Asterix : Search and Destroy

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

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.

RIP Anthea Bell:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/oct/18/anthea-bell-magnificent-translator-of-asterix-and-kafka-dies-aged-82

RIP. My school French teacher always said her translations were funnier than the originals.

Nooooooooooooooooooo

Didn't realise she'd translated Kafka! Definitely gonna pick that up. Some of the old translations are dire!

This new one that just came out looks gorgeous but the story is ever so slight, sadly.

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.

but the story is ever so slight, sadly.

Has there been one since, generously, 1981 of which you wouldn’t say this?

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.

RIP Albert Uderzo (to be fair, I didnt even realize he was still alive)

aw RIP

and I didn't post here to say RIP Anthea Bell, so that too

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.

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

Wow. Love that <3

Mr Roy Oddling (what a name) is the Pete Best of the Asterix story here, I guess

"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 !

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.

Have any of the new lots’ books been worth reading? Magic Carpet must’ve been the last semi-decent one from Uderzp.

I don't think these fake Asterixs are a patch on the fake Blake and Mortimers that Cinebooks put out.

The B&Ms have the benefit of never being that good in the first place