The Coronavirus and — Asterix?!?
In 2017, writer Jean-Yves Ferri and artist Didier Conrad created the 37th book in the Asterix series, “Astérix et la Transitalique”, translated into English as “Asterix and the Chariot Race“.
Little did they know how the name of their villain would, just a couple years later, become a household name.
In the story, Asterix and Obelix participated in a chariot race through Italy. Their biggest competitor was a masked mad — a helmeted man, really — who raced for Julius Caesar.
Here’s his introduction. Get a load of that name:
Yup, Coronavirus.
Back in 2017, “Coronavirus” was just a normal scientific term for any virus with a crown-like structure. When you’re racing for the honor of Julius Caesar’s crown, it’s a fitting name.
I didn’t even get that joke at the time. Many didn’t, unless you had been reading scientific papers for more information about SARS or something…
Now, I do. And so does everyone else. The Coronavirus outbreak has spread worldwide. Large gatherings are being canceled left and right (like Emerald City Comic Con and SXSW just earlier today) in an attempt to stop its spread.
People are actually washing their hands now! That’s how you know that people are scared.
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Naming Coronavirus and His Little Friend
So good was the “Coronavirus” name that it survived translation intact from the French to the English.
The man sitting next to Coronavirus in his chariot has a scientific name, too. It’s “Bacillus.” That’s a rod-shaped bacteria.
Jean-Yves Ferri knew what he was doing!
The Coronavirus Introduction
The release of a new Asterix book is a huge deal in France. A new volume means an initial worldwide print run in the millions. With that comes a certain marketing hype cycle.
In this case, there was a press conference to announce the title of the new book and to introduce the villain of the book. With his flowing cape and golden helmet, Coronavirus fit the bill along the same lines as a Doctor Doom. (Except Coronavirus was a so-so charioteer whose only chance of winning was to destroy everyone else’s chariot first. That’s no superpower.)
The introduction of Coronavirus even included someone in a Coronavirus suit! Yes, next to Asterix and Obelix, and the book’s creators, Ferri and Conrad, stood Coronavirus:
If you’re looking for the human embodiment of Coronavirus, now you have it. And he has delightfully strappy sandals, too…
Somehow, I bet he’s not a draw at Parc Asterix. He’d be the first character at a theme park everyone actively avoids taking a picture with…
As it is, this is the last time Coronavirus could pass through Italy without shutting the entire country down.
Was It a Good Story? (With Spoilers)
It wasn’t the best Asterix book, no. It has some serious flaws, though I imagine less discerning readers — like the kids Asterix is mostly aimed at — would have a fun time with it.
My biggest problem with the book at the time was Coronavirus, himself. There’s no good reason to have him in a mask. You’d think that would be done to hide a surprise identity, but it’s not.
He’s just a normal chariot racer working for Caesar, who didn’t realize how he was being manipulated. So he quits. He doesn’t like being part of the scam. He was hoodwinked by Caesar.
In keeping with the medical/scientific terms of art being used in the book, the real charioteer under the mask is named “Testus Terone.” Read it out loud if you don’t get it: “testosterone.” He’s very manly.
Imagine everyone’s surprise when Coronavirus re-enters the race the next day:
At the end of the book, we learn that it’s Caesar behind the mask now:
This explains the mask — it as all to get us to this point at the end of the book where Caesar could surprise us by his appearance. He pays some lip service to enjoying competition and how the sportsmanship reminded him of his misspent youth.
As happens a lot in the post-Goscinny era of Asterix, Caesar’s grudging admiration for the stubborn Gauls wins the day.
There’s also the matter that the race is rigged in Coronavirus’ favor and nobody realizes it despite all the blatantly obvious sabotage happening around them. Characters have to play too dumb for this story to work.
He’s not a terribly strong villain, and it takes too much work to establish his main hook.
Times Change, But Not That Much
In 2020, coronavirus is the ultimate villain, capable of wiping out store shelves of antibacterial soap and Purell…
Asterix’s Coronavirus is just another case of a comic “predicting the future” in some way, or including images that were too easily decontextualized due to world events in the real world at the same time:
- There was the time a Wonder Woman cover had a cover with the headline, “Diana, Princess of Themyscira, Stuck Down” right after Princess Diana was killed as she was chased by paparazzi.
- Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld had just finished destroying the top levels of the Twin Towers in a Spider-Man/X-Force crossover before the first World Trade Center bombing.
- Superman had a story with Lex Luthor’s two Metropolis towers in flames the same week as 9/11.
The question is, will the next Asterix book feature a villain named COVID-19? And the obvious answer is no. That book likely won’t be out until the holiday season of 2021, if they maintain the every-other-year schedule. Hopefully, by then, we’ll be moving onto the next world-ending issue again…
But do keep an eye out for that book when it does get announced. I’ll cover it here, of course.
Who knows what we might learn from history next to expect in the future?
Pipeline Covers “Asterix and the Chariot Race”
I covered news of the press conference releasing the book’s cover when it happened mere weeks before the book’s release at the end of 2017.
I reviewed the book shortly before starting the Asterix Agenda, where I spent the next year writing new reviews of every Asterix book to date.
After reading the previous 36 volumes in the series, I came back to the book with a new perspective. Unfortunately, it was less kind to the book overall.
Odds are pretty good that the automated “Related Posts” section coming up next will also have links to all of those stories.
The Podcast Version of This Article
If you’d prefer an audio presentation, this article served as the loose script for Episode 42 of the Pipeline Comics podcast. You can listen to it here:
The term Coronavirus is well known here since we’ve had a few of those before, we had H1N1 a few years back, for example, that made a big impact on the news, so it makes sense for a villain’s name.
It bears repeating that the name of this current virus is COVID 19, Coronavirus being just a type of things, It would be like calling a dog “Dog” instead of “Cujo”.
The only other example I can think of is this poor Andrea Thomas that DC had to rename because years later ISIS had a whole different meaning. It’s unfortunate, but given human nature and how stupid people can sometimes be, not much you can do about it. I mean, I heard the other day that sales of Corona beer are plummeting barely because of the name similarity. How idiotic is that? It’s BEER! I need one right now 🙂
Hi JC, you are right, Coronavirus is just a family of virus and the current pandemic (as of 2020) just happen to be caused by one of its member. I don’t want to be annoying but just want to say here that H1N1 is a flu also known as an Influenza virus. It is not a Coronavirus. Coronavirus is not a flu. Have a great day!
Yeah, the media here tends to stick with the fancy, entertaining names. We only know of “SARS” and “Swine Flu” and the like. I’m sure somewhere very deep in those articles, someone mentioned “coronavirus,” but that word didn’t take off until this time around. And now “COVID 19” just sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie (and has a number everyone forgets) and “Coronavirus” was pretty well burned into everyone’s minds already. While some journalistic outlets are going with “COVID 19” and then referencing “Coronavirus” early in their stories for clarity, everyone in conversation is sticking with “coronavirus.”
No, of course it doesn’t make sense. Ah, humanity!
Now excuse me while I indulge in a perfectly harmless Diet Pepsi… 😉
Are the Asterix comics indeed aimed mostly at kids anymore? I would guess the demographics shifted over the years and at least from my German experience, older people are much more likely to know them (with some detail apart from the names) and buy the books.
They’re still classified as “Children’s” books by the publisher, and I think they try to keep the reading level at that point. That’s all that counts. Who actually is buying the books? I don’t know, but it’s still in the millions when a new book comes out. =)
This is a good point. I’ve seen the same thing in France recently, some classic BD series like Asterix considered for old people, just because it’s a generational effect, you had to be a kid in the 60s or 70s to understand all the references that make half the humour of the books. Kids these days are more turned towards manga, I see this very clearly with my sister’s children. And I’m only mentioning here those who actually bother to read. It seems that a lot of teens and young adults have never read a book that was not forced on them by school. This is very sad.
Yeah, most kids now read Manga and don’t care about the classics like Asterix, Lucky Luke etc
The worst right now seems to be how Spirou doesn’t know what to do, accidentally having diluted the original with all the “Spirou De” books confusing new readers (I personally love the Schwartz and Yann ones), and now the character is currently being rebooted as Super Groom to try and get the kids to read it, but will probably only dilute it more, which is sad and a bit pathetic in my opinion.
I’m French Canadian and it’s the same trend here, when I go to the big bookstore in the English section the younger people are all browsing manga and it’s mostly adults in the American (Marvel DC) section.
Speaking of, is everyone doing okay in your neck of the woods? I heard New York City was resisting the confinement, but Casa Augie is up in the wilderness 🙂 Here in Bruxelles we can circulate a bit but most commercial activity is down to remote except food outlets. I work from my office with my part-time assistant almost as usual (even better since the phone is not ringing constantly). Paris is in worse situation, with Police outside enforcing the circulation ban. I just read some article saying it could last 6 weeks or more. We’ll all be broke by then.
Thanks for asking, and yes, we’re doing fine. Thankfully, I have a job where I can work from home and, in fact, have been working from home two days a week for the last two or three years. I haven’t been in the office for a week and a half now, and don’t see that changing anytime soon…
We’ve been using lots of delivery services and curbside pickup kinds of things to get the essentials, but it is kind of scary out there. The supermarkets are all a disaster. People are crazy. We’re trying to hunker down and avoid people as much as possible. So far, so good.
All the schools are “remote learning” now, and I have to wonder how Google is holding up. They must be getting a ton of traffic. The schools here in the States love Chromebooks and Google Docs….
Things are tightening up a bit, and non-essential folks are basically told to stay home after 8:00 p.m. But, personally, my family is OK. My wife’s a teacher, so she’s learning how to teach from home this week and starting that next week.
You just stay put and get your work done. =)
It’s fun to have Coronavirus revealed to be/look like French 4-time F1 champion Alain Prost but I agree the payoff isn’t big enough.
Also speaking of Asterix, his co creator, Albert Uderzo died today at the ripe old age of 93 years old.
I just read the Astérix and the Chariot Race last night. I thought it’s absolutely hilarious, I was laughing out loud on almost the entire book. As a petrol head and race car 🏎 & F1 fan it’s a brilliant & genius take on the Mille Miglia world famous race accros Italy. The story and the names and the cartoons make it perfect fun read for everyone from age 5 to 15 to adults. I’m now 55 years old and love Astérix books as much now as I did as a kid. In fact they are even funnier now as you understand the jokes and the names so much better than when your 5 to 10 years old 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Alas, the racing humor is lost on me, though I know Uderzo was a big race car fan, too. And you hit on a great part of the Asterix humor — it does work across many levels. It never gets old, it just matures into something new, different, and better as you go….