Episode 19: Asterix to America Via Papercutz
What, you thought I’d be giving Asterix a rest after Asterix Week a couple weeks ago?
So did I.
Then the big news hit, and we need to have a chat about it.
Papercutz picked up the license for Asterix and will start reprinting the entire series in the spring of 2020. They’ll make omnibus books while also printing the new individual albums as they go, starting with “Asterix and the Chieftain’s Shield.”
But they’re shrinking the book size and re-translating the scripts.
Should we be worried?
Yes, of course we should. But don’t give up hope yet!
I’ll also talk about what this means for lettering, what the digital comics situation is, what extra material they might need, and whether Papercutz might want to adjust some coloring, too.
This podcast is based on my article, “Papercutz Brings Asterix to America. Finally. Should I Worry?“
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I am really worried this is done by papercutz especially how they handled the hardcover anthologies of the work of Peyo.
They either are delaying or just cancelled those anthology hardcovers and they might do the same thing with Asterix books.
Honestly IDW or Dark horse would have been a better choice.
I’m guessing those Smurfs HCs just didn’t sell well enough to continue with them. I wish they were still going, but they had an aggressive price point on them, and without strong sales, the line was doomed.
Honestly, Asterix could suffer the same fate, though the timeline is fast enough here that I almost think they’d have the whole series published before they had time to realize they were losing money. 😉
I know other publishers were looking into the license, but I don’t know who submitted proposals or how Hachette made their decision. I’d love to know, but we never will.
Comics is a frustrating game.
Really hope after IDW is done with the Hugo Pratt library they get the license for the Peyo library or the Hermann library