A year before the soccer world cup in Germany, German readers have been presented with the twelve finalists in the comic book world championships. And the top seed is... you guessed it, Asterix! Bild Zeitung, the country's champion daily newspaper (with a daily circulation of 4.5 million) has just launched its "own" comic book collection, with Asterix on top of the bill.

Collectors can now get their hands on a brand new small-format edition containing three Asterix adventures: Asterix the Gaul by way of introduction, followed by Asterix and the Great Divide and Asterix and the Class Act rounding things off. After Italy and Spain, it's now the turn of our Germanic friends to organise a guard of honour for the comic book champions, and Asterix and Obelix are out in front.

But our favourite Gauls nearly lost it when they saw the special collector's issue of Bild, which came out on August 1st, featuring Asterix on the cover and inside page (excellent quality reproduction by the way and some interesting text) and a big surprise in the shapely form of none other than Pamela Anderson on the back cover. To be honest, on the last page there wasn't much of a story, just lots of pictures...
Ach so! Our Germanic friends adore football and comic books, that's for sure! In any event, a year before the World Cup Asterix is "champion… of the world"!

The line-up for the semi-finals is partly as we predicted.
But only partly, because although Asterix and Obelix were expected to be still in at this stage of the competition, the confirmation of Dogmatix' rise in the popularity stakes is a bit of a surprise and means that he beat Getafix in the quarter-final! But the big surprise is how popular the tournaments are and also the fact that Panacea has got this far!

What? This gorgeous blonde has outclassed the druid, the bard and the chief!? It's true that her opponent in the quarter-finals was the rather tired Geriatrix, but we should salute the performance of the last representative of the fairer sex in the semi-final!

Now it's up to you, in the dreaded stage you're going to have to choose between Asterix, Obelix, Panacea and Dogmatix!

Be brave my friends! Vote with your heart and don't worry, next year the title race will be wide open again!

I was in Brussels to choose the items and documents that will be featured in the exhibition 'The Mirror World of Asterix, an exhibition that likes to reflect' with Merlin, my collector friend, when the car arrived. The blue estate, driven by the president of the Bruegel quarter shopkeepers' association, made its way right across town to a weird-looking shop. It was closed in the middle of the day and almost impossible to get into. A password was given (I am sworn to secrecy) and we were let in through a hidden door to a workshop… the workshop!
Imagine hundreds and hundreds of tailor's dummies and shop-window models lying around in piles. It was like being in a 1980s Roxy Music video. And in the middle of it all, a fantastic, huge polystyrene model of Obelix revolving quietly before me. The artist, the proud yet fragile Mario Sommarti, seemed happy to see the positive effect his work was having, as if he had never really thought otherwise, but all the same… The bust of Obelix is almost 3 metres wide across his arms. After some well-deserved congratulations I left, thinking to myself that the September celebrations were really going to be… monumental!

Ever heard of Sami Garam? No, it's not a magic formula for sorcerers' apprentices who have lost their spell book; Sami Garam, born in 1967, is well known for his translations into 'Stadin slangi', the dialect spoken in the Helsinki region of Finland. After translating a number of classic Finnish novels into the local language, he has now joined the exclusive ranks of the little Gaulish village by translating an Asterix book, namely Asterix and the Laurel Wreath, due to be published in September, just in time for this new Asterix language to join the one hundred existing translations in 'The Mirror World of Asterix' exhibition in Brussels.



The selection process for the translator had to be a rigorous one given that in Finland sales of books written in dialect sometimes exceed those in the national language! With Sami Garam, the publisher Egmont Kustannus made the best choice: a popular personality with the Finnish media, his background is somewhat less than conventional since his main profession is cooking! Although that in itself may not be a prerequisite for translating an Asterix book, it does perhaps explain why Asterix and the Laurel Wreath was chosen. As you will remember, it is in that adventure that Asterix and Obelix become slaves and try their hand at preparing a meal that would soon finish off even the most robust of dinner guests, throwing in red peppers, salt, jam, black peppercorns, black pudding, eggs, carbolix soap, pomegranate seeds, a whole chicken (feathers and all!), etc.

Welcome, Sami, to the merciless world of the Gauls which, as you may remember, the Vikings (Normans) have previously paid a visit on a few occasions. Sami, we would also like to invite you to Brussels in September, by Toutatis, to celebrate your enthronement! We shall drink a few full skulls together! By Thor! Who said I was wrong? Fill up another one, I have to get into training!

Cantankerus, Arteriosclerosus and Gastroenteritus round off our collection of profiles from Asterix and the Goths.
Now we've 'Goth' the lot!