Idefix dances with wolves in the new Asterix full of snow and amazon

Obelix’s dog Idefix dances with wolves on the icy steppes north of the Black Sea on Asterix’s new comic album, The Little Gaul, which will be released on Thursday. Asterix and Griffin Named, screenwriter Jean-Yves Ferry and illustrator Didier Conrad have transformed this new travel story by Asterix and Obelix into a successful version of “the Western”: “Oriental”.

The Greeks travel with the priest’s panorama to the east, to “Barbaricum” as the Romans called the steppes above the Crimea. There lived Sarmatian knights. They say the Indians are in this “oriental”. The totem poles are shaped like a raptor or griffin, a formidable mythical creature half eagle and half lion.

Warriors on horseback

Phiri weaves historical references (Iranian-speaking Sarmatians already existed) to create a witty, modern, anti-colonial, and feminist story. Feminism Because among the Sarmatians, women on horseback were also warriors – the Amazons, as described by the Greek historian Herodotus in 430 BC. They play an important role in this story. And anti-colonial because the Gallic comic book heroes stand shoulder to shoulder with the Sarmatian “savages” of the steppe, in their fight against the Roman invaders.

Read also: Pippi and Stereotypes

They want to catch a griffin. Because Caesar believes that such a monster already exists and wants him for his circus. Although his Sarmatian captor, an Amazon similar to Lady Gaga, says the monster has not been captured. But Caesar does not understand the barbarian, and the Roman geographer Ontdecjeplecjus (Discover Your Locations), eager to join the expedition, lies that it will lead the Romans to the beast. Die Ondecjeplecjus is clearly a cartoon by French writer Michel Houellebecq – a typical Asterix joke.

wild griffin

The priest Panoramic realized in a dream that his fellow Sarmatian shaman Cancalopedin (can I really serve) in danger from this Roman raid campaign, set out with Asterix and Obelix to the Eastern Steppes, carrying a barrel full of the magic potion that would make him invincible. . The story is told with great speed and humor, and produces beautiful graphics in winter steppe landscapes. Idefix, Obelix’s dog (who turns out to be the actual hero of the story) gets along well with the steppe wolves, and seems to dance with them – a clear reference to the western movie dancing with the wolves.

Writer Fairy seems to want to get rid of the accusation that Asterix’s albums are completely full of old stereotypes.

And despite all the historical references, he doesn’t want to be a “historian”. Ferry said in an interview that the Sarmatians of Asterix live in a fictional country, as the creator of Tintin Hergi (Eastern Europe) imagined the country of Syldavia. This gives him more freedom. Thus ends the Roman search for a griffin on a glacier and a lake frozen in perpetuity, providing made-up fun and a beautiful explanation of how the idea of ​​such a monstrous creature as the griffin (without spoilers) came to be. It does not matter that the griffin was previously depicted in Mesopotamia.

Asterix is ​​a big trading company

This new Asterix album (fifth) is the best yet from Ferri and Conrad, successors to original creators René Goscinny (died 1977) and Albert Oderzo (died in 2020).

And he can compete with the best albums of Goscinny and Uderzo.

Asterix has become a big business since the first albums were released in 1960: this 39th album was released in seventeen languages ​​with an initial circulation of 5 million. Expensive deluxe albums are now also appearing, with additional comic pages unfortunately missing from regular albums. Like the scene in which Panoramix falls asleep during a game of chess with Asterix, and then wakes up in a terrifying dream about a shaman and calls out his name. wink for Scene In the coldest book of Tintin, Tintin in TibetTintin falls asleep during a game of chess and is awakened by a nightmare about his Chinese friend Zhang.