Asterix is back on Thursday October 21 for his 39th album,
Asterix and the Griffon
, where all does not go as planned for the most famous of the Gauls.
What is assured is success: five million copies in 17 languages have been printed by Albert René editions.
The character retains the favors of several generations no matter what.
Its two creators, René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, are no longer of this world.
And their successors, designer Didier Conrad and screenwriter Jean-Yves Ferri, have learned a lesson from them: avoid taking themselves too seriously.
“Basically it's made for fun.
Asterix is humor! ”
, start the second.
Read alsoAsterix and the Griffon, Michel Houellebecq in the service of César
The adventure starts here from a premonitory dream of the druid Panoramix, who feels the danger threatening his shaman counterpart among the Sarmatians, a nomadic people of Eastern Europe.
These Sarmatians existed, but little is known about them.
The opportunity was great to imagine them in society with reversed roles: the men in the village (in the yurt, in this case), the women in the war.
“That the women took part in the battles of the real Sarmatians is the case, but I think the men were with them.
But there were Sarmatian queens, apparently, horse riders ... ”
, Jean-Yves Ferri says.
An unusually tormented Obelix
As for the griffin, this half-eagle, half-lion animal totem, Emperor Julius Caesar would like to go to Sarmatian territory in order to capture it for its glory. He was convinced of this by a fairly sure geographer, Terinconus, the most visible Roman in this adventure. The character's comedy is reinforced by his resemblance to the writer Michel Houellebecq. But does this famous griffin exist, as the centurion at the head of the expedition to the borders of Europe hopes? Or is it just a Sarmatian myth?
"The Gauls are quite impervious to that",
underlines the screenwriter. Between Asterix, who came from Armorica, and the Sarmatians, from a region ranging from present-day Ukraine to the foothills of the Caucasus and the steppes of Central Asia, we understand each other especially in theadversity against the Romans.
The album gives an unexpected role to two characters who are usually quite unambiguous: an unusually tormented Obelix, and his dog Idéfix who responds to the
"call of the forest"
, like Jack London.
And for Asterix, everything suddenly becomes very complicated.
In these unknown lands, covered with snow,
"he must rely much more on Obelix, but at the same time Obelix is not really available in his head, in this story"
, summarizes Jean-Yves Ferri.
“Because he's someone difficult to understand: we don't really know who he is.
He appears a bit stupid like that, but he is guided by his affective. "
Read also By Toutatis, the next Asterix is called Asterix and the Griffin!
For this launch, the Albert René editions have imagined a game for phones and tablets in augmented reality,
Asterix & Obelix: Vidi Vici
("I saw I conquered" in Latin).
It will be available in France, Belgium, Germany and Quebec.
But the main stake is that the criticism is good.
It can be tough at times with this franchise that monopolizes the best seller rankings.
Regarding the previous album,
La Fille de Vercingétorix
in 2019, she was divided to know if he really valued a female character, or if he had fed sexist clichés.
