Asterix: White Iris | Fabcaro’s successful bet

With The white iristhe 40^e Album of the adventures of Asterix, the scriptwriter Fabcaro gave the most outburst BD series of the BD series of the last six decades. Interview with the new elected official and Didier Conrad, who has been drawing for 10 years, who together created one of the best albums in a long time.

Having the opportunity to create a new Asterix album is a bit like winning the jackpot. Not only because it is a title which benefits from a monumental circulation – 5 million copies worldwide –, but because the little Gaul and his friends are among the most universally known comic book heroes. “Everyone wants to make an Asterix,” says Fabcaro.

The screenwriter, among others known for his sometimes absurd humor, was elected after a competition orchestrated by the publishers and the right to Goscinny and Uderzo. Like Didier Conrad a decade ago and who also felt like he was winning the big lot. “The kind of jackpack for which we have to work … after winning it! », laughs the designer.

Chemistry operates between the two creators, with whom The Press Care was maintained by videoconference earlier this week for the release, this Thursday, of the new album. The white irisborn from a Fabcaro synopsis, is undoubtedly one of the most successful Asterix albums for a long time, which even includes the period during which Uderzo brought the series to life.

A “Village album”

Fabcaro quickly made two decisions before developing his story: he wanted to make “a village album”, that is to say which takes place essentially among the irreducible Gauls and could use the neighbors of Asterix and Obélix that we know so well, and reconnect with the spirit of the Goscinny era. “This is the period with which I grew up,” explains the 50 -year -old creator.

The white iris recall albums like The soothsayer And Discord. Comme dans ces aventures parues au début des années 1970, la quiétude du village est bousculée par l’arrivée d’un étranger. Ici, il s’agit d’un Romain appelé Vicévertus, envoyé secret de Jules César. Il met la pagaille au village gaulois tout en appliquant la méthode de pensée positive qu’il a développée pour motiver les troupes romaines démoralisées et moins désireuses que jamais de recevoir des baffes.

“What was interested was to dwell on those who abuse their power to have a grip on people losing bearings,” explains Fabcaro. Didier Conrad and exploit him with this story a process already exploited by Goscinny and Uderzo, that is to say taking a contemporary theme-the ready-to-think market is very flourishing in the West-and parachuting it in the village of die-hard Gauls and see what happens.

This is less obvious gymnastics than it seems. Didier Conrad also says he worked a lot to develop certain expressions (including a “depressed” pout from Abraracourcix) and the head of Vicevertus, which is in fact a mixture of the French philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy and Dominique de Villepin, former Prime Minister of France. Creating a character that only referred to one or the other would not have done the trick, Fabcaro points out, because of their political connotation. “We didn’t want to send a political message,” he explains.

The white iris, like the best Asterix, gently laugh at people in the village, who are also ours. We have known for years already that Didier Conrad masters the visual universe of Asterix, but what pleasantly surprises with this 40^e Album is that we feel from the first pages that the tone is there: the rather fine puns, the winks, the psychology of the characters and a very narrow network with the staging of the designer. Obélix, as usual, follows the train in the march, but Asterix (with the discreet complicity of Panoramix) once again manages to thwart Caesar’s machinations. And that’s exactly what we expect from him.

In bookstore

The white iris

Fabcaro and Didier Conrad, after Goscinny and Uderzo

Editions Albert René

48 pages

8/10