All of Gaul is toppling under the invasion! There is no resisting an insidious desire to revisit the world of everyone's favourite Gallic hero. Created by a pair of jesters, as Albert Uderzo likes to say, while sitting on a balcony in Bobigny (France), Asterix and his friends continue to defy the pervading gloom plaguing our beautiful homeland. This album, in particular, combines musings from the past with more modern stories, illustrating the different facets of the zest for life that has ensured the success of our little hero for 44 years of loyal service. Let sceptics beware! The unequalled success of this album bears witness to the long-lived popularity of our Breton friends, ever since they made their first appearance in 1961. Perhaps that is what our Minister of Culture, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, wanted to celebrate…Wednesday 17 September 2003
"The class act": 800,000 albums sold in just two weeks!!!
All of Gaul is toppling under the invasion! There is no resisting an insidious desire to revisit the world of everyone's favourite Gallic hero. Created by a pair of jesters, as Albert Uderzo likes to say, while sitting on a balcony in Bobigny (France), Asterix and his friends continue to defy the pervading gloom plaguing our beautiful homeland. This album, in particular, combines musings from the past with more modern stories, illustrating the different facets of the zest for life that has ensured the success of our little hero for 44 years of loyal service. Let sceptics beware! The unequalled success of this album bears witness to the long-lived popularity of our Breton friends, ever since they made their first appearance in 1961. Perhaps that is what our Minister of Culture, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, wanted to celebrate…Wednesday 17 September 2003
Albert Uderzo, named commandeur des arts et des lettres
The French Minister of Culture honoured Albert Uderzo on 16 September 2003 by promoting him to Commandeur des arts et des lettres. Phew! Apparently comic strips are no longer such a poor influence on our offspring since high culture itself has welcomed us into its midst! This is the very first time a comic strip author has received such an honour. Albert himself was speechless, just like our beloved bard whenever he starts to croon a tune. As emotions ran high, he paid tribute to the memory of his friend and accomplice, René Goscinny, without whom Asterix would never have existed. Does this high-placed endorsement mean that all those reactionary intellectuals (who have always held comic strips in contempt) are going to change their attitude? We certainly hope not! As Obelix says, you always need some Romans around to thumb your nose at!Wednesday 17 September 2003
A showstopper among the Goths: Asterix and the Indians
Our neighbours in Germany are just crazy about Asterix. The German TV station Sat1 saw its audience scores soar off the charts when it broadcast the 1994 film "Asterix in America": 2.5 million viewers in front of their screen, a figure to dishearten any rivals.
Wednesday 17 September 2003
Mission Cleopatra: and the frenzy goes on!
If I'm not mistaken, as I count on my fingers, sales of the DVDs and cassettes based on Alain Chabat's film has reached 1.9 million copies! By Osiris! Added to the 14 million filmgoers in France, I do believe that is what is known as a rip-roaring success, dear Mickey!Tuesday 2 September 2003
350,000 albums sold in just 2 days!
On 29 August, "THE CLASS ACT" took French bookstores by storm!
While modern-day Gaul was slowly fighting its way back to the capital following the summer exodus, those lucky citizens already back in the city raced to bookshops heavily laden with the latest prize: 350,000 ALBUMS featuring our hero from Gaul were sold in just 48 HOURS!
Nerve-wracked booksellers (we warned you, by Belenos!) were already raising Cain yesterday, worrying that the Hachette tribe would not be able to come through with extra copies!
A FNAC bookshop in the North ran out of stock, many local bookshops came up empty on Friday evening, and even the "hyper-shops" wonder if they have enough albums to hold the fort for the rest of the week, while screams and cries of despair rend the air in Belgium and the Swiss continue to demand extra copies!
In short, this latest operation promises to be a smashing success! It was to be expected: after all, the album does feature our celebrated Asterix and our favourite village in Gaul did its usual crack job in preparing the launch. The Gauls are of course ready and raring to join the festivities! As always, the magic potion works wonders!
In earlier bulletins, we laughingly warned everyone that there wouldn't be enough to go around… well, once again, we weren't wrong, by Toutatis!
While modern-day Gaul was slowly fighting its way back to the capital following the summer exodus, those lucky citizens already back in the city raced to bookshops heavily laden with the latest prize: 350,000 ALBUMS featuring our hero from Gaul were sold in just 48 HOURS!
Nerve-wracked booksellers (we warned you, by Belenos!) were already raising Cain yesterday, worrying that the Hachette tribe would not be able to come through with extra copies!
A FNAC bookshop in the North ran out of stock, many local bookshops came up empty on Friday evening, and even the "hyper-shops" wonder if they have enough albums to hold the fort for the rest of the week, while screams and cries of despair rend the air in Belgium and the Swiss continue to demand extra copies! In short, this latest operation promises to be a smashing success! It was to be expected: after all, the album does feature our celebrated Asterix and our favourite village in Gaul did its usual crack job in preparing the launch. The Gauls are of course ready and raring to join the festivities! As always, the magic potion works wonders!
In earlier bulletins, we laughingly warned everyone that there wouldn't be enough to go around… well, once again, we weren't wrong, by Toutatis!
Tuesday 2 September 2003
Lending a hand to the high commissioner for refugees
As during Ekonomikrisis' or Anticlimax's visit, Asterix, Obelix and Getafix couldn't refuse to lend a hand to the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees. While the number of wars continue to multiply and generate massive exodus, particularly throughout Africa, refugee camps set up especially for hundreds of thousands of children are in difficult straits. This is particularly true in Guinea, where floods of homeless from Liberia have fled in past years. The HCR has asked Asterix and his friends to help out. With the help of E-Bay, the leading e-tailer, we have come up with a fund-raising project to finance a full school year for refugee children in Guinea. Albert Uderzo will be contributing an original drawing to a sale that is to take place at the end of September. In order to raise international awareness with regard to this project, we are currently inviting dozens of well-known personalities to share their thoughts and impressions of Asterix in a drawing, a painting, etc. This artwork will be available for viewing on the E-Bay site before being put up for auction between 22 September and 2 October, starting at a minimum price of 60 euros.
Stay tuned for more info.
Stay tuned for more info.