Sébastien Bordenave / Photo credits: RICCARDO MILANI / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 10:17 a.m., January 19, 2024
An anniversary in the world of comics.
It was in 1959 that, in the magazine Pilote, the adventures of "Asterix the Gaul" were published for the first time: the 65th anniversary will be celebrated all year long and it begins with the republication this Friday of the very first album.
It's the 65th anniversary of the most famous Gaul, an event in the world of comics.
And to celebrate the 65th anniversary of our die-hard Gauls, Albert René, the publishing house, is releasing the very first album.
And his name is
Asterix the Gaul
.
Goscinny and Uderzo are under pressure, they launch Pilote and must invent a new comic series.
They first thought of adapting Renart's novel, fables from the 12th century, but a similar project was sealed.
The accomplices finally choose Gaul and the Gauls.
Ideas flow, and if the characters had names ending in ix, like Avoranfix and Soulétropix, ultimately the two main heroes will be linked by two typographical signs: Asterix for the asterisk and Obélix for the Obele.
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A success also linked to the values carried by Asterix
Back in 2024, 65 years later, the last Asterix album
is
number 1 in sales.
"65 years for
Asterix
is indeed a good age. So the success of
Asterix
is complicated. If we had the recipe for the magic potion, we could reproduce it and we would be very happy. There are values in
Asterix
, values of friendship, values of resistance. And then there is a nod to the Gallic spirit. And we like that", cheerfully affirms Céleste Surugue, general director of Éditions Albert René, who blows out the 65 candles.
The very first album
Astérix the Gaul
, reissued, is accompanied by a 16-page file on the birth of our national hero with a mustache.
400 million albums sold later, we can say it: these Gauls are crazy too!