GAUL ABOUT ASTERIX
The comic books, which
1 started off as a magazine serial, have sold 370million copies worldwide and have also been translated into 111 languages, making Albert and René France’s bestselling authors abroad. There have been 38 volumes
2 of the comics, with the most recent, Asterix And The Chieftain’s Daughter, released in October. The first was called Asterix The Gaul and came out in 1961.
3 The series has been turned into 13 films – nine animated and four live action, starring actors including Gérard Depardieu. There is a
4 theme park based on the comic books in France. Called Parc Asterix, it is located 22 miles out of Paris, has seven roller coasters and is visited by about 2m people a year.
Albert was colour-blind.
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It meant that he had to get professionals to colour in his drawings, which is why the characters’ hair sometimes changes hue. He was also
6 born with six fingers on each hand, which was later corrected by surgery.
The first French satellite, which
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was launched in 1965, was named Asterix-1 in honour of the series.
There has been a crossover with
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another popular series – in the comic Asterix In Belgium (1979), the incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson from Tintin made a special appearance.
James Bond, Laurel and Hardy, and
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The Beatles have also all made cameos in Asterix comics.
The “-ix” ending in the
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names of Asterix and his sidekick Obelix, as well as other characters, comes from the “-rix” suffix that means “king” and was present in the names of real Gaulish chieftains such as Orgetorix and Dumnorix.
Albert created Obelix as
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he felt the strong yet dim-witted character would be the perfect foil for the intelligent and shrewd Asterix.
He told one interviewer
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that he regretted giving Obelix his fondness for roasted wild boar as people always cooked it for him and René, often badly.
The 2006 Fifa World Cup final
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between France and Italy was depicted as a fight between Roman legions and Gaul villagers in French newspapers.
After the terrorist attack at the
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satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015, Albert came out of retirement (he retired in 2008) to draw two Asterix pictures honouring the seven cartoonists killed in the shootings.
There is set to be another Asterix film
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to be released next year. Called Asterix & Obelix: The Silk Road, it has a £60m budget and is believed to be starring Oscar winner Marion Cotillard.