Will the irreducible Gauls plunge into the absurd? Asterix and his companions will follow a script written by a new author for the 40th album. It’s about Fabcaro, known for his hilarious tales driven by a healthy dose of nonsense. This album numbered 40 is planned, as is the tradition every odd year, in the fall, precisely on October 26, Albert René editions said in a press release on Tuesday. The title is being kept secret at this stage. And the designer remains the one Albert Uderzo had designated as successor from the 35th album in 2013, namely Didier Conrad.
Fabcaro (Fabrice Caro in civil status), 49, comic book author and novelist, is only the fourth screenwriter of the adventures of the irreducible Gaul, after Goscinny, Uderzo and Jean-Yves Ferri. He is known for his hilarious satires of our society. His great success Zai zai zai zai in 2015, told of the escape of a man taken to task for having forgotten his loyalty card at a store, with a dose of nonsense rarely seen.
A “big fan” of Asterix
“I was a big fan of Asterix. It’s a great gift that we make to the kid that I was, “said the screenwriter to AFP. “I want to stay true to the specifications – even if the wording isn’t very pretty – or in any case to what makes Asterix so charming. With classic ingredients, such as anachronisms, puns or others. And above all stay true to the characters,” he added.
A board unveiled by Albert René editions shows this telescoping between these inhabitants of the village that everyone knows and our contemporary obsessions. While Asterix and his companion Obelix try to taste a wild boar, remarks from other Gauls will spoil the moment for them.
“From the moment I was offered the project, very quickly I started to scribble, to look for ideas, to explore avenues, and it came quite quickly”, explains Fabcaro. “Sometimes it happens that the authors say: I took a risk there… In reality, it’s a very relative risk, you have to put things in their place, you’re not at the front either. At worst, we will say that it is less funny, ”he remarks.
Faithful to the codes
The author of Broadway, The speech or of Formica, a tragedy in three acts was approached by the publisher when Jean-Yves Ferri wanted to focus on another project for the time being. “When I read Fabrice’s synopsis, I was immediately drawn into this story. First because it is funny and effective, then because it seemed to me extremely faithful to the codes that my father had used and posed, ”said Anne Goscinny, the daughter of the co-creator of Asterix, to AFP. “In our reflections, we go first to our pleasures as readers. Fabrice is someone who makes us die of laughter. I am a big fan ! “, added the director general of the editions Albert René, Céleste Surugue.
A character from the imagination of Uderzo and screenwriter René Goscinny in 1959, Asterix is a guaranteed best-seller, in phenomenal proportions. The latest album, Asterix and the Griffin in 2021, had sold over 1.5 million copies that year, in just over two months. It’s also a very successful export product, with millions of copies sold around the world for each album, translated into dozens of languages.