Throughout the Known World, Asterix fans vie to outdo one another with boasting, each one claiming to be the best expert on the Asterix albums. And yet, it is no simple thing to become expert ès Asterix; everyone is not cut out to be a druid, by Toutatis!So then, how does one recognize an authentic Gaulish champion? Well... it was Asterix himself who gave us an idea about organizing a major yearly championship: the GGQ, otherwise known as the Grand Gaulish Quiz! There is a simple principle behind getting your name engraved on the virtual marble slab in our Gaulish “Hall of Fame”: all you have to do is answer 20 randomly chosen questions in the shortest time possible. The best scores to the GGQ will be selected each month, and 1 to 10 points will be attributed to the first ten experts, allowing them to apply for a position in the general ranking. At the end of the year, the grand champion will be unanimously nominated and celebrated with all due pomp and circumstance! Well, it’s perhaps a bit hasty to say unanimously, given that we still have to convince Caesar that other people in this world also have the right to lay claim to a proper triumph! In the meantime, good luck to all and may Toutatis be with you! |
Monday 8 February 2010
The Grand Gaulish Quiz puts the Indomitable to the test!
The official asterix.com website
Friday 5 February 2010
Ptenisnet, an Egyptian on the fly
Enrolled in the Roman legion due to a misunderstanding in Asterix the Legionary, Ptenisnet confuses a Roman camp with a holiday camp.... Luckily for him, Asterix and Obelix take their role as camp counsellors to heart so that Ptenisnet ends up revisiting the charm of his years as a youth in the army!
Discover the secrets of all the Asterix characters in the Encyclopaedia
Wednesday 3 February 2010
And the César for the Best Cover goes to...
The official asterix.com website
The suspense is over. We know that you have been on tenterhooks for weeks, but now that the final results are in, there is no question about it: the winner of the 2009 survey concerning the very best Asterix album cover is without a doubt... the very last album, Asterix and Obelix’s Birthday: the Golden Book!In second place stands How Obelix Fell into the Magic Potion When He Was A Little Boy, which received a great number of votes, especially thanks to the new cover by Albert Uderzo. Your votes leave no doubt: the Asterix 2009 vintage is a terrific! While the Indomitable Gauls monopolized all the awards this year, one poor candidate did not even get nominated for the virtual César Award for the Best Cover.... And who might that be, you ask? Well, Caesar himself.... Asterix and Caesar’s Gift and Asterix and the (Caesar’s) Laurel Wreath came up empty-handed....  Final results can be seen here. |
Monday 1 February 2010
A character with a dog’s life!
When the Vikings fall for a dog, it is of course a Great Dane!Like its masters, Huntingseassen talks in a language full of Nordic typographical characters.
But whereas the Gauls don’t understand a word of the Scandinavian language, Dogmatix and Huntingseassen quickly begin exchanging friendly “woofs” and “wøøfs”.
Followed by one of the greatest fits of canine giggles of all time!
Discover the secrets of all the Asterix characters in the Encyclopaedia
Thursday 28 January 2010
Astérix pi Obélix is ont leus ages – Ch’live in dor Three Picards are better than one!
« L ’mitan d’un sièque ! Cha foait éne saprèe résette pour éne gin normale. » What is going on? Has the Asterix and Obelix Missive fallen victim to the 2010 virus? Or is one of Caesar’s messengers using some obscure code? Luckily, the truth of the matter is much simpler: in order to extend the festivities of the banquet in tribute to Asterix’s fiftieth anniversary (we weren’t born fun-loving Gauls for nothing!), les Editions Albert René have decided to publish a Picard version of the new Asterix and Obelix’s Birthday: the Golden Book. Following their success of Astérix i rinte à l’école (Asterix and the Class Act) and Ch’village copè in II (The Great Divide), the same excellent trio of translators from Northern Gaul (Alain Dawson, Jacques Dulphy and Jean-Luc Vigneux) has once again met this linguistic challenge with flying colours, coming up with a colourful variety of Picard dialects for Astérix pi Obélix is ont leus ages - Ch’live in dor. You have to admit that the album, which brings 400 characters from the series together to celebrate the birthday of our indomitable friends, has more than enough material to satisfy them. To avoid any linguistic discord, the three translators showed a stroke of genius in having characters from the small village in Armorica that we all know and love speak a variety of Picard from the North (urban dialect from the mining district, also known as “chti”) while the Belgians hold forth in the Picard from Tournai, whereas all the other characters (Romans, other Gauls, etc.) speak a more southerly Picard (Amiens, Ponthieu, Vimeu). It goes without saying that the translators took pains to make sure that the work in this new album was consistent with that of the first two albums so as to guarantee the same rousing success among Picard readers. To sum things up, the Picard culture has never had it better – the album is in all the best book shops in Gaul as of 27 January 2010! Click here to check out two plates from Astérix pi Obélix is ont leus ages - Ch’live in dor, exclusive to this website.
|
Friday 22 January 2010
“You have all the necessary qualities to participate in the first offensive of psychological warfare”, claims mischief maker Tortuous Convolvulus. To judge by his “gorilla-like face and tiny pig’s eyes”, as René Goscinny put it, this prediction was far from certain…. But “psychological warfare” as referred to by Tortuous Convolvulus requires first and foremost a powerful man, talented in wielding a club. And that is the one thing in which Magnumopus actually excels!
Oblivious to any military strategy, Magnumopus plows forward, swinging his club and eliminating all adversaries. It’s enough to frighten our Gauls who begin to wonder if the Romans have gotten their hands on the secret magic potion!
Discover the secrets of all the Asterix characters in the Encyclopaedia