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[webofevil]

The new Asterix book is out in English, and it's dreadful. To someone who grew up on the originals it's desperately sad to see a still-brilliant draftsman insist on shafting his own once-great franchise, due to either senile delusion or a decision to kill the damn thing off once and for all.

The book features a cute purple alien called Toon from a planet whose name is an anagram of Walt Disney, enlisting the help of the village in fending off the attacks of another kind of alien clearly meant to represent Manga cartoons. Also included: clone-robots with the face of Arnold Schwarzenegger but dressed as Superman. It doesn't work as satire, comedy, literature or even a constructive use of paper.

It honestly couldn't be worse if the next title in the series was this:

Comments

[webofevil.livejournal.com]

The writer, Goscinny, died in 1977, leaving Uderzo with the initial dilemma of whether or not to carry on. It's quite plausible that Goscinny had left behind some increasingly scant notes about possible future projects, to which Uderzo has referred as he's trotted out worse and worse books on his own (althought always keeping Goscinny's name prominently on the cover alongside his own, as a tribute).

Uderzo is 79, and his artwork remains fantastic, but, my God, there's no excuse for just how bad this new book is. If it really is senility, as opposed to malice towards his creation, that has driven him to write it, then he might be vulnerable to suggestion, in which case we should send him a synopsis of "Bring Me The Head..." and he'd probably write it.

[chiller.livejournal.com]

It's so worth trying.

I'm glad you confirmed that Goscinny had died (even though I thought it was Uderzo), because for a minute there I caught myself wondering whether my Dad had played a cruel jape on me in an effort to thwart my addiction to Asterix.