The album comes out Thursday, two months before Christmas like every two years, at “more than five million copies” according to Albert René editions, in 20 languages for the moment. Others will follow.
For the previous one, “Asterix and the Griffin” in 2021, it had bet on five million and 17 languages. Result: 1.55 million comics sold in France alone in the first two months.
Asterix is also a very good exporter. The Germans or Italians love it, the Spanish immediately translate it into several languages (Catalan, Basque, Galician, and even Asturian Bable), the British or Scandinavians know it very well.
For a series that was already going strong with a screenwriter less known to the general public, in the person of Jean-Yves Ferri, bringing in a new writer is like refilling the magic potion. Fabcaro, 50, indeed has very loyal fans.
An “ambiguous” villain
This claimed admirer of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo knows the world of the “irreducible Gauls” by heart. With a simple and effective plot, and a cascade of gags, its bittersweet humor works very well in “The White Iris”.
“All the characters in this village, that’s the genius of Goscinny and Uderzo. They created luxury toys. They all have strong characters. They are real finds,” explains the screenwriter to AFP.
The protagonists of this adventure are the village chief, Abraracourcix, and his wife Bonemine? despite themselves, because they find themselves separated.
“I wanted to have fun with them. Together, they are always arguing, she reproaches him a lot. But we feel that there is a lot of love. And I wanted to put a spotlight on that. It’s my blue flower side”confides Fabcaro.
Between them intervenes the chief physician of Julius Caesar’s armies, Vicevertus. This follower of “Positive thought“instills in the Roman garrisons, then the inhabitants of the village of Asterix, a philosophy and new ways of expressing oneself. Kindness, empathy, healthy living, harmony between beings… This noble discourse hides goals which are less.
“He’s a slightly ambiguous villain, compared to other villains. He still has a gentle, seductive, charismatic side, but (…) he has a mission. Caesar sends him to subdue these Gauls “underlines the screenwriter.
Lutetia caricatured
This Vicevertus had to be created while avoiding a few pitfalls, says the designer Didier Conrad, who took over Uderzo’s pencil in 2013: “We started with caricatures. We saw that Dominique de Villepin was working well”. Except that this former Prime Minister was too politically marked.
Other inspirations came from the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy and the writer Frédéric Lenoir. “I didn’t know, it’s very French”says Didier Conrad, who lives in Austin (Texas). “I watched videos. He doesn’t say anything but he is very comforting, enveloping”.
The action moves to Lutèce (present-day Paris), where Obélix tries his hand at riding a scooter. In this caricatured capital, the inhabitants take it for their rank.
For the Romans, another failure: it is not this time that they will annex this little piece of Armorica. As Brutus bitterly notes at the beginning of the album: “we are putting crazy sesterces in this Gallic village which still resists”.
