Beloved French warrior travels to Scottish highlands in 35th book, at hands of new team Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad
Didier Conrad (l) and French Jean-Yves Ferri, the team behind the new Asterix adventure. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images
The first Asterix comic book in eight years is to be released on Thursday and, until now, the contents of Asterix and the Picts have been cloaked with the same level of mystery as the Loch Ness monster that is rumoured to appear in the Scottish-set caper.
The adventure is the 35th instalment in a series that has sold more than 350m books worldwide and been translated into 111 languages since the first appeared in 1961. It will have a 5m-copy print run with simultaneous translations into numerous languages, including Scottish Gaelic, with the English version translated by Anthea Bell, who has opened up the series to an English readership since 1969.
The Asterix phenomenon is a juggernaut that has trundled on despite the death in 1977 of the scriptwriter, René Goscinny, who created the series in 1959 with his artist friend Albert Uderzo. Uderzo continued the books alone and now, despite opposition from his daughter, has passed the baton to a new writer-illustrator team, Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad.
The adventure is the 35th instalment in a series that has sold more than 350m books worldwide and been translated into 111 languages since the first appeared in 1961. It will have a 5m-copy print run with simultaneous translations into numerous languages, including Scottish Gaelic, with the English version translated by Anthea Bell, who has opened up the series to an English readership since 1969.
The Asterix phenomenon is a juggernaut that has trundled on despite the death in 1977 of the scriptwriter, René Goscinny, who created the series in 1959 with his artist friend Albert Uderzo. Uderzo continued the books alone and now, despite opposition from his daughter, has passed the baton to a new writer-illustrator team, Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad.
A merchandising bag showing the cover of the new book Asterix chez les Pictes (Asterix and the Picts), in Paris. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images "I've got 68 years of working in comic books behind me so I was not at all worried about passing on the flame. Once I had decided that it was worthwhile to keep Asterix alive beyond my lifetime we had to get on with it," said Uderzo. It may not have been so simple for the new team. Conrad, the illustrator, admitted he frequently lost hope and considered throwing in the towel while working on the book under Uderzo's direction. "Albert would pick up on small things I'd got wrong that I thought I'd got right, it could be disheartening," he said.
While rumours that the Scottish referendum makes an appearance have been squashed by the new team, more traditional Scottish stereotypes are set to feature, alongside the usual wordplay, fights and feasting.
"There are characters in kilts, of course. And whisky. We tried to find a Celtic tone," said writer Ferri. "And the cover features Asterix winking while Obelix is doing a caber toss with a big tree trunk. Uderzo drew Obelix, Conrad drew the rest; in throwing the tree trunk, he's throwing the gauntlet over to the new team."
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