Tag: Anthea Bell

Asterix and the Magic Carpet

Asterix and the Magic Carpet

by Albert Uderzo; trans. Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Hodder, 1988)

Book cover: Asterix and the Magic Carpet by Uderzo.

A breezy if inconsequential adventure. Uderzo sends his heroes on a tour of the ancient world and depicts India for the first time, his illustrations proving less cluttered and less exotically Eastern than those of Jean Tabary’s Iznogoud (which gets a shout-out).

 

 

Asterix and the Chariot Race

Asterix and the Chariot Race

by Jean-Yves Ferri; ill. Didier Conrad; trans. Adriana Hunter (Orion, 2017)

Ferri_Conrad_Asterix Chariot Race

Having survived the transition to new writer and illustrator, Asterix now leaps the last hurdle (in English at least) by finding someone to succeed translator par excellence Anthea Bell. The Chariot Race is the usual good fun—visually expressive, witty and layered.

 

 

Asterix and the Laurel Wreath

Asterix and the Laurel Wreath

by Goscinny & Uderzo; trans. Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Orion, 1974); from Les Lauriers de César (Pilote, 1971)

Goscinny_Uderzo_Asterix Laurel Wreath

One of Goscinny’s more droll stories (a critique of Imperial Rome as witnessed when Asterix and Obelix sell themselves as slaves) done full justice by Uderzo’s distinctive illustration—exquisite attention to background detail coupled with colourful, caricatured portrayals of action and emotions.

 

 

Asterix and the Missing Scroll

Asterix and the Missing Scroll

by Jean-Yves Ferri; Ill. Didier Conrad; trans. Anthea Bell (Orion, 2015)

Ferri_Conrad_Asterix and the Missing Scroll

Apart from somehow not packing quite as much into each story, the new Asterix adventures of Ferri and Conrad are superb in capturing the spirit of Goscinny and Uderzo. Our heroes must reinstate to posterity a chapter excised from Caesar’s Gallic memoirs.

 

 

Asterix and the Picts

Asterix and the Picts

by Jean-Yves Ferri & Didier Conrad; trans. Anthea Bell (Orion, 2013)

Ferri and Conrad_Asterix and the Picts

With Albert Uderzo’s retirement after fifty-four years of drawing Asterix, the illustration of this new adventure (to a rather endearing Scotland) is… perfect; nigh on indistinguishable, by Toutatis! The writing, however, continues to lag behind that of co-creator René Goscinny (died 1977).

Derelict Space Sheep