We played the game. And, to our naive disappointment, we are not the only ones. Around thirty journalists, French and foreign, came to crowd, in Vanves, on the 4th floor of Hachette Livres, the floor of the Albert René editions, which belong more to the sanctuary than to the besieged village. The goal ? Discover, “in preview”, the 40th album of Asterix and Obélix created in 1959 in the magazine Pilot by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny. A game that resembles a major oral exam at Sciences Po (signing a confidentiality document, reading the subject, The white Iris, for three quarters of an hour), except that there, it’s you who asks the questions. In the hot seat, the centurions of Lagardère (of which this is the last coup before the takeover by Vivendi), the warm Didier Conrad, chief designer of the object (this is his sixth Asterix) and Fabcaro – the blue of the story – in the role of screenwriter, Jean-Yves Ferri having wanted to take a break.
As surprising as it seems, although they have worked together for almost two years, the two men only met three days ago, the first living in Austin, Texas, and the second in a small village near Montpellier.
The machine is well established, the troops of the die-hard Gauls are on the march to pocket the jackpot of the year with its incredible circulation, 5 million copies, including 2 in France and 2 in Germany. The stakes are high (393 million have been sold worldwide since the first album, Asterix the gallic, in 1961, 117 translations, etc.). Enough to justify this warning from the eldest to his younger: “You were in alternative cinema, with Asterix you arrive in Hollywood”. And, in fact, everyone here had their say. Editors, rights holders, even the “simple” employee of the editorial chain were able to intervene or suggest during the creative process of this very codified universe.
Something to sweeten this White Iris ? Yes and no. Yes, because certain “absurdities” of the gagman Fabcaro did not pass the ramp (“not enough Asterix”), no, because The white Irispublished this October 26, remains overall a sympathetic joke of contemporary fashions of positive thinking, personal development and benevolence, against a backdrop of demobilization of Caesar’s troops and the crisis of the Abraracourcix couple, initiated by a a certain Vicevertus, with a physique inspired by a mixture of BHL and Villepin (according to the authors certainly to get people talking in the cottages).
In short, a cocktail of witticisms dubbed by a “legion” of scrutinizers, as it should be for this piece of French heritage. SO ? So, despite the big machinery, let’s not shy away from our pleasure. Is such a deployment of resources an exception on the editorial planet? Not completely, because the world of comics (not to mention that of manga) is frequently subject to “monster” releases. Thus, scheduled for November 22 at Dupuis, the Gaston, vol. 22. The return of Lagaffe, by Delaf, benefits from a first printing of 1.2 million copies, while the Blacksad, vol. 7, Then everything falls: second part by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, published on November 3, had a print run of 280,000 copies. Obviously, not all cartoonists have the right to such treatment. All the more reason to go meet them in Saint-Malo, this weekend, from October 27 to 29, during the Quai des Bulles Comic Strip Festival.