(Classic, obviously. Can't think what to search. My favourites used to be In Britain and And Cleopatra, I think. Anyone else think their holidays abroad are not complete unless they bring back a foreign Asterix or Lucky Luke?)
New ones: yes, a few, but not nearly as good as the older ones so it's probably not worth bothering. Try http://www.asterix.tm.fr/english/quest-reponse/uder_11.htm for a list. I haven't read any since Magic Carpet.
― Rebecca (reb), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 16:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
what has always mystfied me is whether Asterix is funnier in English or in French? it must be quite different surely - there were a lot of jokes in the books i read perhaps more suited to British readers in the translation...how were the characters names different? e.g. what was Vitalstatistix name in the original French books? just the French variant of this? does that make as much sense?
― blueski, Tuesday, 12 November 2002 16:03 (twenty-one years ago) link
DAN PERRY TO THREAD! It sounds like a slang term for a Joe Namath netted slingshot brief. In America they named him 'Ptightnet'...and I do love the sequence how everyone complains about the army food except for the British guy, who loves it. ;-)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 16:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
― blueski, Tuesday, 12 November 2002 16:15 (twenty-one years ago) link
See, my presence on this thread isn't necessary.
The only Asterix comics I have are in German. I should dig them up because they were hella funny.
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 16:21 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 16:37 (twenty-one years ago) link
Legionary is indeed probably the funniest, Mansions of the Gods probably the best story. But there are scenes in Gladiator that have never left me--for some reason the whole recurring business with the gladiators playing "yes, no, black or white" in the arena has never stopped being howlingly funny.
The English translations by Bell and Hockridge are legendarily good--the originals have a ton of untranslatable French wordplay, and Bell and Hockridge very wisely substituted a ton of untranslatable English wordplay. (The little dog Dogmatix's name in French, for instance, is Idefix, and as good as Panoramix (French) is as a name for a druid, Getafix (English) is much funnier...)
― Douglas, Tuesday, 12 November 2002 16:38 (twenty-one years ago) link
― lol p xx, Tuesday, 12 November 2002 16:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 16:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
Y'all are forgetting about the dopest joint of them all- Asterix In Switzerland! "Anything to declare?" "I'm hungry" "What you got in there?" "A great big hole" HAHAHAHA CLASSIK! (even better than Wilde's reaction)
I stuck with Uderzo for a long, long time, but the last one was just such total crap that I couldn't even bear to read it.
― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 17:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
― joan vich (joan vich), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 17:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 19:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
Long live the Gauls!
...actually yes - Tintin disturbed me as a kid - I was scared for about a year to have my bed covers any lower than my chin when I slept incase some ULTRA-SCAREY voodoo dude came and blew a poison madness dart in my neck.
― dog latin, Tuesday, 12 November 2002 20:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― dog latin, Tuesday, 12 November 2002 20:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
Search: Legionary, Goths, Roman Agent, Obelix and Co., Black GoldDestroy: Gaul, Golden Sickle, Actress (truly awful), basically the earliest stuff and the latest stuff
I also enjoy Tintin quite a bit, but I've only read like half of them.
― Vinnie (vprabhu), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 21:08 (twenty-one years ago) link
grrr bcz now i haf to get them OUT!!
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 12 November 2002 21:12 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 13:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
(when did Goscinny die/retire?)
― Sam (chirombo), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 14:04 (twenty-one years ago) link
Oh YES by Toutatis.
― Sam (chirombo), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 14:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― chris (chris), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 14:11 (twenty-one years ago) link
(I suddenly have the ph34r that I am wrong....)
― Sam (chirombo), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 14:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
Obelix=Classic.
Discovering the humour of all the characters names when you're older=classic.
― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 14:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
Morris (coauthor and artist of Lucky Luke) died a year or two ago, as well, and I didn't even find out until the last Goscinny-mentioning thread on ILX.
(Are the Morris-only Lucky Lukes noticeably any less sharp and funny than the ones with Goscinny? If only they'd do the full series in English then I would know; as it is, reading them in languages I barely understand, I can make out no more than the plot, and sometimes not even that. Sigh...)
― Rebecca (reb), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 14:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Vinnie (vprabhu), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 16:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
Are the Morris-only Lucky Lukes noticeably any less sharp and funny than the ones with Goscinny?
A bit, but the drop in quality isn't nearly as extreme as with Asterix.
― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Wednesday, 13 November 2002 23:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
http://www.ring.net/coni/obelix01.jpg
THIS DUDE IS MY LEADER
― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 27 July 2008 13:15 (fifteen years ago) link
The writing in the later Goscinny ones (Obelix &Co, Belgium) is of a ridiculously high quality, I think the guy had many years of great stories still in him. It's a real pity.
― chap, Sunday, 27 July 2008 13:44 (fifteen years ago) link
What's this about Uderzo allowing the strip to continue after his death, Goscinny's daughter allowing it but Uderzo's own daughter calling him out on the decision?
― Bring Back The West End South Australian Open (King Boy Pato), Thursday, 15 January 2009 12:20 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh, and ORGIES! WE WANT ORGIIIIES!
― Bring Back The West End South Australian Open (King Boy Pato), Thursday, 15 January 2009 12:22 (fifteen years ago) link
"OLD HAIRY HANDS"
― Bring Back The West End South Australian Open (King Boy Pato), Thursday, 15 January 2009 12:24 (fifteen years ago) link
For years I thought an orgy just involved eating shitloads of food because of Asterix.
― chap, Thursday, 15 January 2009 12:24 (fifteen years ago) link
As did I. That was an explanation I'd rather not have had from my dad.
― more private than a bar stool (Upt0eleven), Thursday, 15 January 2009 12:37 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/9.4/asterix/Pix/asterix-panel.gif
lol
― more private than a bar stool (Upt0eleven), Thursday, 15 January 2009 12:38 (fifteen years ago) link
http://bit.ly/oL6TyJ
THIRTY YEARS TOO LATE
― sex, doughnuts & rock 'n' roll (King Boy Pato), Tuesday, 27 September 2011 11:57 (twelve years ago) link
Now Asterix is a popular French brand and vehicle for French actors with weak bladders, any replacement will drive it further into the ground anyway.
― sex, doughnuts & rock 'n' roll (King Boy Pato), Tuesday, 27 September 2011 11:58 (twelve years ago) link
I stick by this:
― chap, domingo 27 de julio de 2008 13:44 (3 years ago) Bookmark
His last two were Obelix & Co and Belgium, both of which are so so good.
― Inevitable stupid samba mix (chap), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 00:10 (twelve years ago) link
when I was little, my parents gave me all the Asterix comics and all the Tintin comics, in German!
That's how I first learned German, when I was about 7 years old...I really struggled to understand those comics
they were really funny once I finally decoded them
― geeta, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 00:19 (twelve years ago) link
Tintin has to be read in the original. The English translations of Asterix tend to be pretty good and even have jokes that aren't in the French versions.
― psychedelicatessen (seandalai), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 00:23 (twelve years ago) link
I read this (as I'm sure others have) as "Asterisk: Search and Destroy." I was going to say destroy Roger Maris's (even though it never actually existed), and after that I'm stuck. Carry on.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 00:26 (twelve years ago) link
nonsense, it should just be retired
yeah, I wrote, and read out to the class, when I was seven, a story that was predicated on this misunderstanding. the teacher took me aside later to quietly enquire where I'd learned the word, but chose not to annotate.
― robocop last year was a 'shop (sic), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 01:19 (twelve years ago) link
hooooooly shit, me too, I forgot about this
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 01:25 (twelve years ago) link
Herge apparently preferred the English translations of Tintin to his originals. The Asterix translations are far less faithful to the originals, for obvious, pun-related reasons.
I suspect that this unnamed artist who will 'take over' drawing the strip has actually been doing most of the illustration work signed by Uderzo for some time, now.
Chap OTM about Goscinny - died far far too young, and his final scripts for Asterix and Lucky Luke show no sign of diminishing quality.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 06:44 (twelve years ago) link
Ha, me too on the "orgy" thing.
What is Goscinny's work on Iznogoud like? If I love Asterix and like Lucky Luke and Le Petit Nicolas, it's probably worth a go, but where to start?
Not that I know where I'd find them any more - Blackwells bookshop in Oxford used to have a stand of less well-known-in-the-UK Euro comic books but I never knew where to start with any of them and now the stand isn't there, as I discovered when I had a craving to buy things by André Franquin.
― the ascent of nyan (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 08:43 (twelve years ago) link
Spacecadet, the Iznogoud books are terrific - w/ fantastic psuedo-exotica illustrations by Tabary - tho' they are incredibly formulaic - they seem to be pitched at a slightly younger audience than Asterix. There's a British-based company called Cinebooks who have, so far, published eight Iznogoud books, and lots of Lucky Luke volumes - you can order from their website, although I think Amazon is generally cheaper. I recently had to review Izngoud on Holiday for a 1001 Comics to Read Before you Die book (yeah I know), so that would be a good one to go for, imho. Each volume generally features four different short stories, unliked the book-length Asterix and Tintin volumes.
STILL waiting for Franquin to be properly translated!
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:01 (twelve years ago) link
OMG orgies! I remember a bunch of us telling one of our parents we were going to have an orgy - no wait, I think they were having some friends over and we asked if they were going to have one!
This is the best shared experience discovery ever.
― ledge, Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:20 (twelve years ago) link
Count me in the "orgy" gang too (phwoar!)
I'm still waiting for a good reason why the Franquin comics haven't been translated into English. It's one of the biggest insults to art IMO.
― Yo wait a minute man, you better think about the world (dog latin), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:27 (twelve years ago) link
er, that's what I'm alluding to.
The series might have had a chance if a proper writer was brought on board. Only a slim chance, but a chance nonetheless. Now it's too deep in merde.
― sex, doughnuts & rock 'n' roll (King Boy Pato), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:34 (twelve years ago) link
(I am saying thirty years btw because I'll always rep for Black Gold - it's the only book that Uderzo could've and should've written. And then it went downhill steeply. Down that cliff those Normans flew off.)
― sex, doughnuts & rock 'n' roll (King Boy Pato), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:37 (twelve years ago) link
this is p much openly stated by Uderzo in the article
sadly those Cinebooks versions of Lucky Luke are re-lettered in a clunky computer font that stopped this punter from buying the entire lot in Gosh last year (/pvmic)
― robocop last year was a 'shop (sic), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:46 (twelve years ago) link
Have we done an Asterix poll?
― Yo wait a minute man, you better think about the world (dog latin), Wednesday, 28 September 2011 09:56 (twelve years ago) link
The most ridiculous one is the Magic Carpet one.
nuh-uh, the most ridiculous one is The Falling Sky, I'm p. sure. don't read that one, anyone
although the fact that I read Magic Carpet aged 8 and Falling Sky aged 38 might not help
― a passing spacecadet, Monday, 11 June 2018 09:30 (five years ago) link
are they adaptations of the original Goscinny/Sempé stories?
I believe so, APS - here's the wiki link to the first movie (which was released in 2009, so not quite as 'recent' as I thought):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Nicholas
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 11 June 2018 09:35 (five years ago) link
xp don't think i've read the falling sky. I seem to remember unicorns being in the Magic Carpet (!?)
― My name is the Pope and in the 90s I smoked a lot of dope (dog latin), Monday, 11 June 2018 09:40 (five years ago) link
Falling Sky has flying saucers and an alien with superpowers. It's pretty terrible and really didn't need to exist - in fact I feel bad even mentioning it, as it would be much better if we could all pretend it didn't. Not sure if it's better or worse that the innocuous title just made me think "ah, those Gauls, always worrying about the sky falling on their heads" rather than giving a clue to the true horrors within.
I don't remember much about the Magic Carpet tbh. I remember going to buy it with my birthday book token when it was new out and I do remember it being slightly disappointing even then but have blanked out any unicorns. It's probably the only Asterix book I got as a child which I've never felt the need to re-read, but I probably still have it somewhere, so if I feel brave I'll jog my memory...
― a passing spacecadet, Monday, 11 June 2018 09:58 (five years ago) link
Would be interested to know everybody's favourites.
― MaresNest, Monday, 11 June 2018 10:18 (five years ago) link
No unicorns in Magic Carpet to my recollection - it's an Arabian Nights riff.
My fave as a kid was Legionary.
― chap, Monday, 11 June 2018 10:27 (five years ago) link
Peak period for me would be roughly 68-72, and especially
Asterix and the Laurel Wreath (my number one favourite)Asterix and the Roman AgentAsterix and the Chieftain's ShieldAsterix and the CauldronAsterix in Switzerland
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 11 June 2018 10:36 (five years ago) link
The Nicolas stories had nice English paperbacks in the 80s; they've been reissued as fancy Phaidon hardcovers, which in the usual Phaidon style are pretty to look at but annoying to hold and read. Either way, they're great - quite low-key, and excellent translations as usual by Anthea Bell. They're closer in spirit to Emil & The Detectives than Asterix.
The Goscinny stories are incredibly consistent - almost every book was a favourite at one point or another in my childhood. and it's amazing how different the stories are, given that the main characters never change from book to book. Probably easier to list the ones I like less: Great Crossing, Asterix the Gaul, Belgium - but that's about it.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 11 June 2018 11:07 (five years ago) link
I suppose Chieftain's Shield is the exception to the rule about the characters never changing - it's a weirdly deep character dive into Vitalstatix - I always felt quite sad, finishing the book, when the character returns to usual self.
― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 11 June 2018 11:11 (five years ago) link
I saw the first Petit Nicolas movie when it came out and remember it as pretty close to the source material. Those books are great - just as chaotic as Asterix in their way. Stuff I remember includes the kids strategizing to attack older kids by kicking them in the shins and the one where the rich kid shows up on picture taking day dressed as an astronaut.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 11 June 2018 12:34 (five years ago) link
Laurel Wreath is a great one, it's interesting when the tone deviates slightly for a whole book and LW is almost a little salty by comparison. The in medias res style beginning, Vitalstatistix's rather aggressive hubris in the face of his Brother In Law's flexing and the weird mood that Asterix and Obelix are in on the first page, not to mention the drunken Zigackly! and Ferpectly!
― MaresNest, Monday, 11 June 2018 18:28 (five years ago) link
Yeah, I noticed a little while ago that the Wiki entry for Laurel Wreath claims
This is by far the most adult-oriented of all the Asterix stories. It includes drunkenness, human slavery, debauchery, particularly graphic violence, androgyny, and instances of humour requiring (for Asterix) an unusually sophisticated knowledge of art and history to fully understand it. There is an implicit acknowledgement of this in that Dogmatix (a favourite with younger readers) makes only a token (2 panel) appearance, and the lettering in the original version of this album uses a style more cursive and difficult to read than usual, again discouraging younger readers (the updated version released in 2004 uses the same lettering style as all the other Asterix stories).
But I like it as much for all the family stuff, which again seems to cut a little deeper than in other Asterix albums - the conflict between the chief and his brother-in-law (the dinner party sequence at the beginning might just be Goscinny/Uderzo's finest moment), the alienated father and son reunited by Asterix and Obelix.
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 12 June 2018 06:12 (five years ago) link
No food on earth tastes as delicious as the grilled boars in Asterix look.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 12 June 2018 09:53 (five years ago) link
*Scronch* *Scronch* *Scronch*
― My name is the Pope and in the 90s I smoked a lot of dope (dog latin), Tuesday, 12 June 2018 10:05 (five years ago) link
the conflict between the chief and his brother-in-law (the dinner party sequence at the beginning might just be Goscinny/Uderzo's finest moment)
ZIGACKLY!
― chap, Tuesday, 12 June 2018 10:16 (five years ago) link
thanks to this thread i've just laid down for the Asterix Omnibus that includes Laurel Wreath, Switzerland, Mansion of the Gods, plus I bought Chieftain's Shield separately. Can't wait to revisit these
― My name is the Pope and in the 90s I smoked a lot of dope (dog latin), Tuesday, 12 June 2018 10:58 (five years ago) link
That's a great run. I'll second Asterix the Legionary as a personal favorite
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 12 June 2018 16:08 (five years ago) link
XP - Yeah that is a good selection, those are some of my very favourites.
Got a first edition hardback of Big Fight in the post from eBay today, was never sure about it though, I remember really not liking the transformation of Getafix, as a kid.
― MaresNest, Tuesday, 12 June 2018 21:42 (five years ago) link
Was down in London for a few days, and managed to get to the Goscinny exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Camden - highly recommended to anyone with an interest in post-war European humour comics. The exhibition is smallish, but very nicely presented and contains a surprising number of original pages. I had never seen an actual page from an Asterix album before and here there are five, including the first page of Laurel Wreath; there are also pages from Iznogoud, Ompa-pa, a western strip by the legendary Jijé, and some really gorgeous Nicholas originals - I took a shaky snap of this one:
http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa362/Andrew_Littlefield/P1030584_zpsjlhbmbs4.jpg
― Ward Fowler, Sunday, 8 July 2018 11:06 (five years ago) link
I must get to see this soon!
So I was knocking around on eBay yesterday, I've been trying to complete a set of hardback first editions and I'm looking at ...The Gaul, so expensive for what isn't really a very good story, but I found out that there are officially sanctioned translations of a few of the stories into Scots slang, so I purchased 'Asterix The Gallus' and also TinTin's 'The Derk Isle' it's going to be pretty weird but interesting.
― MaresNest, Monday, 16 July 2018 14:46 (five years ago) link
RIP Anthea Bell:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/18/anthea-bell-magnificent-translator-of-asterix-and-kafka-dies-aged-82
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 18 October 2018 13:19 (five years ago) link
RIP. My school French teacher always said her translations were funnier than the originals.
― chap, Thursday, 18 October 2018 13:33 (five years ago) link
Nooooooooooooooooooo
― MaresNest, Thursday, 18 October 2018 19:48 (five years ago) link
Didn't realise she'd translated Kafka! Definitely gonna pick that up. Some of the old translations are dire!
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 18 October 2018 20:42 (five years ago) link
This new one that just came out looks gorgeous but the story is ever so slight, sadly.
― Maresn3st, Monday, 28 October 2019 12:51 (four years ago) link
I have recently watched the latest Asterix animation movie (the secret of the magic potion).It's nicely done and manages to recreate the spirit/humour of the original books.
― AlXTC from Paris, Monday, 28 October 2019 14:22 (four years ago) link
but the story is ever so slight, sadly.Has there been one since, generously, 1981 of which you wouldn’t say this?
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Monday, 28 October 2019 15:42 (four years ago) link
You're right, Black Gold was the last decent one until the 2013 comeback of sorts with The Picts.
The three since then, I found to be really enjoyable, but this new one is lagging far behind, which is a shame because the art is absolutely on point. Translation/interpretation must be so difficult and that's when I realised how vital Bell & Hockridge were to the process.
― Maresn3st, Monday, 28 October 2019 20:00 (four years ago) link
RIP Albert Uderzo (to be fair, I didnt even realize he was still alive)
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 24 March 2020 09:13 (four years ago) link
aw RIP
and I didn't post here to say RIP Anthea Bell, so that too
― a passing spacecadet, Tuesday, 24 March 2020 09:53 (four years ago) link
Oh no! But what an incredible legacy.
I read an Asterix book for the first time in years recently, Asterix and the Cauldron. It’s not one of the best - although the marketplace scene is a classic (the “BOOOOOOOAAAARSSSS” bit) (and the avant-garde theatre troupe) (and other bits, probably). Uderzo’s drawings of Obelix are incredible throughout, though - it’s amazing how much facial expression he gets out of a character who doesn’t have a mouth 90% of the time.
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 24 March 2020 10:03 (four years ago) link
Spotted on Facebook - Leicester Chronicle story about Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge from 1969:
https://scontent.fman2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/s960x960/90594706_10157958261326832_1418784090512949248_o.jpg?_nc_cat=104&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=TgY0dQcrzsUAX8FX6GV&_nc_ht=scontent.fman2-2.fna&_nc_tp=7&oh=11304ae4d48786c64d549dc3fe0b7c9b&oe=5E9EFEFF
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 25 March 2020 11:32 (four years ago) link
Wow. Love that <3
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 25 March 2020 11:55 (four years ago) link
Mr Roy Oddling (what a name) is the Pete Best of the Asterix story here, I guess
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 25 March 2020 11:58 (four years ago) link
"it’s amazing how much facial expression he gets out of a character who doesn’t have a mouth 90% of the time."
ahah. never thought of it that way !
― AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, 25 March 2020 12:18 (four years ago) link
New one arrived today, again, the art is great, very faithful. The storyline looks like it might be a retread of '& The Roman Agent', but with a new-age type infiltrating the village and putting ppl at loggerheads.
One thing though, it's very dense, high panel count on most of the pages, more text.
― MaresNest, Thursday, 26 October 2023 19:14 (five months ago) link
Have any of the new lots’ books been worth reading? Magic Carpet must’ve been the last semi-decent one from Uderzp.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 26 October 2023 19:27 (five months ago) link
I don't think these fake Asterixs are a patch on the fake Blake and Mortimers that Cinebooks put out.
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 26 October 2023 19:36 (five months ago) link
The B&Ms have the benefit of never being that good in the first place
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 26 October 2023 19:52 (five months ago) link