Plan Your #Asterix60 Carefully

ActuaBD.com has a story this week about all the plans for Asterix’s 60th anniversary. Some of it is stuff we’ve covered here before, but there’s some new and interesting tidbits to be gleaned from it, too.

At Angouleme, Asterix will make an appearance as a 30 foot tall statue or something. A sign? A balloon? I can’t wait for those pictures to start coming out of France in a couple of weeks. Then I’ll jut be jealous of everyone else who is there, while I’m stuck on this side of the Atlantic…

The “Asterix and the Magic Potion” movie is coming to Blu-ray in April. Will it include an English dub or subtitles? I hope so. If it does, I might just order it from overseas.

The anthology book of all-star creators doing their own Asterix pin-ups and shorts is scheduled for September, just before the official anniversary and, of course, the 38th book in the overall series.

They are reprinting the original “Asterix the Gaul” album as a deluxe edition, including Goscinny’s script straight out of his typewriter alongside Uderzo’s black and white art, and then a bunch of pages with sketches and deleted material. It’s super limited, though: only 800 copies. There’s a $200 price tag attached, too.

My new Bucket List item is to make the reviewers/comp list at Hachette or Editions Albert-Rene just so I can get my hands on books like this. (Hey, it’s a Bucket List item. Might as well aim big!)

The National Library of France will be showing the original art pages from “Asterix the Gaul,” “Asterix in Belgium,” and “Asterix and the Golden Sickle,” which they own the entirety of. That’s pretty cool.

Now, if they could just let the fine folks at IDW visit with their scanner for a couple of days, we could get an amazing “Artist’s Edition” over here…

Lots to Look Forward To

2018 was an exciting year for reading and talking about Asterix here, but 2019 looks to be an exciting and on-going celebration of our favorite Gauls.

Party on, Asterix!