Asterix or The Adventures of Asterix (French: Astérix or Astérix le Gaulois, IPA: [asteʁiks lə ɡolwa]) is a series of French comics. 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 the death of Goscinny in 1977. Uderzo then took over the writing until 2009, when he sold the rights to publishing company Hachette. In 2013, a new team consisting of Jean-Yves Ferri (script) and Didier Conrad (artwork) took over. As of 2017, 37 volumes have been released.
The series follows the adventures of a village of indomitable Gauls as they resist Roman occupation in 50 BC. They do so by means of a magic potion brewed by their druid
Panoramix, named Getafix in the English translations, which temporarily
gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonists, the title
character Asterix, along with his friend Obelix
have various adventures. The "ix" ending of both names (as well as all
the other pseudo-Gaulish "ix" names in the series) alludes to the "rix"
suffix (meaning "king") present in the names of many real Gaulish
chieftains such as Vercingetorix, Orgetorix and Dumnorix (See below
for further explanations of the character names). Many of the stories
have them travel to foreign countries, though others 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.[1]
The success of the series has led to the adaptation of several books into 13 films: nine animated, and four live action (one of which, Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, was a major box office success in France). 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 October 2009, 325 million copies of 34 Asterix books had been sold worldwide, making co-creators René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo France's bestselling authors abroad
Astérix was originally serialised in Pilote magazine, in the very first issue published on 29 October 1959.[6] 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 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 dim companion to which Goscinny agreed.
Hence, Obelix was born.[7] Despite the growing popularity of Asterix with the readers, the financial backing for Pilote ceased. Pilote was taken over by Georges Dargaud.[7]
When Goscinny died in 1977, Uderzo continued the series alone on the
demand of the readers who implored him to continue. He continued the
series but on a less frequent basis. Most critics and fans of the series
prefer Goscinny's albums.[8] Uderzo created his own publishing company, Les Editions Albert-René, which published every album drawn and written by Uderzo alone since then.[7] 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 (40%), Sylvie Uderzo (20%) and Anne Goscinny (40%).
In December 2008, Uderzo sold his stake to Hachette, which took over the company.[9] 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”.[10][11]
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?".[12] A few months later, Uderzo appointed three illustrators, who had been his assistants for many years, to continue the series.[8] 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.[13]
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.[14][15]
In January 2015, after the murders of seven cartoonists at the
satirical Paris weekly Charlie Hebdo, presumably for their controversial
work, Astérix creator Albert Uderzo came out of retirement to draw two Astérix pictures honouring the memories of the victims.[16]
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