His name appears on the hundreds of millions of copies of the adventures of the irreducible Gauls sold in the world since 1961. After the announcement of the death of Tuesday at the age of 92 years of Albert Uderzo, one of the fathers of Asterix, Nicolas Rouvière, author notably of Asterix or the parody of identities (Flammarion) and the Complex of Obelix (PUF), returns, for 20 Minute s, on the course of the designer. He talks about his meeting with his accomplice, Goscinny, the creation of Asterix and its importance in popular culture.
How did Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny meet?
Their collaboration is old and dates from before the creation of Asterix. They met in 1951 because they both worked for a Belgian agency which supplied the press with comics. They have created several series together, including Oumpah Pah for Le journal de Tintin.
What were their reports?
Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny were two very close friends. They got along very well. They had in common the fact that they were two sons of immigrants. Albert Uderzo was the son of an Italian cabinetmaker who emigrated to France in the 1920s. René Goscinny came from a Jewish, Ashkenazi family from Poland. His father was a chemical engineer in a French company in Argentina. René Goscinny grew up in Buenos Aires, he came to France on vacation and had an idealized, romantic vision of France, which he really discovered in the 1950s. These two sons of immigrants shared common values such as anti-racism, criticism of stereotypes from abroad. Values that we will find in Asterix, which plays on identity stereotypes, national and regional, enlarging the line, with an amused distance.
How did they create Asterix and Obelix?
When they created Asterix, it was an order for a brand new newspaper, Pilote , launched in the fall of 1959. This newspaper aims to renew the youth press, too focused on the United States. They are asked to do something around French folklore. They first think of making an adaptation of the Novel by Renart , but they learn that Trubert already produced a comic strip on the same theme. They must find another idea. At the end of the summer of 1959, Albert Uderzo received René Goscinny in his emergency room in his apartment on the 3rd floor of rue Rameau in the housing project of Pont de Pierre in Bobigny. Goscinny asked Uderzo to enumerate the major periods in the history of France. When they arrive at the Gauls, this period is obvious. The Gallic village which always and still resists the invader, the magic potion, and the different characters: Asterix, Obelix, the Druid Panoramix, the bard Assurancetourix, the chef Abraracourcix… They imagine all this in a few hours… They are certain of have an original, new idea, even if there are already Gallic characters in comics like Alix, created by Jacques Martin in 1948.
What is the reception for comics at the start?
The French discovered Asterix and Obelix in the first issue of Pilote in 1959. It quickly established itself as the flagship series of the newspaper. The success is dazzling. In a few years, the adventures of Asterix have accumulated more than a million copies… In 1965, the phenomenon was such that comic book heroes made the front page of L'Express and the first French satellite launched into space is unofficially baptized Asterix by its designers! The albums are starting to be translated into different languages.
What does Uderzo bring as a designer?
Albert Uderzo is a great master of comics, one of the greatest graphic designers of his generation. It evolved at the same time in the realistic style, with the series "The Adventures of Tanguy and Laverdure", scripted by Jean-Michel Charlier. Where it flourishes most graphically is in the comic. He was influenced by the Disney style with very marked curves, which make his drawing quite readable. He was also influenced by the French designer Edmond Calvo. He is a master of caricature, whose graphic genius has sometimes been underestimated. While he was recognized by the greatest of his time as Franquin, the other great comic cartoonist, always considered Uderzo as a master.
Albert Uderzo was also very prolific ...
Albert Uderzo had an absolutely phenomenal production capable of producing several boards per week to deliver several series simultaneously in different newspapers. These years of extreme productivity caused an old hand to tremble, which compromised the pursuit of certain series such as Asterix.
How did Albert Uderzo manage after René Goscinny's death?
He continued alone after the premature death of René Goscinny the Asterix adventure with various fortunes. He especially worked on the promotion of the series with the Astérix park, with the foundation of the publishing house Albert René. He passed the hand to other authors. There were thus three ages in the Asterix series, a first age with Goscinny and Uderzo, a second age where he alone assumed the resumption of the series, including the scenarios, and a third age where it was Ferry and Conrad who publish an album every two years.
Are there any heirs of Uderzo in the comics?
Not only in comics, Uderzo, it's also the animated film and the Idéfix studios. The biggest French animated films in the 1960s were Uderzo and Goscinny. If today, French animation is very well placed in European and world production, it is because thanks to Idéfix studios developed a professional and technical quality which laid the foundations of what the industry is. animation in France. In terms of comics, there are obviously graphic filiations, even if it's difficult to say who would be in his line because the influences are multiple. But, it is obvious that one finds in some its influence.
How to explain the international success of Astérix's “gauloiseries”?
Yes, it may surprise! But we are in a universal ancient history, with the Roman Empire and Caesar, mythical historical figure. Asterix is also the resistance of the small against the strong, of the local against the global. Many communities around the world have recognized themselves. The comic strip is translated into many German dialects, it has almost become a landmark for having your Asterix translated into the local language, vis-à-vis the wider culture that encompasses us. Asterix is also crossed by universal values, concomitant with the Europe of nations, under construction under De Gaulle and Adenauer. It is the moment when we discover the culture of the other and that we stage it in a movement of massification and standardization of culture. The series plays on identities, stereotyped by each other, both smiling and at the same time, it develops values around democracy, resistance to oppression, resistance to the drifts of personal power. And finally, in Asterix, there is also a vision of the child, through Obélix, who is a kind of child. Through him, the series says something quite deep about how a child is built.
In a period of confinement, will Uderzo's death take on an additional dimension?
Lots of people are on social media right now, maybe that will amplify the resonance of this death. But in itself, whatever the context, the death of Uzerzo is a huge loss and it is also a page that is turned, compared to a whole section of popular culture and this generation of authors of BD. Everyone is going to get old with this disappearance, that's for sure.
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