Asterix and Obelix: The sky falls on Oct. 14
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After a four-year absence, a new Asterix and Obelix comic book (the French call it an album) is going on sale in 27 countries around the world on Oct. 14.
At a festive press conference last month in Brussels, Belgium, Albert Uderzo, one of the creators of Asterix, said the 33rd album, titled Le Ciel lui Tombe sur la Tete, or Asterix and the Falling Sky, would be "very different" this time around since "it is the first time that we haven't had any travel adventure".
It was in Brussels where illustrator Uderzo, 78, met author Rene Goscinny in the 1950s and together they created the characters of the wily Asterix and the enormously strong Obelix, who first appeared in a French magazine in 1959.
Since then over 300 million comic books have been sold in more than 107 languages.
When Goscinny died in 1977, the color-blind Uderzo continued writing and illustrating another eight albums, saying he always had a colorist help him with the finishing touches.
"I have decided, and Rene Goscinny would have agreed with me, that once I stop working on this, Asterix will no longer come out as comics," Uderzo was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
"I do think I am the only one who could keep this up because it doesn't work out very well when other people take over," he said. "They will inevitably change characters that you have worked with so closely."
"I don't want readers to be disappointed," said Uderzo. He also assured fans that Asterix and the Falling Sky would not be his last album.
"I enjoy what I'm doing despite my age and as long as I can find a good idea I will make another album," he said.
Brussels was decked out for the launch of the new Asterix and Obelix book. Its medieval Grand-Place square was converted into a Gaul village last month, where fans were able to enjoy a "magic potion" made by the village druid, Getafix, for those who wished to attain Obelix-style superhuman strength.
Belgium's SN Brussels Airlines decorated two of their planes with the cartoon characters and the country's postal service released special Asterix stamps to mark the event.
In 2003, Uderzo released a collection of 14 Asterix short stories in what is considered the 32nd album: Asterix and the Class Act. Most of the short stories were created by Goscinny and Uderzo in the 1960s and the 1970s. Some of them were published in the French magazine Pilote. However, Uderzo added some new short stories in Class Act.
The latest feature comic, Asterix and the Actress, sold 10 million copies since its release in 2001.
The success of the comic strip has led to spin-offs such as the 2002 French movie Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, starring French actor Gerard Depardieu. There have also been seven animated movies, and the Parc Asterix theme park opened in France in 1989.
In Indonesia, publisher Pustaka Sinar Harapan (PSH) in Jakarta has translated and published 30 Asterix albums.
The publisher's marketing manager, Tigor Naibaho, said that in Indonesia each Asterix comic book sold an average 10,000 copies. The first 30 Indonesian Asterix books are still available in bookstores in Indonesia, he added.
Although there is no fixed date for the Indonesian translation of new Asterix album, PSH has plans to translate the 31st, 32nd and 33rd albums.
On the net: www.asterix.com www.asterixcentral.com www.asterix-international.de