Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Direction of the Asterix revival


Any Asterix fans?
I just found out here that Albert Udzero has sold a 60% share of the book's orginal company to the publishing giants Hachette Livre. I guess we'll wait and see what happens, but it would be such a shame to see the timeless brand of Asterix, mauled by modern popular design and merchandising.

The thing I always loved about Asterix is that you didn't have change any aspect of the novel to make it enjoyable for people of all ages, despite the first book having been written in the 60's. One of the great qualities of Asterix is the jokes they made about 'modern' events or topics. In the recent books though, they branched out into REALLY modern stuff, like extra terrestrials and all that, which was rubbish, to be honest. I actually stopped enjoying/reading the series after Asterix and Obelix: All At Sea. I also played some of the Asterix videogames, most recently 'Asterix at the Olympic Games'...which was horrendous.

As I said, I'll give Hachette Livre a chance to see what they come up with...but once I see Asterix Happy Meals at Dirty Donalds, then I know they've stuffed it. I don't like the idea of it becoming popularised (in the sense of marketing and products).

I love my Obelix Pez dispenser, but who eats Pez anyway?



Let me know what you think...(about Asterix, not Pez)

Photo from www.telegraph.co.uk

3 comments:

Liz de Nesnera said...

Matt!
I'm a HUGE Asterix fan! I grew up reading the hardcover French versions as a kid. One of my favorite saying of all time is "Ils sont fou ses Romains!" (Those Romans are Crazy!)...yeah..if you don't know the series it's kinda lost, huh?...I haven't ready any news ones in about 20 years but every once in a while I'll pick up an old one & laugh! Also loved Tin Tin & Lucky Luke!
Peace!

Liz
Liz de Nesnera
Bilingual English/French Voice Talent
'C'est la Voix!'
English & French Demos:
http://www.hireliz.com/
SaVoa #07037
BLOG: http://blog.hireliz.com

Matto said...

Yes, Liz! I think I should start saying, "By Belenos!" (sp?). I would love to read the books in French.

I'm a big Tin Tin fan, too. Now I'm going to look up Lucky Luke ;)

Unknown said...

Asterix & Obelix are seriously cool characters. Just look at that picture... giant beef-ball that is permanently on the potion, and the tiny dude that goes super-sayan.

Love it! And I think I'll have to take up saying "Those Romans are crazy"
Or maybe "Ils sont fou ses Romains" if I want to be particularly cool.

Will be interesting to see how the comics do.