Asterix artist Albert Uderzo passed away at the age of 92. His family informs the French news agency AFP that Uderzo died of cardiac arrest in his sleep and that his death was not caused by the coronavirus. “He had been very tired for a few weeks.”
Frenchman Uderzo (Fismes, 1927) started drawing when he was still in kindergarten. First he mainly drew Disney characters, later he also made up his own characters.
The first Asterix
Uderzo found work as an illustrator of novels and he made comics for the newspapers France Dimanche and France Soir. He also started his own comic: Belloy, Le Prince Rollin.
In the 1950s he met René Goscinny in Brussels, with whom he started working together. With Uderzo as a draftsman and Goscinny as a screenwriter, they made the series for the Belgian comic weekly magazine Tintin Oumpah Pah le Peau-Rouge (Hoempa dad) and Jehan Pistolet (Johan Pikbroek).
In 1959 he developed the comic for the new French comic magazine Pilote, of which Uderzo was also artistic director, together with Goscinny Asterix, which immediately became a great success.
Nightmare for Caesar
The Asterix stories are set around the year 50 BC in a small village in Gaul, which has succeeded alone in resisting the invasion of the Romans.
That they succeeded is due to a magic potion that makes the villagers extremely strong and invincible. Asterix and his fellow villagers are a real nightmare for the Romans and their captain Julius Caesar.
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