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| Astérix et Obélix |
Today, The Watsons and The Grandma have continued working with their English for Sales course. They have been studying Zero Conditional.
The Grandma has explained how important is to read comics to improve your knowledge in English and your vocabulary. She has chosen one of her favourite ones, Astérix et Obélix.
The Grandma has explained how important is to read comics to improve your knowledge in English and your vocabulary. She has chosen one of her favourite ones, Astérix et Obélix.
The Adventures of Asterix, in French Astérix le Gaulois, is a French bande dessinée series about Gaulish warriors, who have adventures and fight the Roman Empire during the era of Julius Caesar.
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 2019, 38 volumes have been released, with the most recent released in October 2019.
More information: Zero Conditional I & II
The series follows the adventures of a village of Gauls as they resist Roman occupation in 50 BCE.
They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid Getafix -Panoramix in the French version-, which temporarily gives the recipient superhuman strength. The protagonists, the title character Asterix and 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.
In many of the stories,
they travel to foreign countries, though other tales 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.
More information: Albert Aleandro Uderzo, Astérix loses his creator
The Asterix series is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world, with the series being translated into 111 languages and dialects as of 2009.
The success of the series has led to the adaptation of its 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 2017, 370 million copies of Asterix books have been sold worldwide, with co-creators René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo being France's best-selling authors abroad.
Prior to creating the
Asterix series, Goscinny and Uderzo had previously had success with
their series Oumpah-pah, which was published in Tintin magazine. Astérix
was originally serialised in Pilote magazine, debuting in the first
issue on 29 October 1959.
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| Astérix et Obélix |
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 preliminary sketches portrayed Asterix as a huge and strong traditional Gaulish warrior. But Goscinny had a different picture in his mind, visualizing Asterix as a shrewd, compact warrior who would possess intelligence and wit more than raw strength.
However, Uderzo felt that the downsized hero needed a strong but dim companion, to which Goscinny agreed. Hence, Obelix was born. Despite the growing popularity of Asterix with the readers, the financial backing for the publication Pilote ceased. Pilote was taken over by Georges Dargaud.
When Goscinny died in 1977, Uderzo continued the series by popular demand of the readers, who implored him to continue. He continued to issue new volumes of the series, but on a less-frequent basis. Many critics and fans of the series prefer the earlier collaborations with Goscinny.
Uderzo created his own publishing company, Les Editions Albert-René, which published every album drawn and written by Uderzo alone since then. However, Dargaud, the initial publisher of the series, kept the publishing rights on the 24 first albums made by both Uderzo and Goscinny.
More information: René Goscinny, Astérix and Obélix creator
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%).
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?. A few months later, Uderzo appointed three illustrators, who had been his assistants for many years, to continue the series.
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.
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.
In January 2015, after the murders of seven cartoonists at the satirical Paris weekly Charlie Hebdo, Astérix creator Albert Uderzo came out of retirement to draw two Astérix pictures honouring the memories of the victims.
The year is 50 BC.
Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans.
Well, not entirely...
One small village of indomitable Gauls
still holds out against the invaders.
And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries
who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum,
Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium...
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