Asterix’s 39th album is expected on October 21, announced to the Journal du Dimanche the screenwriter Jean-Yves Ferri, who has become one of the “Fathers” of the irreducible Gaul with the designer Didier Conrad. “This is a ‘travel’ album, since the last adventure took place in the village. Asterix and Obelix will leave for an unprecedented destination […] this country does not really exist today as such ”, indicated the screenwriter to the French weekly.
“Each album is a small step towards bringing something new. And Obélix continues his slow psychological evolution ”, he added.
Asked if he could still play with the clichés of the visited country, as this comic used to do, Mr. Ferri admitted that the task had become more complicated. “In the 1960s, Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny could laugh at foreigners, caricature the English with their big teeth, the Greeks with their Greek profile. The atmosphere was good-natured. Today, you almost need a dictionary on your desk to know what you’re allowed to joke about or not ”, he said.
“Playing with clichés is one of Asterix’s codes. But I don’t mind moving away from it a bit. I am lucky that my personal humor does not lead me to too frontal caricatures. In ‘La Fille de Vercingétorix’, I reduced the way teens talk, for example ”, continued the screenwriter.
The 38th albums, “The daughter of Vercingétorix”, by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad, was the best-selling book in 2019 in France, by far. Since 2013, the heroes imagined sixty-one years ago by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo (who died in November 1977 and last March respectively) have alternated between an adventure in the village and a trip.
“It was tempting to talk about the coronavirus affecting the whole world, but I left that aside. The epidemic is a sad subject, full of anxiety. It is better to laugh at something else and wish that when the album came out we had finally turned the page ”, underlined Mr. Ferri. “Despite everything, you might find an allusion to a potion that looks like a vaccine or a few small winks”.
Asked if he had been able to discuss with Uderzo on this album before his disappearance, he indicated that“He was able to learn about the new theme”. “He approved of the story, he encouraged us. Contrary to what one might think, Albert was not on our back to control everything ”.
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