Buon Compleanno Asterix!
Happy Birthday Asterix, or rather Albert Uderzo who created the famous comic book series and character along with Rene Goscinny in 1959.
At the age of 80 Uderzo is still illustrating the series which could have come to an end when story writer Goscinny died in the late 1970's. In fact, the 34th book is just out.
Asterix is a very European phenomenon and Uderzo can trace his origins to the Italian village of Oderzo in the province of Treviso, Veneto.
As with all good books, the recent films and series of cartoons never captured the atmosphere of the original works and so many of the beautiful throw away lines and visual gags are simply missed.
They work because behind them is a love of ancient history and attention to detail which only rarely strays.
Who can forget the Latin proverbs as the pirate ship sinks in every episode or the 'These Romans are Crazy' uttered by Obelix. The latter is taken from S.P.Q.R., the Rome city motto but corrupted to 'Sono Pazzi Questi Romani'.
And no one like Uderzo can draw slapping, swoshing seawater, or seagulls for that matter.
We actually have Asterix books in Italian, Latin and Arabic, as well as English, French and Portuguese.
If we can choose the 3 Asterix books which combine a love of history, modern satire and a good old toga romp then our choices would be: Asterix the Gladiator (1964), Asterix in Switzerland (1970) and Asterix and the Soothsayer (1972), with a mention to Mansion of the Gods (1971).
Comments