Albert Uderzo: Asterix co-creator and illustrator dies aged 92

[Manga Shoggoth]

The lights from my childhood are winking out, one by one. The two biggest memories from my childhood were Asterix and Tintin, and with Uderzo's passing all the original authors are gone.

El Reg, BBC.

For some reason relagated to the Children's section of the local library, Asterix and Tintin were my introduction to comics - I was reading Asterix almost as soon as I was out of the "teaching children to read" books (although admittedly a lot of the humour went over my head at that age). I didn't get on to other comics (apart from the Beano, which isn't in the same league) 'till my late teens, and they still have a place in my heart and bookshelf.

Tintin had the more complex stories, but Asterix was just plain good fun.

Anthea Belll did an awesome job of translating them into English, (and I still think she should be used as the example of how to translate or adapt anything), but the comics themselves were something special.

I really want to visit Parc Asterix now.

[Aedilred]

I can understand why Asterix was considered a children's story, because it follow the classic formula of good children's books/TV shows: a superficially engaging and easy-to-follow plot with a routinely happy and predictable ending and no real adult themes (nobody ever dies, except by implication, romance never goes beyond a kiss, etc.) with some great observational humour, parody, language play and general satire layered on top of it so that adults get a kick out of it too.

Two exceptions, perhaps: Asterix in Switzerland is a bit on the dark side, and Obelix & Co. (while being such a supreme skewering of postwar capitalism that I understand parts of it are taught in business schools) is probably going to go over the heads of a lot of kids. And there are weak spots: ...and the Goths hasn't aged well in particular. Any gripes are well outweighed by the overall quality though.

I agree that it is pretty much the gold standard for translations (and I have heard from people in the translation sector that indeed they think so too).

While there's a part of me that wishes Uderzo had just hung up his Asterix pencils after Goscinny died and moved on to something else, because the solo books just aren't as good, and he was obviously at a ripe old age, it's sad to know that both halves of the duo are no longer with us.

[Aotrs Commander]

I shall raise one last salute to the late and great Albert Uderzo, fot I too, had a significantly impact childhhod due to Asterix.



I have all the Asterix books, save for the most recent ones (since I wait for the paperbacks - space and it's something to out on my birthday Christmas lists). I took me a good number of years (I got lots of them out of the library before being old enough to buy them). Yes, I agree, the later ones weren't as good (but that's often the case when you have a dynamic duo) and it was a shame that his last book was probably the weakest; but I deeply respect he felt able to pass the torch along to the next generation and I can only respect his drive to carry on alone. (And some of his early solo works are still some of my favourites.)

Asterix and the Goths actually has a special place in my heart, as it was the very first Asterix book I had read to me (it was before I could read myself); which I believe my Dad got, but (like more than one of his books) was appropriated my me over the years.

I still to this day say "ours not to reason why," not because of I'm paraphrasing the famous poem, but because I'm quoting the goth leader. (Perhaps a roundabout compliment to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, that that slightly modifed phrase I understood the implications of at, probably four or five and stayed with me ever since.)

No to mention all the cartoons (and here the UK always did much better than the US at least in the early, whose adaptions were different and apparently had a 4Kids level-bad level of censorship). We, meanwhile, had Asterix and the Big Fight (actually a cross between Asterix and the Soothersayer as well as the Big Fight) where BRIAN BLESSED voiced the Roman general, for one, and Bill Oddy Asterix. (That was always my favourite mov=ie.)


I can still very rarely resist the urge to give the not-Roman characters in my campaign world pun-names.



Asterix is the gold standard of translations that all other are held up to. (That team too, has passed, sadly.)

[comicshorse]

A joy of my childhood and I too own most of them.
Personal favourite was, and still is, Asterix in Britain
" By Jupiter Briton you dare bar the emissaries of Rome "
" My garden may be smaller than your Rome but my pillum is harder than your sternum "

I can still start quotes from this and usually have friends finish them