Goscinny and Uderzo

Goscinny and Uderzo

I've been reading - and rereading - the Asterix and Obelix Comics for a very long time now, but it was only recently, when I got interested in Ancient Rome, that I realized the vast amount of research that has undoubtedly gone into creating these series. The factual details, both written and drawn, are impressively correct, and it is the presentation of these details, not in a dry historic way but in a lively, contemporary manner coupled with a wonderful, ironic sense of humor throughout, that brings the characters to life and draws in the reader, making these stories so endearingly lasting.

"The year is 50 B.C., Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders..."

Such is the introduction of these extraordinarily brilliant comics, created by the artist-writer duo Albert Uderzo and Rene Goscinny. The period is, of course, 50 B.C., during Julius Caesar's Roman Campaigns in Gaul, and the storyline is more specifically about a small Gallic Village that is still resisting, buoyed in their continuing fight by their Druid's Magic Potion. The lead characters are the warrior Asterix, a puny but wily and witty Gaul, and his boon companion Obelix, a large-hearted if somewhat simple Menhir-delivery man who fell into the cauldron of Magic Potion as a baby and so is practically invincible. The duo is quite, quite inseparable and completely loyal to one another, though they do have their periodical disagreements and tiffs. Apart from defending their own village, the two have tried the patience of Rome by traveling and making memorable impacts around the rest of the Empire as well. They are accompanied on their adventures by Dogmatix, Obelix's charismatic, tree-loving, black and white dog. The other characters peopling the series are the colorful villagers - Chief Vitalstatistix, the fiery headstrong leader with a nagging wife Impedimenta, Getafix the wise Druid, Cacofonix the phenomenally untalented bard, Geriatrix the old man with the beautiful young wife, Unhygienix the smelly Fish seller, and many others.

There are in all 23 Comic Albums, my personal favorites being 'Asterix and the Banquet', 'Asterix and the Golden Sickle', 'Asterix in Britain', 'Asterix and the Magic Carpet', 'Asterix in Corsica', 'Asterix and the Laurel Wreath'....Well, all of them really.

The Creators -

The creators Albert Uderzo and Rene Goscinny appear as background characters several times in the Asterix Comics.

Albert Uderzo -

Albert Uderzo, the Frenchman of Italian origin, was born in 25 April 1927 in Normandy. As a child he was fascinated by Mickey Mouse and showed such an aptitude for drawing caricatures himself that he was hired as a Junior Artist by the Paris Publishing Society in 1940. Calvo, the famous comic artist, also worked here around about this time and he greatly encouraged the new, thirteen year old artist. Uderzo had become quite well-grounded in calligraphy and photo-editing by the time his apprenticeship was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War. The War period was spent in Bretagne working first on a farm and then helping his father in his furniture business. He returned to Paris to resume his art career in 1945, and his first comic strips 'Flamberge' and 'Les aventures de Clopinard' were published. He did some work on the animated cartoon film 'Clic-Clac', and joined the artistic staff of O.K. Magazine. Here, between 1947 and 1948, he created some successful characters like 'Arys Buck', 'Le Prince Rollin' and 'Belloy l'Invulnerable'. He joined France Dimanche in 1949 as a reporter and illustrator and, for France-Soir, drew the comics 'Le crime ne paie pas'. The Nineteen-Fifties saw him working on 'Captain Marvel Jr.' for Bravo Magazine' and traveling to Brussels to work on 'Belloy' with the writer Jean-Michel Charlier for La Wallonie Magazine. In Brussels he also met many other talented and well-known artists like Mitacg, Victor Hubinon and Eddy Paape, who all had a profound influence on his work. More importantly though he met Rene Goscinny with whom he quickly struck up a long-lasting friendship. Their first creation together was 'Jehan Pistolet', the Pirate and their next character was 'Luc Junior', both show-cased in La Libre Junior until 1957. From 1958 to 1962, they worked on the series concerning the Red Indian, 'Oumpah Pah', for Tintin Magazine, and from 1962 to 1967, with writer Jean Michel Charlier, on the realistically rendered Aviator heroes 'Tanguy et Laverdure'. 'Der Rote Korsar' series followed after this, and then came 'Asterix the Gaul'. He got his own separate album in 1961, and soon proved to be so popular that after 1967 Goscinny and Uderzo began concentrating wholly on these new series. After the death of Goscinny, Uderzo continued with the Asterix series on his own. Uderzo's work was honored by his home country in 1985 when he was awarded with the Knight of the Legion of Honor. This was followed by the Grand Prix des Arts Graphiques 1986 in January 1986 by the French culture minister Jack Lang.

Rene Goscinny -

Born in Paris on 14 August 1926, of a Polish father and an Ukrainian mother, Rene Goscinny moved with his parents to Argentina in 1928 at the age of two and spent his growing up years in Buenos Aires. His father was a Mathematics teacher at the French School there and Goscinny attended the same, showing a remarkable proficiency in the arts. Many of his early works were published in the school magazines, Notre Voix and Quartier Latin. Only a month after he graduated in Fine Arts, in 1942, Goscinny's father unexpectedly died and financial issues made it imperative that he take a job as a book-keeper at a Tire Factory. Later, after he was laid off, he attempted to get back in the Art Stream by taking a job as a Junior Illustrator at an Advertising Agency. He doesn't appear to have been very successful there, and in 1945, when his maternal uncle issued an invitation to join him in New York, he gladly uprooted and moved to Brooklyn with his mother. For a while he worked as a translator and then was drafted into the Army. However it was the tail-end of the Second World War and, although he served in France, he saw no battle action. Returning to Brooklyn after his discharge, he once more attempted to find work as an artist and once more was unsuccessful - this time as a result of his poor command of the English Language. His luck changed however in 1948. This was the year he found employment as an assistant in a small studio and here he came in contact with the artists Maurice de Bevere (who signed his work as Morris and with whom Goscinny was to collaborate for twenty years on the comic strip 'Lucky Luke') and Harvey Kurtzman, who both encouraged and aided him work-wise. It was through Harvey Kurtzman that he came to know with the upcoming American artists and the soon-to-be founders of MAD Magazine, Willy Elder, Jack Davis and John Severin. About a year later his work had improved to such an extent that it caught the attention of Georges Troisfontaines, the Director of the World Press Agency in Brussels, Belgium. Goscinny went to Belgium to meet with him and also met the Art Director of the Dupuis Agency, Jean-Michel Charlier. The meetings went well and Goscinny settled in Paris where he did some assignments for Dupuis and later took over the management of the Paris Office of the World Press Agency in 1951. It was here that he met Albert Uderzo. Their first assignments came from Dupuis, but at the same time they also worked on developing their own characters, notably 'Oumpah Pah'. Unfortunately this comic strip didn't interest the creative people at Dupuis, and had a long time in getting published. In 1955, with Goscinny providing the storyline for Morris's clever drawings, the extremely successful 'Lucky Luke' was launched. That same year, after a disagreement, Goscinny left the World Press Agency and, together with Charlier and Uderzo who resigned too in support of him and Jean Hebrard, set up the independent syndicates Edipress and Edifrance. They started the comic magazine 'Pilote' in 1955, which, since the big publishers boycotted them and the established artists wouldn't dare work for them, began to show-case the works of various new and talented artists. Goscinny also created Children's books featuring 'Le Petit Nicolas', created with Jean-Jacques Sempe in 1956, and wrote editorials and stories for Pilote as well as scripts for films. In 1962, he worked on 'Le Grand Vizier Iznogoud' with the young artist Jean Tabary. But it was really 'Asterix', created for the first issue of 'Pilote', that propelled him into the limelight. Around 1968, disagreements at the Agency made Goscinny withdraw from the business and he began concentrating almost exclusively on 'Asterix'. Together with Uderzo he founded the Idefix Studios in 1974 to make animated versions of the comics, the first production being 'The Twelve Tasks of Asterix'. It was a great success. Later a film version of 'Lucky Luke' followed. Like Uderzo, Goscinny too was the recipient of numerous awards and was considered a National Hero in France. Unfortunately, hard work and stress had taken their toll. He died of a Cardiac Arrest on 5 November 1977 at the age of only fifty-one.