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This article is about the comic book series. For the character, see Asterix (character). Not to be confused with asterisk. For other uses, see Asterix (disambiguation).
The Adventures of Asterix (French: Astérix or Astérix le Gaulois) is a series of French comic books written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo (Uderzo also took over the job of writing the series after the death of Goscinny in 1977). The series first appeared in French in the magazine Pilote on 29 October 1959. As of 2009, 34 comic books in the series have been released. The series follows the exploits of a village of ancient Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid, which gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonist, the titular character, Asterix, along with his friend Obelix have various adventures. In many cases, this leads them to travel to various countries around the world, though other books are set in and around their village. For much of the history of the series (Volumes 4 through 29), 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 over 100 languages, and it is popular in most European countries. Asterix is less well known in the United States and Japan. The success of the series has led to the adaptation of several books into 11 films; eight animated, and three with live actors. There have also been a number of games based on the characters, and a theme park near Paris, Parc Astérix, is themed around the series. To date, 325 million copies of 34 Asterix books have been sold worldwide, making co-creators Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo France's bestselling authors abroad.[1]
[edit] HistoryPrior to creating the Asterix series, Goscinny and Uderzo had previously had success with their series Oumpah-pah, which was published in the Tintin magazine. Astérix was originally serialised in the magazine Pilote, in the very first issue published on 29 October 1959.[2] In 1961 the first book was put together entitled Asterix the Gaul. From then on, books were released generally on a yearly basis.[3] Uderzo's first sketches portrayed Asterix as a huge and strong traditional Gaulish warrior. But Goscinny had a different picture in his mind. He visualized Asterix as a shrewd small sized warrior who would prefer intelligence over strength. However, Uderzo felt that the small sized hero needed a strong but dull companion to which Goscinny agreed. Hence, Obelix was born.[4] When Goscinny died, Uderzo continued the series alone, though on a less frequent basis. Uderzo created his own publishing company, Les Editions Albert-René, which published every album drawn and written by Uderzo alone since then. The firm was owned by Albert Uderzo and his daughter Sylvie (80%) and by the Goscinny family (20%). 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-time trial, Dargaud lost the rights to publish and sell the albums. Uderzo decided to buy these rights to Hachette instead of Albert-René, but the publishing rights on new albums were still owned by Albert Uderzo (40%), Sylvie Uderzo (20%) and Anne Goscinny (40%). Although Uderzo declared he didn't want anyone to continue the series after his death, which is similar to the request Hergé made regarding his The Adventures of Tintin, his attitude changed, and in December 2008, he sold his stake to Hachette, which took over the company and now own the rights. This has provoked a family row. In a letter published in the french newspaper Le Monde, Uderzo's daughter, Sylvie, has attacked her father's decision for selling the family publishing firm and the rights to produce new Astérix adventures after his death. She is reported as saying 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”.[5][6] Anne Goscinny also gave her agreement to the continuation of the series. and sold her rights at the same time.[7] A few months later, Uderzo appointed three illustrators, who had been his assistants for many years, to continue the series.[8] [edit] List of titlesMain article: List of Asterix volumes Numbers 1 - 24, 32 and 34 are by both Goscinny and Uderzo. Numbers 25 - 31 and 33 are solely the work of Uderzo. Years stated are for their initial release. Asterix Conquers Rome is a comic book adaptation of the animated film The Twelve Tasks of Asterix. It was released in 1976, making it technically the 23rd Asterix volume to be published. But it has been rarely reprinted and is not considered to be canonical to the series. The only English translation ever to be published was in the Asterix Annual 1980. In 2007, Les Editions Albert René released a tribute volume titled Astérix et ses Amis, a 60 pages comic book made up of various short stories (from one to four strips). It was a tribute to Albert Uderzo at the occasion of his 80th birthday by 34 renown European comics artists. The volume was translated in nine languages, but not in English yet.[10] [edit] Synopsis and charactersMain article: Characters in Asterix The main setting for the series is an unnamed coastal village in Armorica, a province of Gaul (modern France), in the year 50 BC. Julius Caesar has conquered nearly all of Gaul for the Roman Empire, however the little Armorican village has held out because the villagers can gain temporary superhuman strength by drinking a magic potion brewed by the local village druid, Getafix. The main protagonist, and hero of the village, is Asterix, who is usually entrusted with the most important affairs of the village, because of his shrewdness. He is aided in his adventures by his rather fat unintelligent friend Obelix, who has permanent superhuman strength, as he fell into the cauldron of the potion as a baby. Obelix is usually accompanied by Dogmatix, his little dog. Asterix and Obelix (and sometimes other members of the village), go on various adventures both within the village, and in far away lands. Places visited in the series include parts of Gaul (Lutetia, Corsica etc), neighbouring nations (Belgium, Spain, Britain, Germany etc), and far away lands (North America, Middle East, India etc). 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. [edit] HumourMain article: Humour in Asterix The humour encountered in the Asterix comics is typically French, often centering on 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 legionnaires are made to speak in 20th century Roman dialect[citation needed] and Obelix's famous "Ils sont fous ces romains" is translated as "Sono pazzi questi romani", alluding to the roman abbreviation SPQR. The newer albums share a more universal humour, both written and visual. In spite of (or perhaps because of) this stereotyping and notwithstanding some alleged streaks of French chauvinism, it has been very well received by European and Francophone cultures around the world. [edit] TranslationsThe 34 books or albums (one of which is a compendium of short stories) in the series have been translated into more than 100 languages and dialects. Besides the original French, most albums are available in Estonian, English, Czech, Dutch, German, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Portuguese (and Brazilian Portuguese), Italian, modern Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Turkish, Slovene, Bulgarian, Serbian and Croatian. Beyond modern Europe, some albums have also been translated into languages as diverse as Esperanto, Indonesian, Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, Bengali, Afrikaans, Arabic, Hindi, Hebrew, Frisian, Latin, Romansch, Vietnamese (mainly in the South pre-Communist April 30, 1975), and Ancient Greek. In France, in Finland, Poland and especially in Germany, several volumes were translated into a variety of regional languages and dialects, such as Alsatian, Breton, Chtimi (Picard) and Corsican in France, Swabian and Low German in Germany, Kashubian[citation needed] and Silesian[citation needed] in Poland 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 the Netherlands several volumes were translated into Frisian, a language related to Old English spoken in the province of Friesland. Also in the Netherlands two volumes were translated into Limburgish, a regional language spoken not only in Dutch Limburg but also in Belgian Limburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Hungarian-language books have been issued in Yugoslavia for the Hungarian minority living in Serbia. Although not a fully autonomic dialect, it slightly differs from the language of the books issued in Hungary. In Greece, a number of volumes have appeared in the Cretan Greek, Cypriot Greek and Pontic Greek dialects and in Ancient Greek.[11] In Sri Lanka, the cartoon series was adapted into Sinhala as Sura Pappa. [edit] English translationMain article: English translations of Asterix The translation of the books into English has been done by Derek Hockridge and Anthea Bell. [edit] AdaptationsThe series has been adapted into various media. [edit] FilmsMain article: List of Asterix films Various motion pictures based upon the series have been made.
[edit] GamesMain article: List of Asterix games Many gamebooks, boardgames and video games are based upon the Asterix series. In particular, many video games were released by various computer game publishers:
[edit] Theme parkMain article: Parc Astérix Parc Asterix, a theme park based upon the series, was opened near Paris in 1989. It is one of the most visited sites in France, with around 1.6 million visitors per year. [edit] Influence in popular culture
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
[edit] External links
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