Enlarge image
Cover of the new »Asterix«
Photo: --- / dpa
For more than 60 years, the adventures of Asterix and Obelix have provided entertainment (not only) in countless children's rooms.
Now a new volume has been released - and it is a milestone.
It is the first edition to appear after the death of the original "Asterix" artist Albert Uderzo.
However, sketches and drafts had still been submitted to the old master.
And that's what it's all about: The comic heroes Asterix and Obelix travel to Russia for the first time in their new adventure.
In "Asterix and the Griffin", available from Thursday, a shaman from the ancient Sarmatian tribe appears to old Miraculix in a dream and asks him to come.
Because a prophecy promised the Sarmatians: "Help comes from the Gauls, especially from the smallest of them." The druid then sets off with Asterix and Obelix into the vastness of the snow-covered steppe, the heroes have never been so far east.
Of course, the first clash with Caesar's Legion will soon take place.
Because the scheming ruler of Rome wants to have a legendary animal kidnapped for his circus games: the sacred griffin of the Sarmatians, a hybrid creature, half eagle and half lion.
The Romans ruthlessly take a hostage and have no inkling of the consequences.
"Asterix and the Griffin" is the 39th Asterix adventure and the fifth collaborative effort by the French Jean-Yves Ferri (text) and Didier Conrad (drawings).
Five million booklets will be printed at the start
Uderzo died in March 2020 at the age of 92.
He had already retired years earlier as the person responsible for "Asterix".
In 2011 Ferri and Conrad replaced him in this role.
In 1959, Uderzo created the characters Asterix and Obelix with the author René Goscinny.
After his sudden death in 1977, Uderzo went on alone for decades.
"When it came to the new tape, I thought we'd gotten furthest away from the styles of Goscinny and Uderzo," Ferri said.
“But now the first reactions are coming from people who have already read the comic.
And they tell me: "This is the band with which you have come closest to the old style so far." So that's a very subjective thing. "The comic has an international initial circulation of five million copies.
jok / dpa
