How America missed its big crossroads Asterix

In the album The Great Crossing, Asterix and Obelix, Panoramics Scandinavians end up returning home after catching fish, discovering themselves trapped in a storm, running into an unknown beach, meeting Native Americans, noticing major cultural differences, and allowing a panoramic magical potion to be created. The albums of the Gaelic duo took the same path when they captured the United States: a short tour and then go. Alain Sabbath adapted an animated series Chiefs are fighting Written by Netflix, the story of the missed encounter between the series with 380 million albums and the US market.

When Americans first heard of Asterix, it may have come from reading Of an article New York Times In 1966* – A few days before a popular celebration “Asterix Event” of L Express In France. With the scent of enticing dollars, American publishers are contacting the publisher of Little Cowlin Adventures, Georges Darkot. Says designer Albert Uderzo New York Times* Thirty years later: “Very interested U.S. publishers wanted the move to be transferred to the United States.”. The period covering Roman antiquity is not without its problem …

It was eventually initiated by a French author living in the Atlantic Ocean, Moro, a publisher who specializes in children’s books. The beginning of the problem. “Moro has released albums in a country where there is no such culture, where comics are sold as small books in newsletters, and there is no facility to store such large books on bookstore shelves. Jean-Paul Kapiliat, a professor at the University of Bordeaux-Montaigne and an expert in comics history, smiles.

To mitigate it, Asterix and Obelix speak English with a strong British accent, and the American publisher took the famous British translation Anthia Bell. “He used to say: ‘My American friends tell me that Asterix speaks a strange ancient language.’ He always replied: ‘It’s not outdated, it’s British.’ ‘, Tells Catherine Telles, a professor at the University of Lorraine and co-author of the book Gaelic rooster in English time (Ed. Artois Press University, 2009), who is well acquainted with Andia Bell. Do not think that what works on the channel will be better across the Atlantic God save the queen (From the first verse of the British National Anthem, Centurve Victorius and Happyand Glorius) or the poems of Lord Byron and plays by Shakespeare. In the United States, sales are in a free fall, with the publisher stopping spending from the fifth album.

Okay, ten years after this defeat we logically say to ourselves, Asterix will be featured in newspapers in line with American culture. Karamba, still missed. “Asterix did not match what the American reader expected in his newspaper in the late 1970s. Adventure comics in the newspapers died in the 1960s.”, Sighed Jean-Paul Copiliate. “Dynamic is about looking for monopolies in a way Peanuts. “Despite everything, Dargat went to a regular butcher shopAsterix in Hispany. The first five pages of the classic album go through, where Gaelic heroes do not appear. “The other concern is that the boxes of asterix are generally very extensive, and the presses of the American newspapers of the time reduced it to indigestible porridge., Alan Holts, expert on strips published in American newspapers, Who dedicated a blog post to this disaster*. This effort was ruined from the beginning. “

Georges Dargot We can criticize many things, but do not give up easily. The undeniable publisher is trying his luck back in the 1980s.This time, of course, it would be nice to fully translate albums in the American style. Robert Crohn just sticks to it. “The American translator once admitted to me that a more qualified person than him would undoubtedly have turned down the job., Sour Catherine Telles. His profiles are the Americanization of notes. “ Inside The Great Crossing, The first album released in this new edition, We see Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s new contract jokes, a note For advertising on algae-chelster drug And word Excited, It looks a little different in Cools’ mouths.

Georges Dargat can open an office on the East Coast of the United States to support these in-house products by setting up a popular office there. Michael Greg At its head, the function is a bit primitive. “I recently interviewed an American employee, Says Jean-Paul Copliat. He told me that he or his colleagues decided to try to flood the market with albums – for example, Georges Dargat from Paris to Michael Greek. Leonard, A series about Leonardo da Vinci with Belgian comedy sauce – unworthy, Greg downplayed the discussion of ‘we do as the boss says’. “ Do you see the third failure in fifteen years? I looked good.

The American publisher Paperkuts refuses to talk about failure and wants to argue that it did not work. In 2020, as explained Washington Post (Payment item), He restarted Asterix * At a price comparable to the market ($ 15 a piece) and in the American format (one-third of albums sold in large collections) and with a brand new translation, they promise to go fast Children And so on Graphic novel European. “Asterix never really had a chance here except for the enlightened Francophiles.”, Defending Terry Nandier, the publisher’s boss. This joke is confirmed by the fact that Lisa Simpson has been stepping into a Frankhope bookstore on the episode since 2007: “Asterix! Tintin! I thought they were only in high school French subjects! “

Duties of the twenty-first century, with a slight redouching of the lips of Cleopatra’s black slaves and putting the comics in the background of its time – the mid – 1960s for the aforementioned album – appear at the end of each volume. “Re-releasing Asterix is ​​one of the most sensitive challenges of this era”, Agrees Terry Nandier. This does not preclude author Ronald Wimberly Asterix from qualifying as a “white supremacist” comic strip. Publishers Weekly*. Six months after its introduction, the statistics “Exceeding our expectations considering the health environment”, Leaving the publisher, he will no longer say, but fully supports his comic potential of 70,000 copies.

An ability not immediately known after fifty years of failure. “Many British publishers have stopped publishing the series for fear that it will become too French for the British public to view., English translator Anthia Bell, quoted in an article in the journal Education Polychemists. They were very misunderstood: the comedy was not French, but European. Where there is a big rift is with American humor. “ The invasion by the Romans two thousand years ago creates connections.

Catherine Teles insists that Japan, along with the United States, is the last major comic book market to still oppose the Gaelic invader. Two countries with a strong comic book tradition – although in Japan, a translation equivalent to the French Academy with the introduction of the famous Mangaka Osamu Desuka Impress the park – but cultural differences make it an unsold item. For the Japanese people, it is simply unthinkable to call Julius Caesar by familiar words and by his first name when you come out of the countryside affected by his wild boar.

Isn’t Asterix definitely insoluble in the North American market? There is one exception that proves the rule: Quebec. “Asterix has become the epitome of the identity struggle linked to the preservation of language in the waves of English speakers, The author of the article summarizes Tristan Demers Asterix among Quebecs (Eds. Hardube, 2018). The Anglophones, which opposed the demands of the French-speaking majority in Quebec, thus became ‘Romans’ who denied our cultural identity. Our politicians still refer to Asterix today.

Except that the asterisk in Quebec is not like what we know in Kaul. Source In 1990, when Obilix and Celine Dion shared the star of an ad for light coke – we say “diet coke” on the shores of St. Lawrence. No such outbursts When Asterix gave its image to McDonald’s in France In 2010: “Quebecs are French-speaking Americans, not French people living in the United States, subtlety! Tristan Demers yells. So, we saw a star from our region who speaks French but the American in his own way, he joins in a fictional French character, for whom we have affection. Ophilix is ​​our French root, but he also sells ‘our’ celine, a drink from our North American region. “

Editions of Albert Rene, except 2010 Interview 20minutes.ch In McDonald’s advertising “scandal”, he explained the choice of advertisers, a surprising example in support: “We refused to allow Obilix to campaign for Diet Coke because it does not match the character’s values.” Values ​​are obvious with geometry that can vary according to the regions of the world. He So there may be a place for an asterisk with American sauce, which is not a dated comic piece that General de Colin talks about in France.… Why was Alline Sabot’s animated series for Netflix not announced for 2023? After all, Omar Sai has succeeded in giving a great impetus to the character of Arsenal Lupine.

* By Tottadis, the links to the asterisks indicated by the asterisk refer to sites written in the language of Zolidorax, i.e. in English.