Albert Uderzo, the famous cartoonist, who is responsible for making my childhood more memorable because of his wonderful work in Asterix, died on Tuesday. He was 92.
While discussing Uderzo’s legacy with a few friends, I kept thinking that he was more famous for his artwork, although he did write the comics until 2009.
Currently, there are 38 Asterix comic titles. I am not including The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, Asterix Versus Caesar, and How Obelix Fell Into The Magic Potion When He Was a Baby, as they are more picture books instead of comics i.e. they have a script like a regular storybook and the drawings are the same.
Of these 38 titles, 24 were written by Rene Goscinny, with Uderzo working on the art. Udero took over after Asterix in Belgium, which was posthumously published two years after Goscinny’s death. Asterix and the Great Divide was a Shakespearian classic that involved Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix ending a family feud between two rival Gaulish tribes that shared a village boundary (a ditch), even ensuring that they filled up the ditch with water once the feud ended.
The next comic, Asterix and the Black Gold – probably Uderzo’s best writing work – had a tribute to Sean Connery’s James Bond (Dubbleosix), and even a tribute to Goscinny (Saul ben Ephishul), the Jew who guides Asterix and Obelix from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea.
Asterix and Son, too, was well-written and had some charming moments.
However, that’s when Uderzo’s writing began going downhill. Asterix and the Magic Carpet saw the Gauls come to India, the first 30 pages involved their entire journey from Gaul to India. The last 18 pages were how they created the Gaulish Miracle through Cacofonix’s singing. The first part of the comic was too long, and the second half just ended abruptly, making it the first time that Asterix and Obelix did not attend a banquet at the end of the comic. Instead, they were celebrating in India in the King’s palace.
Asterix and the Secret Weapon in my opinion is the worst Asterix comic written. Uderzo tried approaching the topic of feminism through this comic, and it backfired quite horribly. The jokes were stale, and in this day and age, could have been part of a WhatsApp forward sent by Indian uncles.
The next three comics – Asterix and Obelix All at Sea, Asterix and the Actress, and Asterix and the Falling Sky – had moments of trivia for the ultimate Asterix fan, but when it came to storytelling, didn’t have the same charm. I have tried a few times to complete Asterix and the Falling Sky, but can’t get beyond Page 5. An alien invasion in the village is just too much. Even the late great translator Anthea Bell, who is the reason all of us love Asterix in the first place, couldn’t work her charm in fixing these disasters of comics.
Uderzo as an artist, however, is unmatched. If you look at the detailing in Asterix and Cleopatra or Asterix at the Olympic Games, the detailing of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, particularly when he draws the pyramids and the Sphinx highlights the artist’s brilliance. That, clubbed with Goscinni’s writing made Asterix a classic.
Now, with a new bunch of writers and artists creating new comics, I’m not too sure that charm will exist. And I partially blame Uderzo for that. If he retired the comics with him, then the charm would have lived on forever. It is why I can still pick up a Tintin comic and enjoy it, but can't do the same with an Asterix comic.
