a tribute volume titled Astérix et ses Amis, a 60-page volume of one-to-four-page short stories. It was a tribute to Albert Uderzo on his 80th birthday by 34 European cartoonists. The volume was translated into nine languages., it has not been translated into English.
In 2016, the French publisher Hachette, along with Anne Goscinny and Albert Uderzo decided to make the special issue album The XII Tasks of Asterix for the 40th anniversary of the film The Twelve Tasks of Asterix. There was no English edition.
Synopsis and characters
The main setting for the series is an unnamed coastal village in Armorica, a province of Gaul, in the year 50 BC. Julius Caesar has conquered nearly all of Gaul for the Roman Empire. The little Armorican village, however, has held out because the villagers can gain temporary superhuman strength by drinking a magic potion brewed by the local village druid, Getafix. His chief is Vitalstatistix.The main protagonist and hero of the village is Asterix, who, because of his shrewdness, is usually entrusted with the most important affairs of the village. He is aided in his adventures by his rather corpulent and slower thinking friend, Obelix, who, because he fell into the druid's cauldron of the potion as a baby, has permanent superhuman strength. Obelix is usually accompanied by Dogmatix, his little dog.
Asterix and Obelix go on various adventures both within the village and in far away lands. Places visited in the series include parts of Gaul, neighbouring nations, and far away lands.
The series employs science-fiction and fantasy elements in the more recent books; for instance, the use of extraterrestrials in Asterix and the Falling Sky and the city of Atlantis in Asterix and Obelix All at Sea.
Humour
The humour encountered in the Asterix comics often centers around puns, caricatures, and tongue-in-cheek stereotypes of contemporary European nations and French regions. Much of the humour in the initial Asterix books was French-specific, which delayed the translation of the books into other languages for fear of losing the jokes and the spirit of the story. Some translations have actually added local humour: In the Italian translation, the Roman legionaries are made to speak in 20th-century Roman dialect, and Obelix's famous Ils sont fous ces romains is translated properly as Sono pazzi questi romani, humorously alluding to the Roman abbreviation SPQR. In another example: Hiccups are written onomatopoeically in French as hips, but in English as "hic", allowing Roman legionaries in more than one of the English translations to decline their hiccups absurdly in Latin. The newer albums share a more universal humour, both written and visual.Character names
All the fictional characters in Asterix have names which are puns on their roles or personalities, and which follow certain patterns specific to nationality. Certain rules are followed such as Gauls having an "-ix" suffix for the men and ending in "-a" for the women; for example, Chief Vitalstatistix and his wife Impedimenta. The male Roman names end in "-us", echoing Latin nominative male singular form, as in Gluteus Maximus, a muscle-bound athlete whose name is literally the butt of the joke. Gothic names end in "-ic", after Gothic chiefs such as Alaric and Theoderic; for example Rhetoric the interpreter. Greek names end in "-os" or "-es"; for example, Thermos the restaurateur. British names end in "-ax" and are often puns on the taxation associated with the later United Kingdom; examples include Valuaddedtax the druid, and Selectivemploymentax the mercenary. Other nationalities are treated to pidgin translations from their language, like Huevos y Bacon, a Spanish chieftain, or literary and other popular media references, like Dubbelosix.Most of these jokes, and hence the names of the characters, are specific to the translation; for example, the druid named Getafix in English translation - "get a fix", referring to the character's role in dispensing the magic potion - is Panoramix in the original French and Miraculix in German. Even so, occasionally the wordplay has been preserved: Obelix's dog, known in the original French as Idéfix, is called Dogmatix in English, which not only renders the original meaning strikingly closely but in fact adds another layer of wordplay with the syllable "Dog-" at the beginning of the name.
The name Asterix, French Astérix, comes from astérisque, meaning "asterisk", which is the typographical symbol * indicating a footnote, from the Greek word αστήρ, meaning a "star". His name is usually left unchanged in translations, aside from accents and the use of local alphabets. For example, in Esperanto, Polish, Slovene, Latvian, and Turkish it is Asteriks. Two exceptions include Icelandic, in which he is known as Ástríkur, and Sinhala, where he is known as සූර පප්පා, which can be interpreted as "Hero".
For explanations of some of the other names, see List of Asterix characters.
Ethnic stereotypes
Many of the Asterix adventures take place in other countries away from their homeland in Gaul. In every album that takes place abroad, the characters meet stereotypes for each country, as seen by the French.- Italics are the inhabitants of Italy. In the adventures of Asterix, the term "Romans" is used by non-Italics to refer to all inhabitants of Italy, who at that time had extended their dominion over a large part of the Mediterranean basin. But as can be seen in Asterix and the Chariot Race, in the Italic peninsula this term is used only to the people from the capital, with many Italics preferring to identify themselves as Umbrians, Etruscans, Venetians, etc. Various topics from this country are explored, as in this example, Italian gastronomy, art, famous people, and even the controversial issue of political corruption.
- Goths are disciplined and militaristic, they are composed of many factions that fight amongst each other, and they wear the Pickelhaube helmet common during the German Empire.
- Helvetians are neutral, eat fondue, and are obsessed with cleaning, accurate time-keeping, and banks.
- The Britons are phlegmatic, and speak with early 20th-century aristocratic slang. They stop for Tea every day, drink lukewarm beer, eat tasteless foods with mint sauce, and live in streets containing rows of identical houses. In Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia the Britons all wore woollen pullovers and Tam o' shanters.
- Hibernians inhabit Hibernia, the Latin name of Ireland and they fight against the Romans alongside the Britons to defend the British Isles.
- Iberians are filled with pride and have rather choleric tempers. They produce olive oil, provide very slow aid for chariot problems on the Roman roads and adopt bullfighting as a tradition.
- When the Gauls visited North America in Asterix and the Great Crossing, Obelix punches one of the attacking Native Americans with a knockout blow. The warrior first hallucinates American-style emblematic eagles; the second time, he sees stars in the formation of the Stars and Stripes; the third time, he sees stars shaped like the United States Air Force roundel. Asterix's inspired idea for getting the attention of a nearby Viking ship is to hold up a torch; this refers to the Statue of Liberty.
- Corsicans are proud, patriotic, and easily aroused but lazy, making decisions by using pre-filled ballot boxes. They harbour vendettas against each other, and always take their siesta.
- Greeks are chauvinists and consider Romans, Gauls, and all others to be barbarians. They eat stuffed grape leaves, drink retsina, and are hospitable to tourists. Most seem to be related by blood, and often suggest some cousin appropriate for a job.
- Normans drink endlessly, they always use cream in their cuisine, they don't know what fear is, and in their home territory, the night lasts for 6 months.
- Cimbres are very similar to the Normans with the greatest difference being that the Gauls are unable to communicate with them. Their names end in "-sen", a possible reference to Danish author Hans Christian Andersen.
- Belgians speak with a funny accent, snub the Gauls, and always eat sliced roots deep-fried in bear fat. They also tell Belgian jokes.
- Lusitanians are short in stature and polite.
- The Hindi have elephant trainers, as well as gurus who can fast for weeks and levitate on magic carpets. The men wear pagri, and they always bathe in the Ganges river.
- Egyptians are short with prominent noses, endlessly engaged in building pyramids and palaces. Their favorite food is Lentil soup and they sail feluccas along the banks of the Nile River.
- Sumerians, Akkadians, Hittites, Assyrians, and Babylonians are perpetually at war with each other and attack strangers because they confuse them with their enemies, but they later apologize when they realize that the strangers are not their enemies. This is likely a criticism of the constant conflicts among the Middle Eastern peoples.
- The Jews are all depicted as Yemenite Jews, with dark skin, black eyes, and beards, a tribute to Marc Chagall, the famous painter whose painting of King David hangs at the Knesset.
- Numidians, contrary to the Berber inhabitants of ancient Numidia, are obviously Africans from sub-Saharan Africa. The names end in "-tha", similar to the historical king Jugurtha of Numidia.
- The Picts wear typical dress with a kilt, have the habit of drinking "malt water" and throwing logs as a popular sport and their names all start with "Mac-".
- Sarmatians, inhabit the North Black Sea area, which represents present-day Russia. Their names end in "-ov", like many Russian surnames.
- Iberian: Same as Spanish, with inversion of exclamation marks and question marks
- Goth language: Gothic script
- Viking : "Ø" and "Å" instead of "O" and "A"
- Amerindian: Pictograms and sign language
- Egyptians and Kushites: Hieroglyphs with explanatory footnotes
- Greek: Straight letters, carved as if in stone
- Sarmatian: In their speech balloons, some letters are written in a mirror-reversed form, which evokes the modern Cyrillic alphabet.
Translations
Selected albums have also been translated into languages such as Esperanto, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Scots, Indonesian, Persian, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Bengali, Afrikaans, Arabic, Hindi, Hebrew, Frisian, Romansch, Vietnamese, Sinhala, Ancient Greek, and Luxembourgish.
In Europe, several volumes were translated into a variety of regional languages and dialects, such as Alsatian, Breton, Chtimi, and Corsican in France; Bavarian, Swabian, and Low German in Germany; and Savo, Karelia, Rauma, and Helsinki slang dialects in Finland. Also, in Portugal, a special edition of the first volume, Asterix the Gaul, was translated into local language Mirandese. In Greece, a number of volumes have appeared in the Cretan Greek, Cypriot Greek, and Pontic Greek dialects. In the Italian version, while the Gauls speak standard Italian, the legionaries speak in the Romanesque dialect. In the former Yugoslavia, the "Forum" publishing house translated Corsican text in Asterix in Corsica into the Montenegrin dialect of Serbo-Croatian.
In the Netherlands, several volumes were translated into West Frisian, a Germanic language spoken in the province of Friesland; into Limburgish, a regional language spoken not only in Dutch Limburg but also in Belgian Limburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; and into Tweants, a dialect in the region of Twente in the eastern province of Overijssel. Hungarian-language books have been published in Yugoslavia for the Hungarian minority living in Serbia. Although not translated into a fully autonomous dialect, the books differ slightly from the language of the books issued in Hungary. In Sri Lanka, the cartoon series was adapted into Sinhala as Sura Pappa.
Most volumes have been translated into Latin and Ancient Greek, with accompanying teachers' guides, as a way of teaching these ancient languages.
English translation
Before Asterix became famous, translations of some strips were published in British comics including Valiant, Ranger, and Look & Learn, under names Little Fred and Big Ed and Beric the Bold, set in Roman-occupied Britain. These were included in an exhibition on Goscinny's life and career, and Asterix, in London's Jewish Museum in 2018.The first 33 Asterix books were translated into English by Derek Hockridge and Anthea Bell, who were widely praised for maintaining the spirit and humour of the original French versions. Derek Hockridge died in 2013, so Anthea Bell translated books 34 to 36 by herself, before retiring in 2016 for health reasons. She died in 2018. Adriana Hunter is the present translator.
US publisher Papercutz in December 2019 announced it would begin publishing "all-new more American translations" of the Asterix books, starting on 19 May 2020. The launch was postponed to 15 July 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The new translator is Joe Johnson, a Professor of French and Spanish at Clayton State University.
Adaptations
The series has been adapted into various media. There are 14 films, 15 board games, 40 video games, and 1 theme park.Films
- Deux Romains en Gaule, 1967 black and white television film, mixed media, live-action with Asterix and Obelix animated. Released on DVD in 2002.
- Asterix the Gaul, 1967, animated, based on the album Asterix the Gaul.
- Asterix and the Golden Sickle, 1967, animated, based upon the album Asterix and the Golden Sickle, incomplete and never released.
- Asterix and Cleopatra, 1968, animated, based on the album Asterix and Cleopatra.
- The Dogmatix Movie, 1973, animated, a unique story based on Dogmatix and his animal friends, Albert Uderzo created a comic version of the never released movie in 2003.
- The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, 1976, animated, a unique story not based on an existing comic.
- Asterix Versus Caesar, 1985, animated, based on both Asterix the Legionary and Asterix the Gladiator.
- Asterix in Britain, 1986, animated, based upon the album Asterix in Britain.
- Asterix and the Big Fight, 1989, animated, based on both Asterix and the Big Fight and Asterix and the Soothsayer.
- Asterix Conquers America, 1994, animated, loosely based upon the album Asterix and the Great Crossing.
- Asterix & Obelix: Take on Caesar, 1999, live-action, based primarily upon Asterix the Gaul, Asterix and the Soothsayer, Asterix and the Goths, Asterix the Legionary, and Asterix the Gladiator.
- ', 2002, live-action, based upon the album Asterix and Cleopatra.
- Asterix and Obelix in Spain, 2004, live-action, based upon the album Asterix in Spain, incomplete and never released because of disagreement with the team behind the movie and the creator of the comics.
- Asterix and the Vikings, 2006, animated, loosely based upon the album Asterix and the Normans.
- Asterix at the Olympic Games, 2008, live-action, loosely based upon the album Asterix at the Olympic Games.
- ', 2012, live-action, loosely based upon the album Asterix in Britain and Asterix and the Normans.
- ', 2014, computer-animated, based upon the album The Mansions of the Gods and is the first animated Asterix movie in stereoscopic 3D.
- ', 2018, computer-animated, original story.
Games
Theme park
, a theme park 22 miles north of Paris, based upon the series, was opened in 1989. It is one of the most visited sites in France, with around 1.6 million visitors per year.Influence in popular culture
- The first French satellite, which was launched in 1965, was named Astérix-1 in honour of Asterix. Asteroids 29401 Asterix and 29402 Obelix were also named in honour of the characters. Coincidentally, the word Asterix/Asterisk originates from the Greek for Little Star.
- During the campaign for Paris to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, Asterix appeared in many posters over the Eiffel Tower.
- The French company Belin introduced a series of Asterix crisps shaped in the forms of Roman shields, gourds, wild boar, and bones.
- In the UK in 1995, Asterix coins were presented free in every Nutella jar.
- In 1991, Asterix and Obelix appeared on the cover of Time for a special edition about France, art directed by Mirko Ilic. In a 2009 issue of the same magazine, Asterix is described as being seen by some as a symbol for France's independence and defiance of globalisation. Despite this, Asterix has made several promotional appearances for fast food chain McDonald's, including one advertisement which featured members of the village enjoying the traditional story-ending feast at a McDonald's restaurant.
- Version 4.0 of the operating system OpenBSD features a parody of an Asterix story.
- Action Comics Number 579, published by DC Comics in 1986, written by Lofficier and Illustrated by Keith Giffen, featured an homage to Asterix where Superman and Jimmy Olsen are drawn back in time to a small village of indomitable Gauls.
- In 2005, the Mirror World Asterix exhibition was held in Brussels. The Belgian post office also released a set of stamps to coincide with the exhibition. A book was released to coincide with the exhibition, containing sections in French, Dutch and English.
- On 29 October 2009, the Google homepage of a great number of countries displayed a logo commemorating 50 years of Asterix.
- Although they have since changed, the #2 and #3 heralds in the Society for Creative Anachronism's Kingdom of Ansteorra were the Asterisk and Obelisk Heralds.
- Asterix and Obelix were the official mascots of the 2017 Ice Hockey World Championships, jointly hosted by France and Germany.
- In 2019, France issued a commemorative €2 coin to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Asterix.
- The Royal Canadian Navy has a supply vessel named MV Asterix. A second Resolve-Class ship, to have been named MV Obelix, was cancelled.