Word: asterix
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...been 50 years since the small but cunning warrior Asterix and his podgy stonemason pal Obelix began battling the armies of Julius Caesar in their remote village on the Brittany coast - the only part of ancient Gaul never conquered by the Romans. The latest episode in the pair's comic-strip adventures was released in France last month to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first Asterix story, written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo for the magazine Pilote. The new book, Asterix and Obelix's Birthday: The Golden Book, is the 34th in a series...
Uderzo, writer and illustrator of the series since Goscinny's death in 1977, attributes Asterix's enduring appeal to people's love of the underdog sticking it to the system. "It's David against Goliath," he tells TIME. "Everyone can identify with the image of retribution against things that are bigger than us." For some, the stories have also come to symbolize French anxiety over globalization; the character of Asterix is used as a poster boy for independent-minded people everywhere in the struggle against the hegemonic power of the day, be it Roman imperialists or Anglo-Saxon capitalists...
Many people in France talk of the "Asterix syndrome" and the "village gaulois" (Gallic village), the idea that tiny, embattled France needs to defend itself against the encroaching cultural influences of the U.S., or the English language, or both. Usually used pejoratively, the terms indicate an inward, backward-looking way of seeing the world. The sentiment is also tied up with the French obsession with its cultural exception, the various rules and regulations designed to protect the French way of life from outside forces: French singers must sing in French, English words are banned from advertising, half...
...simply in the French blood to root for an underdog taking on authority figures. Generations of French children have been enamored with traditional Guignol puppet shows, in which the protagonist, Guignol, fights with a rotten, bumbling policeman. The nation is also obsessed with the comic-book hero Asterix, a puny but cunning Gaul warrior who always gets the best of Julius Caesar's Roman armies despite being overmatched and outnumbered. (Read "Asterix at 50: A French Comic Hero Conquers the World...
...should be recognized as a literary great). They were illustrated in a style that Hergé perfected called ligne Claire, or clear line: simple lines of almost uniform thickness, with no shading. His technique, which created an uncluttered image with robust, universal elements, influenced cartoonists that followed, such as Asterix creators Goscinny and Uderzo, and the Smurfs' Peyo. And while Tintin never made it big in America, Pop Art stars Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein recognized Hergé as an inspiration for the Pop Art movement. The museum has three portraits of Hergé painted by Warhol, who once said...