Asterix 35 Announced!: "Astèrix chez les Pictes"

The next Asterix is to be a voyage to the land of the Picts, a Celtic people who (like their Gaulish cousins) held out against invasion from the Roman Empire, it was announced today.

The first album to be written and drawn without either Gossciny or Uderzo, it will see Asterix and Obelix travel to what is now Scotland, where the Picts inhabited the North and North East; speaking as a Scot from the North East, I'm chuffed to hear it!

The team of Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad have recieved the blessing of Uderzo, who has high hopes for the book.

It is scheduled for the 24th October this year.

Asterix and Obelix helping the Scots fight for independence? Hmmm, I wonder where they got their inspiration from?

How's that for topicality, eh?
Strictly speaking, the Picts were always independent - the Romans not managing to defeat them, and instead having to stop at the Antonine Wall.
There used to be a place quite near me when I lived and worked in Glasgow, where you could see the remains of the wall, and stand with one foot in the Roman Empire, and the other in land never vanquished by the Imperial Eagle...!

Asterix without Goscinny or Uderzo? This will be... interesting.

(Maybe Asterix will be getting its equivalent to Tintin and the Lake of Sharks.)

Well, the writers do not always stick to historical truths even in general terms. "Asterix in Britain" for example depicted it as a full Roman colony, whereas in fact Caesar only undertook a couple of short raids on Britain and it did not become a Roman colony until 43AD, about a hundred years after his death.

We'll just have to see, I suppose. What I enjoyed about the Goscinny era is that Asterix had varying motives for his travels: helping the resistance ("Britain"), obtaining a cure ("Switzerland"), returning a little boy to his parents ("Spain") or redeeming a selfish chief's pride ("Belgium"). It would be interesting to see the motives in this new book - but if they travel by spaceship or flying carpet then I'm making the writers eat every published copy, by Toutatis!

I think I can say with some confidence, whatever Ferri & Conrad have in store, it cannot possibly be worse than Asterix & the Falling Sky. I'm really looking forward to this, particularly following the relatively lacklustre outings for the Gauls in books & films in recent years. The pair seem to have good credentials, so I'm happy to sit back & see what happens.

Hi,

I have never heard of these artists..
What are their credentials and will the illustrations be up to scratch do you think?

On this, this position must have been a real coveted role... I wonder if there were many names up for contention in the past?

I wonder what this team did specifically to get the position - must have been special..

We discuss their merits here. I've just added some more details.

I've been wondering: will we be treated to any scenes of Obelix tapping the side of his head and muttering "These Picts are crazy!" or will that risk the outrage of censor Political Correctnus?

It's interesting that you are contriving an imaginary scenario, so that you can then scorn the notion, no?
To have to create a hypothetical problem so that one can react against it is a tactic which may fill the pages of the tabloids, but doesn't really make for much of a discussion, does it?

Also, given the number of things which are ultimately questionable in the series (for example, the depiction of the black pirate, both graphically and in his dialogue - especially in the French, and the general use of performance enhancing and other "potions" etc., I'm surprised that you even begin to mention Obelix's hardly-threatening assessment of many people he meets!

Oh, and speaking as a Northern Scot, Obelix can call us crazy if he wants!