“Le Papyrus de César”: the iconic French (or should we say ‘Gallic‘) hero is coming back today with a new and long-awaited comic-book known in English as “Asterix and the Missing Scroll”!
The release of a new Asterix comic book is always a major cultural event in France. A great number of Asterix fans have been waiting for a new album as it has been 2 years since the release of “Asterix and the Picts“, the first comic book not written and illustrated by Uderzo. “BD” as they are know in France (short for Bandes Dessinées in French) are extremely popular amongst both adults and children. In other countries Asterix is seen as mainly for children but this is not the case in France, where you will find many adults hanging out in this section of the bookshop!
This morning we were amongst the first to get our copy from the local bookshop of the 36th book in the Asterix series, written by Jean-Yves Ferri and illustrated by Didier Conrad. The plot of “Asterix and the Missing Scroll” is set on the fight about control of information with a Gaul journalist freely inspired on Julian Assange.
With a first printing of the comic book of more than 5 million copies, including 2 million in France, this new Asterix is available in 20 languages. Since the creation of Asterix in 1959 by the talented René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, some 365 million copies of Asterix comic books have been sold. Surely this new Asterix comic book will entertain us with new caricatures, regional stereotypes and play on words, and we can’t wait to discover it!
For more info about the comic book “Asterix and the Missing Scroll”, go to the official website: www.asterix36.com.
English-French Vocabulary
(f) for féminin, (m) for masculin, (adj) for adjective and (v) for verbs
- Antique World = monde antique (m)
- Asterix = Astérix
- book = livre (m)
- Caesar = César
- Channel = Manche (f)
- comic book = bande dessinée (f)
- Dogmatix = Idéfix
- Gaul = Gaulois (m)
- Obelix = Obélix
- play on word = jeu de mot (m)
- to read = lire (v)
- reader = lecteur (m)
- reading = lecture (f)
- storyline = histoire (f)
