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[Andrew999]

Farewell, for now, to Albert Uderzo.

As a child, Asterix brought me unlimited pleasure - I even (secretly) renamed my family after him. My father became Baldix, my mother Spherica; My Gran was Gothica and my sister Hysterica. The dog became Bark!

Albert, I hope, is now catching up at a feast of unlimited wild boar with old friends, sat around a roaring fire, beneath a sky filled with shining stars that is in absolutely no danger of falling down.

[paw broon]

So funny that you renamed your family in the Asterix style.   I know he handed over the reins a while ago but this is the end of an era. The original books should be required reading.

[The Australian Panther]

Not only the books, but the films are really worthwhile tracking down!

As for the comics, The excellence of the English Translations helped make them very popular in the English Market. 

[Florian R. Guillon]

Since when I was a toddler, I've grown surrounded with Ast

[paw broon]

For those who aren't aware of it, CB+ has an Capitaine Marvel Jr. strip by Uderzo in the archive. 
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=61574
The strip appeared in the Belgian mag, Bravo, in 1950.  We might not be able to host Asterix, but you can see this legit., licensed strip by clicking the link above.  Highly recommended.
Florian has it right, I believe as after the death of Goscinny, Uderzo took over the writing as well as the art.  I don't think these stories were quite up to the standard of the originals, and certainly when Uderzo retired and a new set of creators took over, the stories just didn't feel the same. Only my opinion, of course.
Here's the obituary from yesterday's Herald:-
https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/18332406.obituary-albert-uderzo-co-creator-global-publishing-hit-asterix-gaul/
Hope you can access it outside of the UK.

[marumuju]

Ast

[Robb_K]

Ast

[Florian R. Guillon]

The thing is, I remember reading that Albert Uderzo wanted Ast

[Robb_K]

The thing is, I remember reading that Albert Uderzo wanted Ast

[Andrew999]

Apparently the rights were sold to Hachette so it will continue:

https://newslagoon.com/asterix-obelix-and-uderzo-millions-ferraris-and-a-war-family/9410/

[Andrew999]

Happy Birthday to Asterix who first appeared in Pilote sixty-one years ago today.

Good to hear that four of Uderzo's drawings just raised

[Andrew999]

Question: What was the best selling comic book in the World last year?

Answer: Asterix and the Chieftain's Daughter - and it was only released in October (Go suck on that Marvel with your second-rate characters!)

For those of us who scan the pages on purchase for the real star of the show, there's great news ahead - not only is Dogmatix about to get his own TV show (Id

[Andrew999]

Happy Birthday to the great Janusz Christa. He would have been 86 today but left us in 2008.

Janusz created Kajko i Kokosz (Cock and Hen) in the 1950s - a rival to Asterix::

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kajko_and_Kokosz

https://www.google.co.uk/search?sxsrf=ALeKk017-HNlkckNqWZvWdI8luhBMJ1wfg:1595142051426&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=kajko+i+kokosz+english&client=opera&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjCn92a39jqAhXKQxUIHaUCASUQsAR6BAgKEAE&biw=1821&bih=853

It was arguable which came first - Kajko appeared first in print but in a different form, that of a time-and-space traveller much like the Doctor. It's possible he influenced the widely-read Uderzo - the Asterix creator always avoided the topic. After Asterix was a big hit, Kajko was adapted to become a Slavic Asterix.

Flying Carpet was translated into English but I've never seen a copy.

The great news is that new authors have agreed to produce some new volumes of Kajko - hopefully, more will now be translated too.

[Andrew999]

Happy Birthday to Ren

[Florian R. Guillon]

Iznogoud was a great comicbook. Sadly, in the years prior to Jean Tabary's death, it had become a lazy shadow of itself. There's a whole graphic novel where Iznogoud tries to think of ways to get rid of the Caliph, and the humour consists only in Adulahf reminding him of past plots. Another one relies on only one comical twist - repeating Sultan Streetcar's motto every two pages. That was bad. Fortunately, the art was consistent. There's a rule when it comes to a comic Goscinny had written and that was continued without him: you can't get wronged if you stick to Goscinny's run. That goes for both Ast

[Andrew999]

Last night, purely by chance - I stumbled across it on a well-known video-sharing site - I watched a movie called Les Gauloises Blondes.

It was a truly dreadful pastiche of Asterix from 1988 (but felt like the 1970s - you know those terrible British sex comedies from that era). I can't imagine how it ever got made.

It did me wonder though if there were any other non-canon Asterix imitators? I don't know of any - other than the excellent Polish Kajko and Kokosz, who deserve to be more widely known. Does anyone else know of any comic books, films, television from the Asterix universe?

[crashryan]

Yikes! I made the error of looking for Les Gauloises Blondes at your non-recommendation. Just skimmed it after the first few minutes. Despite all too few of the promised nekkid wimmen (thought You-Know-Who Tube didn't allow that), there was nothing to prevent my teeth from gnashing. It takes gall (ha ha) to dress actors like Romans and not even pretend their armor isn't plastic. One rotten tomato en route!

Edit: I just learned that the film's original poster was painted by Aslan. Looks a lot better than the film does. One can be yours for $300.

[SuperScrounge]

Action Comics #579 features Superman meeting an Asterix-like character.

[Florian R. Guillon]

Last night, purely by chance - I stumbled across it on a well-known video-sharing site - I watched a movie called Les Gauloises Blondes.

It was a truly dreadful pastiche of Asterix from 1988 (but felt like the 1970s - you know those terrible British sex comedies from that era). I can't imagine how it ever got made.

Just watched the beginning credits, and many things come to my mind right now that I have to explain.

First of all: the title. "Les Gauloises Blondes" refers both to "Blond Gall Girls" and to the cigarette brand "Gauloises" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauloises), "blondes" refering to a specific type of tobacco (I don't know the equivalent to "tabac blond" in English. Maybe "blond tobacco"?). Soit all begins with nice Frenchie pun, along with a sexy song.

Then the main cast is Roger Carel, Pierre Tornade and G

[Andrew999]

Sadly Roger Carel died only this week - aged ninety-three RIP:

https://fr.news.yahoo.com/mort-com

[The Australian Panther]

Just found out my favorite Asterix movie is available on YouTube.
The Twelve Tasks of Asterix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86fK4eu7qKI

The Task that starts at 40:58 is sheer genius. Saw this decades back and that still stay strong in my mind. 

'What do we have to do in this place that sends you mad?'
'Oh, nothing much.You have to obtain a certain permit which will then allow you to go on to the next task.
' I see, Nothing but a simple adminstrative formality!'
'That's right, a formality! A simple formality! You merely have to ask for permit number 838.'

And Asterisks solution to the task is sheer brilliance. Straight out of Catch22.

Enjoy!

[Andrew999]

Yep - that's a good one.

My favourite remains Mission: Cleopatra - though On Her Majesty's Service was pretty neat:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Asterix_films

[Florian R. Guillon]

Just saw about 20 minutes of the movie, including the house that makes you mad - my favorite task from the film, because it really embodies French administration. I'm discovering the English dub, which sounds close to the original French one. Except Ast

[Andrew999]

Happy Birthday to Asterix who is 61 today, having appeared in the very first issue of Pilote magazine.

Five (or six) things you may not know about the indomitable little chap:

1) So far, 350 million albums have been sold

2) You can read Asterix in 111 languages - including Basque, Breton, Esperanto, K

[Andrew999]

Great news for fans of Kajko and Kokosz (that includes me!)

The Polish equivalent of Asterix and Obelix is being turned into an animated series by Netflix for 2021 - and will be available on all international platforms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kajko_and_Kokosz