Vanves (France) (AFP)
Asterix's 39th album, which comes out on October 21, "Asterix and the Griffon", is a trip to the East for the Gauls who set out to meet a little-known people of Antiquity, the Sarmatians.
After the death of screenwriter René Goscinny in 1977, the series was continued by designer Albert Uderzo, who himself entrusted it in 2011 to screenwriter Jean-Yves Ferri and designer Didier Conrad.
The Sarmatians, a nomadic people, lived in a region that stretched from present-day Ukraine to the foothills of the Caucasus and the steppes of Central Asia.
And in this Asterix album their totem is the griffin, half eagle, half lion.
Historically, "we don't know much about them (...) Herodotus, Livy had spoken of the Sarmatians. They were Barbarians, but a somewhat mythical people," he added.
The designs borrow from a certain Russian, Kazakh or Mongolian tradition, and their names all end in -ine (for example: Cékankondine).
The scenario revolves around the confrontation between a Roman army which sets out on an expedition to capture the famous griffin, on the orders of Julius Caesar, and these elusive Sarmatians, with whom the Gauls sympathize.
Among the curiosities: a Roman geographer, Terinconus, who before leaving for this exploration, inquired about "the map and the territory".
He borrows his features from the writer Michel Houellebecq.
The Albert René editions produced two million copies of this album in French, and a total of five million in 17 languages.
This story is the last that Uderzo was able to see born.
"He could only really know the beginnings of the screenplay and the first sketches," said his daughter Sylvie Uderzo in a message read by Goscinny's daughter, Anne.
© 2021 AFP