New Asterix adventure, new team

After eight years the indomitable little Gaul Asterix is back with a new adventure, ‘Asterix and the Picts’, which is set in Scotland.

The famous comic book series was created in 1959 by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. When Goscinny died, Uderzo continued alone until passing the baton to a new team.

Fans queued to buy the new book in Paris.

Enthusiast Nicholas Bady said: ‘“I am not really too fussed. I am just expecting a really good read.”

Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad are the new writer-illustrator team behind the 35th book of the series.

The writer Jean-Yves Ferri told euronews: “We thought about this book as a tribute to the former, let’s say, eternal Asterix. And so its a comic that has a slight 1970s feel. You will see that just by leafing through it.”

There were rumours about a hidden reference to the Scottish referendum in the book, but Ferri maintains that particular idea never entered his mind.

Ferri said: “I went to Scotland to show the idea to Scottish people. They were happy we’d thought about them and asked me, ‘Why Scotland?’ They thought it was because of this referendum, when in fact that wasn’t the case at all. I only learnt about that later; we had no hidden agenda.’‘

Since the first book appeared in 1961, the series has been translated into 111 languages. Over 350 million of the books in total have been sold worldwide.

‘Asterix and the Picts’ will add to that; it’s already flying off the shelves.