2023-10-16 13:03:19
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 1 hour ago, Updated 43 minutes ago
Authors Didier Conrad (left) and Fabcaro at the press conference for the 40th album of the adventures of Asterix, L’Iris blanc. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
The plot of L’Iris blanc, 40th Asterix album scheduled for release on October 26, will revolve around Vicevertus, a philosopher inspired by Bernard-Henri Lévy and Dominique de Villepin.
The enemy of Asterix in the 40th adventure of the irreducible Gauls, to be published on October 26, is a character of a philosophical guru adept at “Positive thought» called Vicevertus, the publisher revealed on Monday. L’Iris blanc (48 pages, 10.50 euros in France) appears simultaneously in 20 languages, with more than five million copies. This is the sixth album designed by Didier Conrad, who took over the series in 2013 after the retirement of one of the two creators of Asterix, Uderzo. And the first with Fabcaro on the screenplay.
During a press conference at Hachette Livre headquarters in Vanves, near Paris, the authors explained that the plot would revolve around Tulius Vicévertus, Julius Caesar’s doctor and philosopher, who came to motivate the demoralized troops around the village. irreducible Gauls. L’Iris blanc«It is a school. He was inspired by a Greek philosopher to create his method», Fabcaro explained.
Also read: An Asterix board in Hispania sold for 167,000 euros at auction
Vicevertus will not only raise the morale of the Roman soldiers but also instill division within the Gallic village. This new philosophy, which advocates kindness, vegetarian diet and meditation, will find its supporters, like the wife of the village chief, Bonemine, and its detractors, like the skeptical Asterix. To draw him, Didier Conrad first imagined a fairly young man. But with the screenwriter and the editor, the choice fell on a mature man with white, shoulder-length hair. “We started with somewhat flamboyant people: Dominique de Villepin, Bernard-Henri Lévy…», revealed the designer.
Each new Asterix album, despite the disappearance of its two creators (the screenwriter René Goscinny in 1977 and the designer Albert Uderzo in 2020), is a huge event in bookstores, every two years.
Also read: “Albert Uderzo, the French spirit”
«Asterix couldn’t be better», underlined the general director of Hachette Livre Illustré, Isabelle Magnac. She noted the record attendance at Parc Astérix, in Plailly, north of Paris, with more than 2.8 million visitors in 2022. Editions Albert René, which holds the rights, is one of the most profitable houses of Hachette Livre, a group in the process of being bought, along with the rest of Lagardère, by Vivendi, controlled by billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
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