The world of comics mourns one of its great designers. Albert Uderzo, creator with René Goscinny of the character of Asterix, died Tuesday at the age of 92 years. Guest of Europe 1 in 2008 on the occasion of the release of his book Uderzo tells himself , he had notably returned to the genesis of Asterix, a work which has since sold more than 380 million albums across the world, in over a hundred languages.
A comic for the magazine "Pilote"
As surprising as it may seem, Uderzo and Goscinny had the idea of Asterix in just "a quarter of an hour". In 1959, when the duo participated in the launch of the Pilote magazine, they were "completely free" to deal with a "French cultural subject". "François Clauteaux, the man behind this weekly devoted to comics, wanted a newspaper made up exclusively of French culture", told the designer on the microphone of Europe 1. "He was embarrassed to see his children reading American comics".
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Uderzo and Goscinny then set to work on an idea: adapting the novels by Renart into comics, medieval animal stories in verse. But two months before the release of the first issue of Pilote , they were "stopped on the way by a friend, Raymond Poïvet, who [told them] that it was being produced by another designer", said Uderzo on Europe 1 A real "disaster". Panicked, the duo must quickly change their rifle, and meets in Uderzo's apartment to think.
"A quarter of an hour" to imagine the foundations of Asterix
Always wanting to use History as a backdrop for their comics, they then have the idea of the Gauls, "because what could be more French?" explained Uderzo. "In a quarter of an hour, we had imagined everything: the druid, the bard, and the names which end in 'ix' because of Vercingétorix".
As for the name Asterix, one might think that it has a link with the symbol (*), but this is not at all the case. "It was a coquetry of René Goscinny. At that time, there were comic books, and with a character whose first name started with an 'A' we were sure that he was going to be among the first in the pagination ", remembered the designer. "Like what, you see how far the coquetry of an author goes."
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