Asterix: Uderzo steps down to be replaced by Jean Yves Ferri

It has been reported that at the age of 84, Albert Uderzo has stepped down from the writing and drawing of Asterix. He will be replaced by Jean Yves Ferri, an scenarist in his own right, who Uderzo says has been “following” him in the studio for some time to learn the process of producing Asterix. Ferri will be assisted by the Mebarki brothers, Frederic for drawing and Thierry for color, and the first book by this team, the 34th in the series is expected in 2012.

Without trying to be unfair towards the new authors, there are times when I wish that some authors would be like Herge and let their creation die with them.

I certainly hope that they make more of an effort and try and match the satirical style of Goscinny rather than the fantasy and science fiction that Uderzo introduced. Wait and see, I suppose.

Le Figaro has revealed that the creative team for the new Asterix album has changed.

Saying that the pressure of working on this challenge is too much for him, Frédéric Mebarki has thrown in the towel; Editions Albert René have announced his successor as Didier Conrad, an established artist.

The release is now slated for next year.

Hmmm.... I can't say that I care much for Conrad. His style is more Franquin than Uderzo, his humour tends to be bleak and includes a lot of the toilet variety which I don't enjoy.

Under the pen-name Pearce, he drew "Kid Lucky" which looked at Lucky Luke's childhood and I didn't like that series at all.

I expect that he will be bringing in his usual collaborator Yann (aka Yann le Pennetier) in order to assist with the scripts. One good thing about Yann is that his stories do tend to be based on extensive research. Like Goscinny, he takes real-life people and events and puts them in fictional circumstances - though his handling has sparked controversy, such as his depiction in "Gringos Locos" of Jije, Morris and Franquin's famous journey to America in the late 1940s which was heavily criticised by their sons and daughters.

Still, we'll see how they go. They might just be able to produce better quality "Asterix" stories than the ones we've had in the past few years.

Why? He’s drawing, not writing Asterix; Ferri is still going to be scripting the new album.

He and Yann have worked a lot together in a way similar to Uderzo and Goscinny. I'm just suggesting that it's not impossible that Yann will collaborate with Ferri. Let's just see how it goes.

Hmm... Interesting. I'm not familiar with the new team's work (has any of it be translated by Cinebook), so I am perhaps more optimistic than most. While I did enjoy the later Asterix books (one of the few it seems), they were a definite drop in quality of the glory days, so I will be intrigued to find out what these new interpretations will be like. For some reason (perhaps because of Albert Uderzo's indorsement), I don't feel though that it is a mistake to carry on the series, like it would be if Tintin had had new albums created. There is still some water left at the well, maybe due to it being a comedy and there are more scenarioes that can be explored?

I really agree with you there! The series should have been stopped when Goscinny died. There were some good albums later, but from Asterix and the Secret Weapon it really went downhill. The last few albums were really trash! Uderzo is a good painter, but clearly not a good story teller.

Here are some more details about the new workers on the series:

Didier Conrad the artist has been established for a long time, so Uderzo would have been familiar with his work and been satisfied that he was worth passing the mantle on - though then again Uderzo was also satisfied with his own non-Goscinny books, unlike the critics or many readers!

Writer Jean-Yves Ferri's work has been in the humour field, almost literally since some of his series have been set in the countryside, "Aimé Lacapelle" for example tells the adventurers of a farmer who is also a detective. What bothers me is that Ferri is also a major contributor to "Fluide glacial", a monthly comic whose humour tends to be of the adult or toilet variety.

Anyway, let's wait and see...