On the occasion of its 60th birthday, Asterix, the irreducible Gaul conceived by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, will be exhibiting at the National Library of France (BnF) as part of the European Heritage Days, the institution said. . The set of original plates of the very first album of the series, Asterix the Gaulois as well as the handwritten notes, the synopsis and the scenario of this album, lent by Anne Goscinny, the daughter of René Goscinny, will be presented to the public of the 20 to September 22 on the site François-Mitterrand. This is the first time that is presented the entirety of the original documents (texts and drawings) of the first Asterix album.
44 original boards
This exhibition, open to the public free of charge, follows the major retrospective of the BnF dedicated to Asterix in 2013. Asterix and the BnF have a special relationship since in March 2011, the designer Albert Uderzo has donated to the institution. 120 original plates from the first two albums in the series, Asterix the Gaul and La Serpe d'Or , but also his last collaboration with René Goscinny, Asterix among the Belgians. The 44 original plates exhibited from September 20 to 22 highlight the genesis of a work that is developed and experienced over the boxes, like the portrait of Julius Caesar, unrecognizable between the first and the last board .
These large boards (the format is almost doubled compared to the printed album) inked with a brush over the sketches, lettered with the pen, "show the drawing, the force of the movement, the play of shadows and lights, verve caricaturist, the effectiveness of onomatopoeia, the art of the letter, "said the BnF. With regard to the original plates, the first handwritten notes of René Goscinny, as well as the synopsis and the screenwritten scenario preparatory to this first adventure of Asterix allow to better apprehend the birth and the factory of this "phenomenal work which does not finish to enchant generations of readers, "she added.
Six decades and 37 adventures
Asterix made its appearance on October 29, 1959 in the first issue of the weekly Pilote . For six decades and 37 adventures (the 38th album, The daughter of Vercingetorix ", appears on October 24, the series Asterix has become a" place of memory "of the French identity, struggling to parody the myth of" our ancestors the Gauls. "Since its creation, 380 million albums have been sold worldwide, and the adventures of Asterix have been translated into more than 100 languages.