Pipeline and Sundry: The President and Lucky Luke, Parisian Cigars, and Asterix’s Anniversary

The Cowboy and the President

Dargaud is publishing a new Lucky Luke book this week week (07 November 2018).  They threw a party to celebrate it.  Not going small, the party happened at the Eiffel Tower.

The guests included a previous President of France, François Hollande.

No big deal.

 

No Smoking Allowed

the following tweet shows you a picture of the cover to the fifth volume of what we in English call “The Old Geezers.”  It’s coming out in a few days.  It’s a wonderful series. I’ve reviewed the first couple of volumes here:

Series writer, Wil Lupano, tweeted something interesting earlier today:

The RATP is basically the mass transit authority in Paris.  They control, amongst other things, the ads that are shown on the trains, buses, etc.  They rejected this cover from appearing in their system.

Why?  See that character on the left?  He has a cigar (unlit) in his mouth.

Can’t have that now…

This is a problem Joe Quesada had the foresight to remove from Marvel Comics 15 years ago.  Of course, we don’t advertise comic books in North America the way they do in France, so it’s not an issue here.

Update: Follow the thread on Twitter.  The poster has been allowed through now.  Not sure if this was a miscommunication along the way or a change in policy, though.  It is, however, a happy ending for a wonderful series.

 

A New Asterix Book in 2019

Next year is the 60th anniversary of Asterix. I’ll have reviewed all the books by then, I promise.

They’re putting together an art book to celebrate this anniversary, and BleedingCool has an open call for artists to contribute.

It’s always exciting to live in a time when a new Asterix book is on its way…

Who would you like to see draw an Asterix pin-up?  The first name I thought of, sadly enough, was Mike Wieringo.  He’d draw a great Asterix and Obelix, and he would have loved to draw Dogmatix, I’m sure.  After his name, Stuart Immonen came to mind.  He contributed a Dogmatix story to a previous short story collection a number of years ago.  (Maybe for the 50th anniversary?  The book has never been translated, sadly.)

I hope we see someone like Jose Luis Munuera, Pierre Alary, or Brice Cossu with a pin-up in the book, but I know this casting call is specifically for North American talent.  So who else is out there?  I’d like to see Erik Larsen take a swing at it.  Or Walt Simonson.  Art Adams?   Skottie Young?  Imagine the blood of a Ryan Ottley pin-up?  OK, maybe that wouldn’t work so well…

Now, if only they needed a North American writer for the book….  Someone who has all the books fresh in his mind…  Someone who’s written more than 60,000 words already in the last year about the series….

via GIPHY