Asterix and the Griffin cover detail for Asterix v39
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Asterix v39: “Asterix and the Griffin” is a funny book

Asterix and Obelix accompany the druid Getafix to the faraway land of Barbaricum, to visit a shaman friend whose village is in danger of being overrun by a Roman detachment looking for the mythical Griffin. That Griffin happens to be a sacred animal to this tribe, so it must be defended.

It’s Obelix and Asterix versus the Romans in the snowy forest! Sounds like fun to me! Let’s take a look at “Asterix and the Griffin”:

Slower Delivery for Amazon Credits

Asterix and the Griffin cover for Asterix v39
Writer: Jean-Yves Ferri
Artist: Didier Conrad
Colorist: Thierry Mébarki
Translator: Adriana Hunter
Published by: Sphere
Number of Pages: 48
Original Publication: 2021
Original Title: “Asterix et le Griffon”

Let’s Get This Out of the Way First

I’ve had two years since the last book to think about this kind of stuff.

Rene Goscinny died almost 45 years ago now. This series has never been the same. Uderzo slowly turned it into a Saturday morning cartoon that had one episode every now and then when he was up for it. Asterix rode a dolphin and fought aliens.

While I thought “Asterix and the Missing Scroll” came pretty close to invoking the same modern and socially-relevant flavor and sense of humor as Goscinny, that’s not what we should expect anymore.

Asterix is too popular now and all of politics is so divisive and fraught with land mines. Who could blame them for steering clear and aiming at softer humor that won’t offend anyone? (Don’t worry, it still will. You can’t avoid it.)

And, of course, there are any number of details in those previous albums that some might call “problematic” today because, as I said, everything is seen through political eyes. Some are actually legitimate, to be fair. I’ve mentioned them in the past. (The pirates get a one panel cameo in this volume, and guess which one is not visible?)

One of those complaints is that the book is dominated by male characters. Now, for the second book in a row, Ferri and Conrad are trying to (over-?) compensate for that, first by leading with Vercingetorix’s daughter and now by featuring a village where the men are homemakers and the women are the hunter/gatherers. (The funny thing here is that they’ve stepped into another political quagmire there that we’ll get to later in the review.)

We can also see that the series’ cornerstone of poking fun of cultures for their practices, appearances, and attitudes is a no-go in this day and age. If you do that with the wrong group of people, the outrage is palpable. Ferri has already said that Asterix needs to be something different in this day and age. I’m not just imagining this.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this book is a meet-up with a relatively unknown population that you wouldn’t have any preconceived notions for. None of the humor derives from gently poking fun of their traditions, traits, or appearances.

What is left is the other part of Asterix that I always enjoyed, and that’s the Vaudeville style of comedy. Put disparate characters together and have them play off each other. Set up some running gags. Have some scenes with small comedy routines in them. Wrap that around a simple quest or a mission so there’s a point to it all, and entertain everyone with that song and dance, not anything that might key off of stereotypes or cultural heritage or anything anywhere near that.

While I’ll miss the way Asterix once poked at the Germans, the Corsicans, the British, the Swiss, etc., some of my favorite and most fondly remembered moments in the series are with those purely comedic moments. “Asterix and the Legionary” comes to mind immediately. That one almost feels like a Monty Python movie — just a series of hilarious scenes that happens to use a plot to keep things moving. It even has moments that work as a 50 BC office comedy. You don’t necessarily need the various ethnicities of the soldiers to make the comedy work.

If you want it, though, those previous volumes still exist. They’re available.

This Asterix is just a new thing. The question is, can it still be entertaining while shedding that half of its identity?

In the case of this particular book, I think it is.

Which Edition Is This, Anyway?

I’m reviewing the British edition of “Asterix and the Griffin”. The American edition through Papercutz is still a few days away as I write this. When it arrives, I might add a section at the end of this review to discuss the differences.

That also means I don’t have a digital copy of the English edition yet to provide panels to illustrate this review. I don’t have a scanner anymore and nobody wants me taking pictures of the book for images. I’ve done that before. It often ends poorly.

Instead, I’ll be including selections from the digital French edition of the book.

And, Now, The Sarmatian Story

Asterix and Obelix accompany Druid to meet up with a shaman friend of his in the faraway land of Barbaricum. Seriously, it’s a long way away. This is how “Asterix and the Griffin” begins:

Asterix's map leads us to Barbaricum in Asterix and the Griffin

I love this panel. The angle is perfect on it to make western Europe and everything Rome controls look puny. Barbaricum is this huge area in the opposite direction that Caesar never bothered to conquer. (Historical truth is a little more complicated than that, but let’s just go with that for now.)

The set-up is that Julius Caesar wants something impressive to wow the Romans with at his next circus. His top geographer, Cartographus (of course), has a lead on where to find a griffin – the mythical half eagle/half-lion creature with horse’s ears. A warrior from Sarmatia (an area in Barbaricum) has been captured by the Romans and will lead them to the Griffin in exchange for her freedom.

And, so, a Roman legion heads east, where the shaman has already foreseen that Asterix and Obelix will be there to help his people protect their griffin.

The Sarmatian Amazonian warrior leads them on a merry chase, while Asterix and Obelix help to weaken the Roman forces. Obelix never calls the Romans stupid, but he does get to bat a bunch of them around. It’s the feel-good story of the year!

They even tag a banquet on at the end just because it’s supposed to be there.

A Quick Geography Lesson

Sarmatia is in an area today occupied by parts of the Ukraine, Russia, and the Balkans. 100 years after this story, they would push in on land controlled by the Romans, with the help of an alliance with the Germans. The Germans would later turn on them, but that’s another story.

Eventually, the Sarmatians would become part of the Slavic region of eastern Europe.

That’s the simple version of a much more complicated story. I recommend the Wikipedia entry for many more (occasionally mind-numbing) details.

Relevant to this book, in particular, the geographic area they occupied is well known for its steppes, and its inhabitants were nomadic and liked to drink this kind of milk.

Oh, and the bit about women warriors? Ferri did not make that up:

Graves of armed women have been found in southern Ukraine and Russia. David Anthony noted that approximately 20% of Scythian-Sarmatian “warrior graves” … contained women dressed for battle as warriors and he asserts that encountering that cultural phenomenon “probably inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons”.

After reading the book, spending ten minutes of time researching things on Wikipedia and assorted places made me appreciate it even more. Ferri did take the broad facts of what is known about Sarmatian culture, and applied it to this story in a cartoony way.

Magic Potion-less

At its core, “Asterix and the Griffin” is an Asterix-versus-the-Romans tale, where he practically plays with them as he picks them off, one by one. The twist on this one is that he has no Magic Potion to work with. It froze on the way out and lost all of its magic powers. Getafix can’t make a new batch quickly enough. (It’s a twist on the “Getafix as a Bus Factor of 1” issue.)

Asterix discovers his potion is frozen, but he and Obelix are going to go beat the Romans, anyway
Asterix discovers his potion is frozen, but he and Obelix are going to go beat up the Romans, anyway

It leads to Asterix standing up against the Roman army with only his wits and his small sword. Thankfully, Obelix is there to be the muscle and do most of the damage, but Asterix shows his usual cunning to out-think and out-plan the Romans, while showing off some fighting skills he learned along the way.

It’s an interesting twist for the book. There’s a slight worry for Asterix that he might get hurt here, and that directly attacking the Romans without magic potion might not be the brightest idea. It doesn’t hold him back, though.

Depending on your point of view, this shows Asterix as either brave and sure of himself, or suicidal and stupid.

The other thing that helps him, besides Obelix, is the large grouping of Amazonian warriors behind him. As I mentioned at the top, it’s the women who are the warriors, and they turn out to be much more fearsome than the easily-distracted Roman warriors from “Asterix and the Secret Weapon.”

However, Ferri may have walked into another potential political criticism here. Throughout the book, the women of Sarmatia want to storm ahead and beat back all the Romans. Asterix has to keep stopping them, pointing out that they have one of their own held hostage. A full-frontal attack on the Romans would endanger her.

So, there you have it — Asterix as the white savior trope, except it’s the “smart” savior edition, I guess.

I mean, just look how smug Asterix looks:

Asterix knows how to deal with the Romans, all right

No, I’m not saying that. I think that’s pushing it too far. It’s more about the brains winning out over the brawn, which is something we’ve seen happen countless times in Asterix and much of literature. Even Obelix has sometimes jumped into action when he should have thought first. We’ve seen other warrior cultures fighting instead of thinking, too, like the Goths, the Normans, and even the Romans at times. (Especially the Normans, though in “Asterix and the Normans” they’re trying to learn what it means to “fear,” so the power imbalance is tipped a little.)

It doesn’t matter who takes up which side. It’s the point of contention between the two sides. And since the argument most writers want to make is “might doesn’t make right,” it’s always the thinkers who win out.

But when you define the two sides by their gender roles as this book does, you open yourself up to people looking to criticize anything and everything that they can grab onto.

I think it’s funny in the Asterix style that this village has these roles reversed. I think it makes sense that the fierce warriors would be prone to want to go into battle since they’re so good at it. I also think that Asterix makes great points for when to think first.

But, I’m telling you. Somewhere in the next couple of weeks as the book is released in America, someone is going to write a thought piece about this kind of thing.

But the Book is Funny, too!

Having said all that, this book is less an adventure and more a straight comedy. Yes, there’s the hunt for the griffin, but that’s almost an afterthought to the attempts to free the hostage and stop the Romans. Jean-Yves Ferri’s script balances the two quite nicely.

The Druid gets some good laughs in as he tries to get the ingredients he needs for a fresh batch of Magic Potion. There’s a bit of a translation issue there, and one that couldn’t have been easy to deal with for the poor translator, Adriana Hunter.

The Sarmatians speak with all of their “E”s backward. It’s a nice way to hint at an accent without overdoing it, which happened in the previous book, “Asterix and the Chieftain’s Daughter.” It never hurt my eyes to read their dialogue.

The Romans have their own set of funny circumstances. The grunts all want a moment with their hostage, who’s a beautiful woman the likes of which they’re never around.

The Romans are smitten with their hostage

At the head of the Roman group is Cartographus, the animal combat expert Vainglorius, and the centurion Intrepidus. They don’t get along so well and have different perspectives on every situation. Previous grudges come into play, like a missed encounter with a Cyclops that proved embarrassing. Cartographus is exhausted at having to explain science to the other two. The three of them just get on each other’s nerves, and that’s a lot of fun.

The entire book is a slow burn of the Romans. As their ranks are decimated and things get uncomfortable, you can watch them almost physically degrade. Their makeshift forts that the Romans were so famous for building overnight become more dilapidated and silly-looking. They have one last push near the end, but the writing was on the wall the entire time.

They also have a pair of guides from the area who are low key funny. They talk like real estate agents trying to sell a house when they’re asked to explain anything.

Obelix has a running gag with his worry for Dogmatix, who ran off with a pack of wolves to play. And, yes, once he did that I was counting down the pages before I knew he’d return at just the right moment to save the day. (Spoiler: I was right.) Dogmatix is the star of his own television show now. He had to contribute something to this book!

But Obelix is such an affable giant. He’s super strong, but also ridiculously sensitive. He worries about his dog and is thinking about him to the exclusion of nearly everything else — including the Sarmatian warrior who has a little crush on him that leaves him red-faced more than once.

There’s also a running gag where the Sarmatian warriors are often referred to as Amazons, often with a pun on the world’s largest retailer. The first time it came up, I literally laughed out loud. There are a few of those jokes in this book. A couple of them are a bit of a reach, but the ones that came through the most naturally are terrific.

Asterix is making Amazon jokes

I couldn’t help it. I took a picture of a panel for this one. I checked the French version of this panel and it’s the same gag. There are no translator liberties being taken here.

Yes, it feels a little weird to read modern references in a series whose heydey was in the 1960s and early 1970s, but I can accept it. These aren’t the first such references Ferri has used in the series. They work best with some restraint, which he does show here.

It also threw me a bit because I tend to think about “Amazon Women” or “Amazonians” as women who live on an island or just off the Amazon river. I never really thought of “Amazon” as being a person like those kinds of Amazonians. But that’s all part of the definition:

characteristic of or like an Amazon; powerful and aggressive; warlike.

There you have it. It’s not as much of a stretch as I first thought. And as mentioned at the top, these women may very well be the origin of the Amazon story from whence that word comes.

There’s a dating app reference on page 22 that I have a feeling we won’t see in the American translation of the book. I checked the French edition and the gag is an addition from Hunter. (700 days on DuoLingo is finally working for me here.)

All of this is funny due to the unique combination of Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad’s work. Ferri can structure a story and write good one-liners, but it’s up to Conrad to sell them. He elevates them. He paces them on a page. He gives the reader all the cues they need to understand what’s going on. He adds the visual background gags.

Let’s talk about him — and his collaborator — next:

Didier Conrad and Thierry Mébarki’s Remarkable Visual Work

Perhaps it’s the change in scenery, but Conrad’s work on “Asterix and the Griffin” is the best of all the volumes he’s worked on so far.

There’s an immense amount of detail in the work, of course, as you need to have to keep up with Uderzo’s legacy. He draws a large number of Roman soldiers in a given panel multiple times, and they all look great. The character designs fit right into this universe. The Romans don’t all look alike. Likewise, the Sarmatians are very individualistic. The warriors have unique silhouettes and shapes.

Didier is very consistent with all of the regular series characters, too. I didn’t spot an off-model panel in the book. He’s made these characters his own, even if they’re still 95% Uderzo’s design.

Obelix smashes some Romans

On top of all that, he just draws expressive characters who are fun to watch act across the page. Whether it’s the infighting Romans growing physically angry with each other or Obelix worrying over Dogmatix or scared Roman soldiers guarding their makeshift encampment overnight, he sells every moment.

The Samaritan warrior women return to camp in Asterix and the Griffin

He has more half-page splash panels than I can remember in any Asterix books, but for good reason. They’re important details, whether to establish a setting or to fit in a large melee, or just to make a great cinematic moment. There’s one particularly memorable one he pulls off during a big reveal on page 40 in the book. You’ll know it when you see it.

Conrad also has no problems drawing horses. Most artists run screaming from the very thought of drawing those creatures. I’m half certain that the death of the western comic in North America is just from artists afraid of having to draw horses. Conrad jumps right into it, as he previously proved in “Asterix and the Chariot Race.” They look great, too!

He has a nice variety of horses, too. It’s not just a rubber stamp of the same horse. Pay particular attention to the horse Obelix is riding, because that poor mare is visibly struggling!

Obelix's horse fights to carry his weight

It’s just as important to acknowledge the coloring work here of Thierry Mebarki. This is a bright and colorful work that shows off the art.

Casting these characters in front of walls of white forest gives them a better chance of popping. Mebarki knows just how far to go in detailing those backgrounds, usually using shades of blue to present some shadow work without ever looking too busy. A few soft gradients and you can give a full forest a lot of depth. Mebarki does that here.

Most impressive all, his colors are still flat. Holding true to the tradition of the book’s original style, there are no shadows everywhere. There are pages at nighttime where Conrad draws a strong black area to indicate contrast between fire and the night, but there’s no shadows on everything from the folds of a Roman’s cape to the outer edge of an exposed arm. It’s all completely flat. The gradients are only used on the environments.

That’s something you don’t see too often today.

Tribute to Uderzo

I didn’t catch this on my first read-through of the book. I forgot the timing, But Uderzo’s death came in March 2020, not too many months after “Asterix and the Chieftain’s Daughter”. This book was early in its development, but it was the one in production at that time.

Tribute to Albert Uderzo on the last panel of "Asterix and the Griffin"

Look in the corner at the final banquet for an owl carrying his bindle and walking away with a tear in his eye. It’s the mirror image of the rabbit walking away from the banquet at the end of “Asterix in Belgium.” The rabbit was Goscinny, and the owl is Uderzo.

I’m also guessing Dogmatix’s howling is also part of that. Dogmatix was an addition by Uderzo to “Asterix and the Banquet.” He was just a little background addition that Uderzo wanted to draw that kept showing up throughout the book. Fan reaction to his appearance was so strong that they kept him around.

Best Name in the Book

“Asterix and the Griffin” has a lot of names. I have to admit that there are some I still don’t get. Maybe they’ll make more sense in the American edition.

The hostage’s name is Kalishnikova, which is a good name for a warrior.

The shaman’s name is Fanciakuppov, which I also love for its pure Britishness, which means it likely won’t surived the Papercutz translation. (The French name is Cèkankondine, which my DuoLingo training is no good for.)

But there’s one moment that caught me right as I read it. Fanciakuppov is introducing the Gauls to the people in his village. It includes “Korduv, who delivers firewood” and is a mirror image of Obelix.

Obelix meets his mirror in Samartian territory

But the one that got me was “Distilalotov, who keeps us in good spirits.” It’s a double pun! How can I not love that one? Here, I drew an arrow to him:

Asterix and Obelix meeting the Sarmatians

Recommended?

Asterix and the Griffin cover for Asterix v39

Yes.

You’re not getting Goscinny back. It’s a different book now. This is a much lighter book with some good joke construction and beautiful art. It’s a fun romp, basically.

I’d go so far as to say it’s my second favorite Asterix book in the Ferri/Conrad era, just after “Asterix and the Missing Scroll.”

Buy It Now!

I bought the British edition of “Asterix and the Griffin” through a dealer in America on AbeBooks.

This is the first new Asterix book to be published by the “Sphere” imprint of Little, Brown Books at Hachette. It used to be on Hachette’s “Orion” label, but that all got rearranged earlier this year.

For the American Papercutz edition, you can find it in the usual places like Amazon (that’s an affiliate link) and Comixology, where it doesn’t appear to be on pre-order yet. Or maybe they just want you to buy it off Amazon since the two are in the long slow process of merging together.


What do YOU think? (First time commenters' posts may be held for moderation.)

26 Comments

  1. It would be interesting to do a second pass at this when you get your hands on the Papercutz version of this to pinpoint the differences between UK and US sensibilities. I have a few ideas about what they’re going to change.

    I have to agree with you that Conrad very much holds his own when compared to Uderzo, he’s not the master, sure, but he gets pretty close at this point.

    As for Ferri, well, I’m definitely not as forgiving as you are. I wanted to read it twice to give him a fair chance, I was at the library with an afternoon to kill so what the heck. Now. First of all, I don’t want to spoil anything, but the “quest” is totally disappointing. And not in a Cauldron way, since there is no smart twist at the end to redeem it and pay off. Second, contrary to the way you see it, my take on situating the story with the Sarmates (Sarmatians?) makes it to me totally miss the mark of what an Astérix book is about, because this take is way too bland and generic. What made Corsica, Belgians or Hispania funny is that we knew those people throughout history, we know how they are in modern times, they have quirks, peculiar traits on which to hang the situations, the characterization and the jokes in a way to enhance the story. Here, there is nothing to hang on to. The reversal of gender roles, main attribute to these people, is either ultimate wokism or a pendulum-type preventive strike against potential criticism, which was sure to irk the more traditional fringe of society here anyway, as pandering. Side note here, in French, an amazon (small A) is generic for a strong independent woman, if not in stature, at least in character and attitude. It’s a Nouvelle Vague 60’s thing here, don’t ask. From your side of things, think Brigitte Nielsen in her heyday. We like that sort of thing. But Ferri’s take on it has no bite, sadly. As for the Amazon (capital A) jokes, they caught me by surprise too. Had to do a double take on the first one, thinking “what is going on?”. I cracked a smile at the second, then a sigh after that, yes Jean-Yves, we see what you’re doing. They seem very out of place in this book and I really wondered why they bothered me since Goscinny was also very topical sometimes (remember the Antar mascot in one of the earlier books, for example, that was weird but that was not the point of that sequence, just a side gag for those in the know). I guess most of RG’s puns were more universal, more subtle, less on the nose, RG takes a stab at human nature, capitalism, the army, administrations, that sort of thing. Read those books today, you don’t necessarily get everything 50 years later, without contextualization, but I read the first few albums in the series about 10 years after they were published and I “got” it nonetheless. You can see very obviously here that Ferri came up with the jokes first, then shoehorned his script to make them fit in. This feels forced and might not hold for long, 15 or 20 years from now. Then again they might not care about the long term at all.

    My overall impression of this book is “not as bad as I thought it would” but still feels like a Monkees version of Nowhere Man. If I take your rosy glasses, I could go with “as good as it can possibly be, given the times and the circumstances”. Yes the owl thing was a lovely touch.

    Oh I almost forgot, since you’re the lettering guru. The reverse E everywhere, NO NO NO NO and NO. Made the whole read extremely annoying. In a Claremont’s Gambit way. Sorry. NO.

    Now, one of the things I would thoroughly enjoy reading from you in the near future (no pressure) is, considering your nigh-fluency in French, a threeway analysis/comparison of the early albums French text vs B&H vs Papercutz translation. Fun and educational for the whole family.

    1. Yes, I’m a softie. I want to like comics. 😉 And I think Ferri is moving away from the kind of humor that relies on your knowledge of the people in the first place. I can’t say as I blame him for trying to stay out of that pit of lava. It’s almost not worth jumping in. Modern society has sucked the fun out of good-natured ribbing. Everything is so literal and everything is socially evil when you don’t like it.

      So we get a different Asterix. In a way, I almost prefer it this way. Let Ferri go off on his own so he doesn’t always have to be compared to Goscinny for trying to do the same thing. Just keep giving me the verbal fights and the knock down/drag out brawls along with a fair bit of wordplay, and I’ll be happy. We aren’t getting ANYTHING like that over here these days, so I’ll take it from France.

      In many ways, I don’t disagree with what you’re saying. I’m just training myself to accept it for what it is, and get the best out of a not-great situation. =)

  2. I rather enjoyed the French version, can’t say I’ve read the British one yet – but it seems that it might be worth the purchase. I’ve always been a fan of Asterix. The first book I ever bought was Asterix and the Laurel Wreath – I was probably aged 5 or 6 and not aware it was translated from French at the time. The person who made reading the series so enjoyable though was Anthea Bell, the translator who turned Goscinny’s words into something even better. There’s been a lot of debate about her translations not suiting the US market, but my view is that cultural differences were to blame rather than language (no matter what NBM/Papercutz might say). Indeed, the late, great, Kim Thompson of Fantagraphics once described Bell’s work as “the gold standard” of comics translation and who could argue?

    1. Without a doubt, Bell was a translating genius and came up with so many of the names the English-speaking world associated with Asterix. It helps that she got to work with Goscinny in the earliest days, too, I’m sure. And, yes, I’m with you on the cultural differences. I do occasionally trip over one that sticks out to my American mind as I forget I’m reading a British translation. (Someone will mention a lorry or something and it’ll stop me dead in my tracks.) It’s not wrong or bad; I just chuckle over it and move on. I also like the British sense of humor, so I’m a sucker for that.

      I imagine you’re probably fine with the original French, but what do I know? I can only half read that one. 😉

    2. There’s seems to be a tendency now to downplay or even erase altogether Derek Hockridge’s role in translating Asterix for an English audience. He lived and taught in France for a period of every year and more so than Bell, was the expert on French culture and society. He was undoubtedly a very important part of the success of the translations. IMO several head scratching moments crept in to the solo Bell translations, where none had existed before, I attribute that to Hockridge’s absence.

      1. Agreed. The two were a pair, and that should not be forgotten. Given all her other translation work, she’s the one who tends to get all the credit, but he for sure was the one who kept up with the culture and provided the background for the translation work that kept the series on track for so long. I think, though, that Bell was the one who did most of the wordplay that we remember the most, particularly with the names.

        1. They were a team from the outset, but with specific roles. Hockridge brought his knowledge of France and Bell her linguistics. So, I don’t think he played much of a part in the actual writing, Bell was 95% responsible for the final translations but only got 50% of the credit. “When Brockhampton Press […] decided to translate Asterix, the intention was that Hockridge, a lecturer and frequent visitor to France, would ensure that every scrap of topical, cultural and morphological humour had been spotted in the French, and Bell, as a translator, would find suitable English equivalents.” (Kessler 1995:59)

          1. That paragraph you quoted from Kessler goes on to say: “In fact we have often exchanged roles, and we came to work very much as a team. Collaboration is a useful way of tackling humour in general”. Where did you get the info that Bell was responsible for 95% of the translation? I’ve never heard that before.

  3. I’m thinking the next Asterix book, which will be the 40th book in the series will be called: Asterix in Portugal, which will come out in late 2023 or so. Where Asterix and Obelix go to Lusitania, now modern-day Portugal because Asterix and Obelix haven’t been to Portugal before in the Asterix series.

    1. The next album will be a village tale, so they won’t be travelling to Portugal or anywhere until the album after that. Personally I’d prefer to see them visit their Celtic brethren in Ireland but only if someone more talented and knowledgeable than Ferri did it.

        1. There is a pattern over the long term of the stories alternating between village tales and voyage tales, for lack of a better word. It isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it does tend to work out that way. We’ll see what Ferri comes up with next. He’ll go with whatever story he feels is the best, though, whether its village or voyage.

          Hey, I’m beginning to like this “Village and Voyage” terminology. =)

  4. I haven’t read this one, perhaps I will later. I do not share your general enthousiasm about Conrad and Ferri regarding their earlier stories, but I am glad that you enjoy them as much as you do.

    In all honesty, I am kind of miffed at your repeated insistence that ‘you cannot say anything anymore, political correctness gone mad yadadada’ because I think it reeks of sourness to the point of passing the sell-by date.

    I think ‘our room to make jokes is being infringed upon!’ is not the way to look at society growing more aware of its minorities and sensitivities and growing more inclusive and this also affecting its media. Rather, it’s a prodding to aim higher and to leave low-hanging fruit be. Satirical humour, as was the bread and butter of Goscinny, is not the same as kicking down, mocking easy targets or insulting people, though at times Goscinny also fell into that trap, as a person of his time. Satirical humour is about tearing away at pretenses, exposing true absurdities and even the cruelties of society and generally, ‘kicking up’ rather than down. Ridiculing the powerful, and or the reader, is far more risky and commendable than ridiculing minorities of any stripe. In general, social justice is not the antithesis to good humour that you seem to feel it is; it is an urging to think of cleverer, more meaningful jokes and placing the bar higher for what is actual satire. It tells writers and performers of any comedic medium to step their game up if they want to remain relevant or at least, not stale or vindictive.

    Giving Baba’s counterpart in Asterix big red lips is not clever, nor biting; it is getting cheap and needlessly insulting laughs (if that) from a person’s ethnicity and rightly does no longer fly in this day and age. Ridiculing the pretenses and actions of Romans and therefore current-day rulers, imperialists and mass culture is as applicable and potentially as clever as it could be in the 1970s and surely, as this comic also proves, can still be done today and will continue to be a great source of thought-out and actually meaningful humour as long as we have rulers and mass culture. Asterix is a perfect vessel for that and, even if I am not a great fan of Ferri ‘s writing (Conrad’s art is great-looking, even though I much prefer Uderzo), he at least tries not to be reactionary, which would be a great insult to Goscinny.

    1. You’re refuting a lot of stuff that I didn’t say.

      I don’t think it’s controversial or even deniable at all that Ferri has said that they’re avoiding the kind of humor that pokes fun at other nationalities. (And it’s all without being mean. Making a gag about lace in the Belgian book or showing the British drinking tea is hardly, er, “punching down.”) I never used any of the inflammatory language you seem to be associating with me.

      I just searched this website. I’ve never in 700+ articles used “woke”, “SJW”, or “politically correct”.

      If you’re sick of me talking about that stuff, you’ve been reading the wrong website and attributed me to it. I’m only writing here these days. Accept no substitutes!

      I just said that I’d miss it and that losing it undermines a lot of what made Asterix great. I understand why it won’t continue, and I’ll enjoy Asterix as a pure comedy that stays a safe distance away from the harmless poking fun of other cultures on the continent. It’s a different book now. It has to be. So the world turns.

      I pointed out the missing pirate because I’ve pointed out the problems he represents in reviews and articles on this very website in the past. (And I’m pretty sure JC disagreed with me there. He may have been the one to use the words “woke” or “politically correct” at me. 😉

      I think it’s obvious that some plot elements in the last couple books are reactions to perceived shortcomings of the series. I don’t necessarily agree with them, but there you have it. As the women warriors in this book have historical ties to the Amazons, I thought it was a clever use of them in this book. And, in the realm of “no good deed goes unpunished.” I can imagine the backlash it might get (should anyone in North America ever read the book besides me).

  5. I have to side with Augie here, it seems that there are people out there (or rather ideologically-motivated political groups) perpetually on the lookout for things to pretend getting offended about, mostly for attention but also in a clear attempt to undermine thousands of years of civilization. Either it’s done on purpose, or the education level is so low now that inmates are running the asylum. A joke is just a joke, a caricature is just a caricature, good-natured ribbing, in most cases, has no other intention than to make us crack a smile. That’s part of human nature. It’s how bonding works. For Pete’s sake, relax.

  6. What do folks on here think of the news that Goscinny left behind an unfinished story titled Asterix at the Circus, which was to be the next album? I’m assuming the Circus of the title refers to the Circus Maximus in Rome. If so, why was Goscinny writing another travel tale as the follow up to Belgium? Surely the next album should have been a Village tale? Did Anne Goscinny let the cat out of the bag with this announcement? If her father left behind a half completed travel tale, then isn’t there a strong possibility he left behind a completed village tale or at least a completed first draft. Perhaps he left several? Uderzo’s solo albums do suspiciously plummet in quality. Maybe this is why Anne Goscinny made the announcement only after Uderzo had died.

    1. If he left anything behind, I imagine it would only be the beginning of the next tale. MAYBE he had a file for rough ideas and maybe even loose plots or something — a junk drawer to throw all his random ideas into for later use.

      But these books were running so consistently that I doubt he had much time to get ahead.

      I just looked it up, TWO Asterix books came out in 1976. “Belgium” didn’t come out until 1979 due to Goscinny’s death in 1977 and Uderzo’s lack of conviction to finish it initially. From what I’ve read, Uderzo had to finish that book up himself. I don’t think Goscinny finished the end of the script on that one.

      So even though this material was just found — and I’ll give Anne Goscinny the benefit of the doubt here — I doubt it adds up to much. Maybe it can be used as a springboard to the next story. Who knows?

      1. I’ve heard conflicting accounts about Belgium but I believe Uderzo was in the middle of drawing it when Goscinny died, so I imagine Goscinny had completed the script by that point. I think Uderzo drew rain when he returned to complete it. I think Goscinny may well have left material behind but I agree it was probably just story outlines.

  7. This is intriguing. As much as I can remember from 1977, Uderzo stated at the time that there would be no more Astérix books following RG’s death, and it’s only under great pressure (or greed) that he produced Le Grand Fossé a few years later, from an idea by TV legend Pierre Tchernia. If such an unfinished script existed, as unlikely as it sounds, maybe respect and/or pride would have prompted Uderzo not to use it. A Circus books sounds suspiciously like Astérix Gladiateur though. Anne Goscinny’s motives and attitude towards Uderzo over the years do not inspire me great confidence in what she says, but then again you never know. She could try to pass one of her works as an RG original like the son of Winsor McCay did. She might just be trying to wrestle the franchise back to herself.

    1. Uderzo finished “Belgium” because he lost a lawsuit brought by his publisher. That left a bad taste in his mouth and he got out from under that publisher as soon as he could. The ultimate irony is that the legal decision was later reversed, but Uderzo had already finished the book.

      Why did Uderzo continue past that? Perhaps with a little time and space, he realized he still wanted to tell Asterix stories. Or maybe he wanted to maintain his collection of sports cars.

      The real fun and games was when Uderzo sold his interest in Asterix to Hachette and his daughter, Syvlie, was not happy. She compared Hachette to the Roman Empire and her father as the ultimate betrayer of the Gauls. It took seven years for the dust to settle on that kerfuffle. Goscinny’s daughter was happy with the sale to give Asterix a “third” life. (With RG, Without RG, and now without RG or Uderzo.)

  8. Wasn’t it Belgium he was pressured into completing though? I didn’t realise Anne Goscinny had a negative attitude towards Uderzo. I imagine the Circus story would probably see Asterix and Obelix involved in a Chariot race, probably referencing Ben Hur etc. If so, perhaps it dates to earlier than Belgium but was abandoned for whatever reason. Likewise, I’ve always wondered about the caricature of Connery in Black Gold, it seems strangely out of time, the same thing with the feminism subject matter in Secret Weapon. (I’m actually a fan of the latter, I think it’s one of the funnier Uderzo books) They both seem like concepts that date from the 60s and 70s. I think it’s possible if not likely Goscinny left behind some unfinished/abandoned material which was later mined for use after his death.

  9. Yes that was probably me using those terms, and I appreciate not being “moderated” (i.e. censored) when I did. That allows to have an open discussion and disagree in a civilised manner. I stand by what I said and I totally understand why one would prefer a more “diplomatic” approach. The point of a caricature is to magnify and exaggerate traits, is it always in “impeccable taste”, probably not, but humour is based on subverting expectations, the willingness to shock to incite laughter. In that regard, Goscinny was pretty good at reaching for the high road, but sometimes, he was just poking fun at his Pilote colleagues and Barbe Rouge was the perfect foil because at times it was a very cheesy, old-fashioned series. Nothing more, really. Digging deep to constantly find something to get outraged about is becoming a genuine concern here today. Sure, social justice has made some headway over the past centuries and we are all grateful for it, but that’s no reason to dismantle George Washington statues or plain rewrite/cancel history. Modern civilisation is the result of those centuries of growing pains, warts and all, we were what we were and we should just learn to make peace with it instead of basking in that perpetual repent mode with that Damoclesian sword potentially over all our heads for the rest of time because of all the “horrible” things our ancestors did or thought. Any shrink would tell you that’s not a healthy attitude.
    The famous British comedian Jimmy Carr once said that the joke which will eventually get him cancelled has probably already been written years ago, now just waiting for someone to dig it up and make a fuss about it. Sorry but I can’t help but find it sad if this is where we’re at right now.

  10. Ah yes you’re right I forgot about the lawsuit, which prompted Uderzo to eventually divorce Dargaud. Family feuds in the Astérix world have only marginally been documented so I’m sure there would be plenty to discover.

  11. Damn – a new Asterix book and I missed it.

    At this point though, I don’t think I’ve really enjoyed an Asterix book since Asterix and the Secret Weapon, and the last properly good one was Asterix and Son.

    Probably time to stop being a completionist.

    1. I’m the same, of the new albums I bought the first three and read the last two without purchasing but have since given the Picts, Missing Scroll, and Chariot Race to the local library. They all felt like they were written by a committee, in fact I’m beginning to suspect Ferri’s just a paid front man. The Secret Weapon is also the last one I truly enjoyed and laughed at, it came out when I was 13 and was the last album I read for many years. I remember Uderzo retired after that and I assumed the series was done and by that point I had other teenage interests.😄 Years later I came across The Falling Sky in a bookshop (I didn’t even know of the existence of the Actress and the well named All at Sea) and was shocked at how bad it was. It did at least prompt me to dig out all my old albums just to check they were as good as I remembered.