Idefix dances with wolves in the new Asterix full of snow and Amazons

Obelix’ dog Idefix dances with wolves on the icy steppes north of the Black Sea in the new comic album by Asterix, the little Gaul, which will be released on Thursday. Asterix and the Griffin it’s called, and scriptwriter Jean-Yves Ferri and draftsman Didier Conrad have turned this new travel story by Asterix and Obelix into a successful variant of the ‘western’: an ‘eastern’.

The two Gauls travel with their druid Panorama to the east, to ‘Barbaricum’ as the Romans called the steppes above the Crimea. There lived the horsemen of the Sarmatians. They are say the Indians in this ‘eastern’. Their totem poles are shaped like the raptor or griffin, a fearsome mythical creature that is half eagle and half lion.

Female warriors on horseback

Ferri interweaves historical references (the Iranian-speaking Sarmatians really existed) to create a witty and modern, anti-colonial and feminist tale. Feminist because among the Sarmatians the women on horseback were also warriors – the Amazons, as the Greek historian Herodotus described them as early as 430 BC. They play an important role in this story. And anti-colonial because the Gallic comic book heroes side with the steppe ‘savages’ the Sarmatians, in their fight against the Roman conquerors.

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They want to catch a griffin. Because Caesar believes that such a beast really exists and wants it for his circus. Even though his Sarmatian captive, an Amazon who resembles Lady Gaga, says the beast is uncaptured. But Caesar doesn’t understand the barbarian, and the Roman geographer Ontdecjeplecjus (Discover Your Spots), eager to join the expedition, lies that she will lead the Romans to the beast. Die Ondecjeplecjus is clearly a caricature of the French writer Michel Houellebecq – a typical Asterix joke.

monstrous griffin

Realizing in a dream that his colleague, the Sarmatian shaman Kankalopdine (Can I serve already) is in danger from this Roman raiding expedition, druid Panoramix sets out with Asterix and Obelix for the Eastern steppes, with a barrel full of magic potion that makes invincible . The story is told with great speed and humor, and produces beautiful drawings in wintry steppe landscapes. Idefix, Obelix’s dog (who turns out to be the actual hero of the story) gets on well with the steppe wolves, and seems to dance with them – a clear reference to the Western movie Dances with Wolves.

Writer Ferri seems to want to get rid of the accusation that Asterix albums are purely full of old-fashioned stereotypes.

And despite all the historical references, he doesn’t want to be the ‘historian’. The Sarmatians in this Asterix live in a fictional country, as Tintin creator Hergé envisioned the (Eastern European) country of Syldavia, Ferri said in an interview. That gives him more freedom. Thus ends the Roman quest for the griffin on glaciers and an eternally frozen lake, where a fun made up and beautifully drawn explanation is given for how the idea of ​​such a monstrous creature like the griffin could have arisen (no spoilers). It does not matter that the griffin was previously depicted in Mesopotamia.

Asterix is big business

This new Asterix album (their fifth) is the best yet from Ferri and Conrad, the successors of original creators René Goscinny (deceased 1977) and Albert uderzo (deceased in 2020).

And it can compete with the best albums of Goscinny and Uderzo.

Asterix has become big business since the first albums were released in 1960: this 39th album appears in seventeen languages ​​with an initial circulation of 5 million. Expensive luxury albums are now also appearing, with extra comic pages that are unfortunately missing from the regular albums. Like the scene in which Panoramix dozes off during a game of chess with Asterix, and then wakes up in a terrifying dream about the shaman and calls out his name. A wink to a scene in the coldest Tintin book, Tintin in Tibet, in which Tintin dozes off during a game of chess and is startled awake by a nightmare about his Chinese friend Chang.

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