Just when the circulation for your favorite missive has easily zoomed past the threshold of 10,000 active subscribers, Caesar and his avatars, our sworn enemies, have attempted to steal our action plans for the coming years! It must mean that Caesar is getting worried! Fortunately, it is once again nothing more than a Caligula Minus (see profile for the original, below)! He left with some fake plans cleverly furnished by our chief steward, the great Régix, and holding his cheek following the loud whack he received from one of our lovely Gaul ladies. According to unconfirmed reports, this villain tried to fraternize!
But no more news for Lutetia-Match (renowned Magazine in Gaul, just like "Ancient Times" in Britain, if you know what I mean) - what could he actually have learned? Since it's just between you and me, I'll tell you everything. Well, almost everything.
This year of 2005 will see the Empire shrink. Why? Because, instead of twiddling his thumbs while the Romans and their ilk invade supermarkets and department stores, not to mention the minds of our darling children, Asterix is determined to kick the invaders out of his village. Just like in his stories, the village of Editions Albert René (known to the Romans as "ze dreamvillage") has launched a resistance movement of hand-to-hand combat with the adversary, working the Imperial system in order to defend the Asterix values! The fun has barely started! Here is a brief selection of upcoming events for this year.
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the start of his career, Albert Uderzo will supervise a whole series of sculptures, silkscreen printings or other limited edition objects, with only 33 to 60 copies of each item, produced by the very best craftsmen! By Doubleclix, I promise to keep you posted!
The fourth annual Salon de Nîmes sponsored by Albert Uderzo will be bigger than ever this coming March. The Gauls will invade the whole city as well as the region. They are even to take over the Roman arenas, once and for all! There's no point in remaining suave and well-bred when faced with such barbarians!
Stalls and bookstores will be putting up barricades before the arrival of this summer's gift, not intended for the imperialists: the portrait gallery collection (the one Versailles will never get either, dang it!). I will be telling you more about this soon.
Trailers for Asterix and the Vikings will be appearing on movie screens all over Europe in April. That's one year before release of the movie that's going to start a fad for skulls, designed to decorate your dining room.
SFR will be receiving a dose of culture that will shake up the mobile telephone crowd. A collection of "MMS" (Mother My Soul) messages will turn up, instilling a sense of Gaulish humor in operator networks that have been suffering from the gloom and doom virus! Plus, in an exclusive coup, the world's first news video on Gaul cell phones! I will be sending you text messages and sms! I have bad news for those of you who aren't familiar with these terms: you must be over fifty!
Except in France and Germany, Ferrero will be installing Roman arches in major European stores to celebrate the Gaulish surprises (recognized as remarkable by the collectors) to be found in Easter eggs!
September will be the month for Brussels, the world capital of comics.
To welcome the international press, Albert Uderzo has symbolically chosen Brussels to announce the release of his new album. Three days of Gaulish madness will set fire to the country that has done more than any other to recognize the power of comics, their role in contemporary culture, and all that jazz. What's more, it will host the first major Asterix exhibition, to start on September 22, 2005! The exhibition will then travel throughout Europe in the years to follow. The show, entitled The "Mirror World" of Asterix, will attempt to decipher the Asterix albums as a reflection of our contemporary societies. Perhaps that is one of the keys to the almost planetary success of our Coriosolite friends.
To be continued in our next missive.
But no more news for Lutetia-Match (renowned Magazine in Gaul, just like "Ancient Times" in Britain, if you know what I mean) - what could he actually have learned? Since it's just between you and me, I'll tell you everything. Well, almost everything.
This year of 2005 will see the Empire shrink. Why? Because, instead of twiddling his thumbs while the Romans and their ilk invade supermarkets and department stores, not to mention the minds of our darling children, Asterix is determined to kick the invaders out of his village. Just like in his stories, the village of Editions Albert René (known to the Romans as "ze dreamvillage") has launched a resistance movement of hand-to-hand combat with the adversary, working the Imperial system in order to defend the Asterix values! The fun has barely started! Here is a brief selection of upcoming events for this year.
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the start of his career, Albert Uderzo will supervise a whole series of sculptures, silkscreen printings or other limited edition objects, with only 33 to 60 copies of each item, produced by the very best craftsmen! By Doubleclix, I promise to keep you posted!
The fourth annual Salon de Nîmes sponsored by Albert Uderzo will be bigger than ever this coming March. The Gauls will invade the whole city as well as the region. They are even to take over the Roman arenas, once and for all! There's no point in remaining suave and well-bred when faced with such barbarians!Stalls and bookstores will be putting up barricades before the arrival of this summer's gift, not intended for the imperialists: the portrait gallery collection (the one Versailles will never get either, dang it!). I will be telling you more about this soon.
Trailers for Asterix and the Vikings will be appearing on movie screens all over Europe in April. That's one year before release of the movie that's going to start a fad for skulls, designed to decorate your dining room.SFR will be receiving a dose of culture that will shake up the mobile telephone crowd. A collection of "MMS" (Mother My Soul) messages will turn up, instilling a sense of Gaulish humor in operator networks that have been suffering from the gloom and doom virus! Plus, in an exclusive coup, the world's first news video on Gaul cell phones! I will be sending you text messages and sms! I have bad news for those of you who aren't familiar with these terms: you must be over fifty!
Except in France and Germany, Ferrero will be installing Roman arches in major European stores to celebrate the Gaulish surprises (recognized as remarkable by the collectors) to be found in Easter eggs!
September will be the month for Brussels, the world capital of comics.To welcome the international press, Albert Uderzo has symbolically chosen Brussels to announce the release of his new album. Three days of Gaulish madness will set fire to the country that has done more than any other to recognize the power of comics, their role in contemporary culture, and all that jazz. What's more, it will host the first major Asterix exhibition, to start on September 22, 2005! The exhibition will then travel throughout Europe in the years to follow. The show, entitled The "Mirror World" of Asterix, will attempt to decipher the Asterix albums as a reflection of our contemporary societies. Perhaps that is one of the keys to the almost planetary success of our Coriosolite friends.
To be continued in our next missive.
We have new character profiles on line. Hurry up and discover the definitive version of the 
I had managed to insinuate myself into the midst of the privileged few who were on hand for the "Timandahaf Seminar" at the Maison du Danemark on the Champs Elysées. In a truly gothic atmosphere, there were lovely Gaul maidens dressed up as "Viking Girls" for the enjoyment of the foreign guests, while skulls were filled to the brim with aquavit, the Nordic man's drink, and some seriously cathodic contributors lent an initiatory tone to this seminar that was, incidentally, supposed to teach us about fear! The kind of fear that lends wings, of course! Get ready - it looks like this is going to be the new trend in 2006; there are even coaches training their teams this way. By Doubleclix, I'm telling you, these Gauls are totally crazy!
To present the first glimpses of the animated film produced by M6 Studio, they really went all out. Just so you know, even though the bard was invited to the banquet this time, Unhygienix was bound and gagged to make sure he wouldn't start throwing around any smelly old salmon or trout.
After the screening, the hissing and booing wasn't because of some labor union complaint, but because the excerpt only lasted a few minutes. Just long enough to see Timandahaf haranguing his fine men and to catch a glimpse of a horrid new character, whose name I shall not reveal, proposing that his compatriots spend a study trip in Gaul. 