Plus Licens: Asterix

THE YEAR IS 50 B.C. and Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Tototum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium that surround that very village.

Millions of people recognize those opening lines from every adventure of the little Gallic hero Asterix and his fellow villagers! Arguably the most successful European comic strip ever, Asterix debuted in the French magazine Pilote in 1959 and has since then been translated into more than 100 languages.

The complete Asterix album series comprises 33 titles (of which one is a collection of short stories). The latest comic album Asterix and the Falling Sky was released in October 2005 - a publishing event with 8 million copies released simultaneously in 27 countries! A special birthday book, Asterix - Le Livre d'Or / Asterix - The Golden Book, is being created to celebrate Asterix' 50th anniversary in 2009. The 64-page book contains lots of materials which have never appeared in the form of an album, including two complete Asterix stories (one of which designed specially for the occasion), a brand new cover by Albert Uderzo, and rare, previously unseen drawings.

Based on the classic comic album Asterix at the Olympics from 1972, a new Asterix live-action film was produced in 2008 with what was then the biggest budget of all time in European cinema - 78 million euros! - and with a core target group of children 5-12. The film was released in over 40 countries with a marketing budget exceeding 20 million euros. Only in France, the two live-action Asterix films from 1999 and 2002, starring Christian Clavier and Gérard Depardieu, sold around 12 million tickets each. Seven animated Asterix movies have been produced between 1967 and 1995.

An animated Asterix theatrical movie, Asterix and the Vikings, was released worldwide from April 2006, co-produced by Danish A.Film and French M6 (RTL Group). The 75-minute film had a budget of $25 million, making it the most expensive European animation project to date. Based on the comic album Asterix and the Normands (originally published in 1967), the script for Asterix and the Vikings was written by A.Film's Stefan Fjeldmark and Jesper Møller - also directing the movie - together with Belgian Jean-Luc Goossens. New characters like the fearless viking women Vikea and Abba were added to the cast from the classic storyline!

The Asterix comic albums have since long been published in large numbers in Plus Licens territories, often in several editions. The series is published in Denmark, Norway and Finland from 1969, in Sweden from 1970 and on Iceland from 1974. In Eastern Europe, Egmont has been the leading publisher with albums published in Hungary (1989-), Poland (1990-), Slovenia (1990-) Bulgaria (1992-), the Czech Republic (albums from 1992; magazine publishing already in 1977-80), Croatia (1992-), Slovakia (1992-), Lithuania (1992-), Estonia (1994-), Latvia (1994-), Romania (1994-) and Russia (1994-).

The current Asterix licensing program comprises approx. 75 merchandising and promotional partners worldwide.

Created by René Goscinny (text) and Alberto Uderzo (art) for the French youth magazine Pilote, the Astérix le Gaulois comic debuted in October 1959. The first album was published in 1961 in only 6.000 copies, but already the 6th album Astérix et Cléopâtre (1965) had a first-print run of more than 1 million copies. By now, the success was so huge that France's first space satellite sent up in 1965 was nicknamed Asterix. Today, after more than 45 years, Asterix is a truly classic comic character well-known throughout Europe and beyond.

The creative genius René Goscinny also provided scripts for comic strips like Lucky Luke, Oumpa-Pa, Le Grand Vizir Iznogoud and the best-selling children's book character Le Petit Nicolas, among others. After the death of Goscinny in 1977, the master artist Albero Uderzo has continued the production of Asterix albums with his own storylines from Le grand fossé (1980) to Le ciel lui tombe sur la tête (2005) and the short-story collection Astérix et la rentrée gauloise (2003).

The central character Asterix is short of stature but a shrewd, cunning little warrior. Made almost invulnerable by the drinking of a magic potion concocted by the village druid Panoramix, Asterix and his fellow villagers are able to keep Julius Caesar's Roman legions at bay.

Asterix' loyal companion, the dimwitted but strong Obelix is a menhir delivery-man by trade; addicted to wild boar. Obelix is always ready to drop everything and go off on a new adventure with Asterix - so long as there's wild boar to eat, and plenty of fighting! The clever, imaginative and extremely funny storylines are full or references to history and modern French society, but seem to capture reader's hearts and minds everywhere!

External link: Official Asterix web site

Plus Licens represents Editions Albert & René for merchandising and promotional rights to Astérix in the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe.