Asterix and his friend Obelix tackle the leak of top secret Roman information with a strong dose of humor in the hugely anticipated new opus of their adventures, which was published yesterday in France and abroad.
After their last escapade in Scotland, the boisterous Gauls are back in their homeland in Asterix and the Missing Scroll, teaming up with a reporter inspired by Wikileaks front-man Julian Assange to battle their favorite Roman foes.
The 36th edition in the hugely successful Asterix comic book series, which features the adventures of an indomitable tribe of Gauls resisting Roman occupation, came out in Paris, London, Madrid, Montreal, Cape Town, with further releases planned in other countries at a later date.
Photo: EPA
Four million copies have been printed — half in French and the rest in foreign languages.
Just hours before the book’s release, writer Jean-Yves Ferri said he felt like he had been “caught in a whirlwind.”
“It’s a more ambitious theme than the last book,” he said, adding that it took him one-and-a-half years to finish it.
On the side of the good guys, Confoundtheirpolitix is introduced for the first time as a journalist who works for the Condatum Echo.
Julius Caesar is on the verge of publishing his famous Commentaries on the Gallic War and one of the chapters is devoted to his continual yet ever-unsuccessful quest to conquer the small village.
However, that is not to the liking of his nasty, deceitful editor and agent Libellus Blockbustus, whose physical traits are strangely similar to those of French advertising magnate Jacques Seguela.
Caesar accepts to take out the offending chapter, but there is a leak and a scribe hands the bombshell to Confoundtheirpolitix, who tries to pass it on to Asterix. However, will he succeed?
The comic book abounds with winks and nods to modern technology, such as the blue birds in the forest reminiscent of the Twitter symbol.
The new adventures come two years after the Gallic duo re-emerged from an eight-year absence in Asterix and the Picts which took them to ancient Scotland for the first time and sold more than 5.4 million copies in 15 nations and more than 20 languages and dialects.
The Asterix series — created by illustrator Albert Uderzo and writer Rene Goscinny in 1959 — is a bestseller in the comic book world, with about 365 million copies sold worldwide.
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