(no subject)

[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

[chiller.livejournal.com]

I thought one of them had died? Not Asterix or Obelix. Goscinny or Uderzo. In fact I thought it was Uderzo. So wut up wi'dat?

[strictlytrue.livejournal.com]

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

It's every bit as beautiful as I imagined...

[martylog.livejournal.com]

Have you seen either of the live-action films? They're very very creepy indeed. Although Asterix is obviously an old man (the moustache etc), having him portrayed on screen by an actual old man is hugely unsettling.

Likewise when Obelix, in the comics, punches a Roman so hard on the chin that he flies up into the sky leaving his armour suspended in mid-air, it's knockabout fun - when the same scenario is translated, literally, to live-action, it just looks nightmarishly ultra-violent.