By Goscinny & Uderzo
Publisher: Orion
ISBN: 978-1-4440-0444-1
Yesterday Albert Uderzo announced his retirement at the age of 84. As I may have mentioned before in these reviews, I think Uderzo is an outstanding cartoonist and is one of the key reasons I got interested in cartoons and cartooning. So it is with some regret that I learnt he's deciding to hang up his inking pen.
Now it just so happens that there's a new Asterix book out. It's not your usual album of panelled pages but a Where's Wally style affair with Asterix and friends hidden amongst twelve scenes. When I learnt I was being sent a copy the prospect of spending an age gazing over some detailed Uderzo pages got me all-a-tingling.
The reality is slightly different. Although the pages feature Uderzo's artwork, the actual scenes have been created using a multitude of characters and scenes from previous Asterix books plus some very competent Photoshop work. So although they work as an image, the differing line weights of the characters and objects, the occasional bit of dodgy perspective, or, on some pages, the same characters popping up again and again as space fillers, all combine to make it something less than it should be.
But to put this into perspective, I don't think your average child is going to be too troubled by how it's been put together, and I'm sure they'll have a lot of fun with it. The scenes have had many hours spent on them and they do present a challenge, so it sets out in what it intended to do. If you're a little older, though, you may harbour a tiny bit of disappointment.
I understand from the news story that Uderzo has a new artist prepped to take over on the books who has been under his wing for some time, so I'm certainly interested to see how that pans out. Whichever way you look at it, though, it would appear we've seen the last of Uderzo's Asterix work, but what a tremendous legacy he's leaving us.
And if you liked that: Get reacquainted with the original books
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