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2020-03-26 -Obits-
Albert Uderzo, creator of Asterix, dead at 92
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Posted by Fred 2020-03-26 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ]  Top

#1 I loved those comics::An adult cousin had those in his apartment, along with some Tintin comics, and I paged through them when my mom visited him. I learned to read french from them. And my fondest bonding moments with my brother and my roomie was when I read the copies from the college library to them, translating them in real time. There are English translations, but the original French text is way more clever and dynamic. And their laconic and perceptive takes on their continental neighbors were always good for a knowing laugh.

Alas, the writing went down in quality after Rene Goscinny passed; he was the anti-pc one of the pair, and had guts of iron.

RIP both of them.
Posted by Ptah  2020-03-26 04:36|| http://crusaderwarcollege.org  2020-03-26 04:36|| Front Page Top

#2 The German translations were excellent, but of course the French original had so many witty remarks you could only fully appreciate if you knew France very well.
Posted by European Conservative 2020-03-26 04:58||   2020-03-26 04:58|| Front Page Top

#3 My grade school French teacher made us read it. Many fond memories.
Posted by M. Murcek 2020-03-26 05:16||   2020-03-26 05:16|| Front Page Top

#4 I'll try it on Grom Jr who's failing French in school.
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2020-03-26 05:55||   2020-03-26 05:55|| Front Page Top

#5 The Asterix and Obelix books were some of the first things that my daughter began to read, and that I read to her at night when she was pre-school age; the English translations were widely available in Greece, and later on when we were stationed in Spain. She memorized all of the little tribes' members names. When she was five, and we transferred from Greece to Spain, and I told her we were about to cross into France from Germany, she asked me, in all seriousness, if we were going to meet any indomitable Gauls.
Posted by Sgt. Mom  2020-03-26 08:57||   2020-03-26 08:57|| Front Page Top

#6 I remember them from my high school days. I was taking Spanish, but we shared a room with the French class and there were copies available. Even not knowing French you could see how funny they were. A classic.
Posted by magpie 2020-03-26 09:25||   2020-03-26 09:25|| Front Page Top

#7 The illustrations were as witty as the text, and they worked hand in glove. Even if a French phrase escaped the reader's understanding, he could get the drift if he shared the snarky take-the-piss, up-yours attitude of the creators toward:
- stupid authority figures (Romans) and their dopey enforcers (centurions);
- pretentious 'intellos' (the drama-queen drama director with absurd mascara)
- male-female relations, with the blasé, hoo-boy! women usually knowing better, a la Alice Kramsden, then their overbearing know-it-all husbands
- always a Bardot lookalike slipped into the scenes of the Gauls' village activities

It was a Gallic version of South Park before South Park.

Great stuff, and here's hoping the next generation will discover it and learn (some delightfully irreverent and lively) French this way.
Posted by Lex 2020-03-26 09:42||   2020-03-26 09:42|| Front Page Top

#8 Of course the POC crowd now complains about the "racist" depiction of the black pirate.
Posted by European Conservative 2020-03-26 16:09||   2020-03-26 16:09|| Front Page Top

#9 They released them all online in 2017.
https://readasterix.blogspot.com/
Posted by rjschwarz 2020-03-26 17:56||   2020-03-26 17:56|| Front Page Top

#10 I was always amazed that they weren't written in English but so much of the wordplay still worked so well.
Posted by rjschwarz 2020-03-26 17:56||   2020-03-26 17:56|| Front Page Top

#11 Quelle nez!

(Asterix and Cleopatra)
Posted by Whiskey Mike 2020-03-26 21:41||   2020-03-26 21:41|| Front Page Top

23:51 Lex
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