The Asterix #40 Saga Begins
They slipped the news out quietly in December. In the years I’ve been covering this, new Asterix books have traditionally been announced in January. (See the announcement for “Asterix and the Griffin” from January 3, 2021, e.g.)
This news drop was so quiet that I didn’t even see it until a week later.
The fortieth Asterix album will be released on October 26, 2023.
This isn’t a surprise at all. Asterix is on an every-other-year release cadence, and the end of October is the usual release date.
But! There was one big surprise with the news. Jean-Yves Ferri is not writing this book. While Didier Conrad is handling art duties for the sixth time, he’s being joined by writer Fabcaro (Fabrice Caro), who writes both graphic novels and novels.
From what I’ve read in comments on various news articles, this is a one-off for Fabcaro. Didier plans on being back for the next book, but was too busy to handle this one.
In other words, don’t go looking for any scandals here.
The “Preview”
Le 40e album des aventures d’#Asterix sera publié le 26 octobre 2023 ! Pour cette nouvelle aventure, nous sommes heureux d’annoncer l’arrivée d’un nouvel irréductible au scénario : #Fabcaro !
— @asterixofficiel (@asterixofficiel) December 20, 2022
Accompagné du talentueux Didier Conrad au dessin ! pic.twitter.com/PRs0GKU7MJ
Asterix and Obelix take advantage of the nice weather on the northern French coastline to eat their boar outside. Villagers repeatedly walk by with their eating advice, most of which has to do with eating healthier and exercising.
If the stories follow their usual pattern, this would be a story set in the Village and not in a faraway land. Will this book focus on Obelix being overweight, getting the publisher in trouble for body shaming? Will it be about a thinning of the boar population due to over-hunting? Will this be the biting satire on veganism that we know nobody would ever publish for fear of being canceled?
Just think of the wild possibilities that could cause big headlines!
Let wild theories run amok!
There’s a Movie On Its Way, Too
In the run-up to Asterix #39, my prediction was that the book would take place in China, since that’s where the movie was set to film. It didn’t quite work out that way. The movie wound up being delayed due to COVID and not even shot in China, after all.
Meanwhile, the Asterix book was set in a place that’s never in the news — Ukraine.
Yes, that’s sarcasm.
However, the movie is here! Well, it’s in France. It will be released on February 1st over there. You can see the most recent trailer below.
The approximate release date for the film in the U.S. is the First of Never. We can all just hope for a French language Blu-ray with English captions on it that can be imported to be viewed on a hack Blu-ray player for the region’s sake.
Or, you know, pirate it. This website cannot condone that, though. But we’ll look the other way for you…
I think this is Conrad’s sixth time, since he drew all five previous albums.
My general experience of attitudes towards eating habits in France is a lack of understanding. Vegetarian, vegan, paleo, gluten free, etc. are regarded as fads, despite the science. And unfortunately ‘fat shaming’ is not something that is really a thing in France. I fear therefore that this tale may not travel too well, if it does attempt to mock one or the other. But we shall have to wait and see!
I love a good controversy from people looking to be offended. Let the offenses fly! I’ll just read the book and enjoy it for what it is, and not what it says about society as a whole and blah blah blah.
Agreed. Anything these days can be twisted as outrage, offense or discrimination of some sort and what used to be a bon vivant 3 generations ago is now an awful animal-hater meat-eater scourge of humanity, guilty as charged, thank you.
Same for countries too, where do you now set an album anywhere in the world and not be controversial if you start making culturally-offensive jokes, since most jokes are anyway… Big sigh. As I’m gearing up for Angoulême next week (costume’s ready and everything), I’ll have to remember to be careful who I talk to with this big mouth of mine…
Yes, you’re absolutely right. That one’s my bad – it’s something I meant to fact-check after I wrote it in first draft, but then forgot. It is corrected now, thanks!
Will Jean-Yves Ferri now become the co-writer with Jul on the next Lucky Luke book set to come out later next year in 2024? Since the current Lucky Luke artist Achde is very good friends with Jean-Yves Ferri. I think the 40th and newest album in the Asterix series should be called: “Asterix in Portugal”, that is set to come out later this year on October 26th, 2023. To coincide with the Netflix Asterix animated miniseries, and who do you think should be in the English dub of the Netflix Asterix animated miniseries? Also, I think the release of the Netflix Asterix animated miniseries will coincide with the English language release of Sailor Moon Cosmos two-part movie on Netflix outside of Japan, and I think to release the English language releases of both the Netflix Asterix animated miniseries and Sailor Moon Cosmos two-part movie should be used for marketing later this year if the Netflix Asterix miniseries comes out then at the same time as the English language release of the Sailor Moon Cosmos two-part movie on Netflix.