TEN THINGS ABOUT ... ASTERIX
Asterix is Europe's favourite comic book character – the Asterix books have sold more than 400 million copies (globally this surpassed only by the 500 million copies of "One Piece", a Japanese manga creation). So hard to quibble with the assertion that he's an indispensable European cultural icon
I'm the only screenprints (that I know of) who makes screenprints officially approved by the publisher, Editions Albert Rene. See my hand-pulled prints (there are currently 25 designs in my range) here: https://comic-art-website.myshopify.com/collections/asterix-obelix
Asterix's 41st volume launches on October 23rd, 2025 (the first book came out in 1961)
The first English translation (Asterix The Gaul) book appeared in 1969
Before then, it had been serialized in the Valiant comic, since 1963. This version was set in Britain, and the main characters were renamed "Little Fred and Big Ed"
The English translator for many years was Anthea Bell (from 1969 until 2016) – she was the older sister of the BBC reporter Martin Bell ("the man in the white suit, who then became an independent MP)
She re-named some of the characters including Dogmatix (who had been Ideefix) and Getafix the druid (who had been Panoramix).
Asterix is coming up on his 66th birthday – he first appeared in the Franco-Belgian comic magazine Pilote on 29 October 1959.
The original team of René Goscinny (words) and Albert Uderzo (pictures) continued until Goscinny died in 1977.
Uderzo then took over the writing too until 2009.
Any questions? email me at jpr@thecomicartwebsite.com