Released on Friday, October 21st, Asterix and the Griffin, the 39th album in the Asterix comic book series created by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny, has already sold nearly 1.2 million copies. Cover, images and Bulles de Culture’s news on this new comic book by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad.
Éditions Albert René recently received this strange and mysterious drawing (see the image on the left). It features our two heroes – created more than 60 years ago by the genius of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo – scaling a huge tree trunk in an attempt to reach Dogmatix who seems to be trying to get away from them…
Is the little Gaulish canine making a bid for freedom?
The tree trunk is very unusual because it’s carved into an effigy of an enigmatic creature with impressive teeth and a raptor’s beak…
Asterix and the Griffin: the new adventures of Asterix and Obelix
AfterAsterix and the Picts (2013), Asterix and the Missing Scroll (2015), Asterix and the Chariot Race (2017) and Asterix and the Chieftain’s Daughter (2019), Asterix and the Griffinis therefore the fifth album of Jean-Yves Ferri (screenplay) and Didier Conrad (illustration).
And in this 39th opus since Asterix the Gaul (1961), our two Gauls heroes are confronted with a strange and terrifying mythological creature, the Griffin.
For me, it all started with a sculpture of the Tarasque, a terrifying creature from Celtic legends … Did our ancestors really believe that these peculiar monsters actually existed?
(…) Now it was time look at this bestiary and choose the animal that would be at the centre of the intrigue. Half-eagle, half-lion, with horse’s ears and appropriately enigmatic – I opted for a Griffin!
The Romans were bound to go for it. But what about the Gauls? How would Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix, along with the Druid Getafix, get drawn into the epic, perilous quest to find this fantastical animal?
That’s what you’ll find out in the new album. And I’m not going to do what Wikipedia does and tell you evrything about it…
Another new thing in Asterix and the Griffin, Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix go to Eastern Europe, more precisely in the territory of the Sarmatians, a nomadic people ancestor of the Slavs and already appeared furtively in the chariot race of the comic book Asterix and the Chariot Race (2017).
A success never denied: 1.2 million copies sold in France in less than a month
One year after the disappearance of Albert Uderzo, who died on March 24th, 2020 at the age of 92, these new adventures of Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix have be simultaneous release in 5 million copies and in 17 languages.
And the success is therefore there with nearly 1.2 million copies sold in less than a month according to the GFK (Growth from Knowledge) institute. Comics have therefore taken the lead in the rankings of books sold in France. Sales are even higher than the previous album, Asterix and the Chieftain’s Daughter. Copies are already being reprinted in the run-up to the Christmas holidays.
The success of this 39th album is also seen internationally, in Canada, Belgium, Germany … And new countries should soon welcome the latest adventures of our Gauls heroes: Norway and Serbia for Christmas, Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Czechia, Romania, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa in the first quarter of 2022, and Ukraine (the current country of the Sarmatians, the nomadic people featured in the comics) in the second quarter of 2022.
As a reminder, Asterix, it’s more than 385 million albums sold worldwide, including more than 5 million comics of Asterix and the Chieftain’s Daughter.
Likewise, the series, created by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny 62 years ago (on October 29, 1959 in the French comic magazine Pilote, exactly), has been translated into 111 languages and dialects.
Asterix is finally 15 film adaptations, from the animated film Asterix the Gaul (1967) by Ray Goossens to the feature film Asterix and Obelix: The Silk Road (2021) by Guillaume Canet, whose release, initially plannedfor 2021 in cinemas in France, has been postponed.
To learn more:
Asterix and the Griffon is published in France on Thursday, October 21st, 2021 by Éditions Albert-René
With the release of the album Asterix and the Griffin, Éditions Albert René have created with the Augmenteo studio the Astérix & Obélix : Vidi Vici app, available in France, Belgium, Germany and Quebec. The principle of this augmented reality game: to search for imprisoned Gauls and to fight Romans
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