2023-10-30 15:31:09
BarcelonaWhen they already believed that no external threat could defeat them, the Gallic village of Asterix and Obelix will see their unity shaken by the arrival of someone they had never imagined: a self-help guru sent expressly by Juli caesar Dosventus is the great antagonist ofThe white lily (Saved), the album number 40 in the Romans and Gauls series that has just arrived in bookstores with a translation by Daniel Cortés Coronas. On this occasion, Fabrice Caro (artistically known as Fabcaro) has been responsible for devising and writing the story in place of Jean-Yves Ferri, who asked the publisher to take some time off. The drawings are by Didier Conrad, who since 2011 has taken on the task of continuing the characters of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, together with Ferri.
Following the dynamic of placing one book in the series in the village and the next sending the protagonists on a journey, this time the adventures of Asterix and Obelix take place at home. Dosventus is the chief physician of Caesar’s army, a man with a good-natured look and wind-blown hair. His arrival in the Gallic village leaves an impression of a good beginning, when he gets the fishmonger to stop selling fish in bad condition and the blacksmith dedicates himself to finding new sounds with the hammer. Dosventus only knows how to throw good words at enemies, and it leaves them very confused. “In France there is a great tendency to buy self-help books and spread positive thinking. I have nothing against it at the outset, but sometimes it takes a drift whose benefits are not so clear,” explains Fabcaro. Dosventus is “a guru who sows serenity” in a town “that endures, precisely, because of chaos and conflict”, and Asterix, of course, will have to intervene so that everything goes back to its place.
Fabrice Caro has a long career as an author of comics and also novels. Among its best-selling titles is the comic book Zaï zaï zaï zaï, the adventure of a cartoonist published in 2015 and awarded with numerous prizes. For Caro, becoming the author of Asterix has been “quite a miracle” which he has tried to enjoy to the fullest. “It was one of my first reads, along with the stories of Mortadel·lo and Filemó and Zipi and Zape. When I received the publisher’s proposal, fireworks exploded in my head,” the author emphasizes .
A love story in the village
Although he has tried not to stray too far from Goscinny’s style, Fabcaro has incorporated into the script elements that, as a child, caught his attention in the stories of Asterix and Obelix. The most important thing has been to give prominence to the head of the tribe, Abraracúrcix, and his wife, Bonamina. “They always seem to be fighting, but I adore them and found the image we had of them to be very superficial,” says the author. That’s why a The white lily the couple will experience a resurgence of their love. To get there, however, they will not have a very good time. “She has delusions of grandeur, she wants to travel and, when she leaves, he will miss her very much. I wanted to incorporate this more romantic approach, which is not common in Asterix comics,” emphasizes Fabcaro.
The adventures of Asterix and Obelix, first published in 1959, are quite a phenomenon for comic lovers, and the fever for their stories does not stop despite the years. More than two million copies have been printed in FranceThe white lily. “Asterix and Obelix are quite an institution in our house, they are practically national heritage. The most beautiful thing, however, is that unlike other comics, it is an intergenerational phenomenon”, highlights Didier Conrad. 30,000 of this new album will be distributed in Catalan and 150,000 in Spanish. The book has also been translated into Galician, Basque and Asturian.
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