Asterix grappling with a vegan guru, follower of “positive thinking”

The enemy of Asterix in the 40th adventure of the irreducible Gauls, to be published on October 26, is a philosophical guru character adept at “positive thinking” called Vicevertus, the publisher revealed Monday. L'Iris blanc (48 pages, 10.50 euros in France) is published simultaneously in 20 languages, with more than five million copies. This is the sixth album designed by Didier Conrad, who took over the series in 2013 after the retirement of one of the two creators of Asterix, Uderzo. And the first with Fabcaro on the screenplay.

During a press conference at Hachette Livre headquarters in Vanves, near Paris, the authors explained that the plot would revolve around Tulius Vicévertus, Julius Caesar's doctor and philosopher, who came to motivate the demoralized troops around the village. irreducible Gauls. The white Iris is a school. He was inspired by a Greek philosopher to create his method,” explained Fabcaro.

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Vicevertus will not only raise the morale of the Roman soldiers but also instill division within the Gallic village. This new philosophy, which advocates kindness, vegetarian diet and meditation, will find its supporters, like the wife of the village chief, Bonemine, and its detractors, like the skeptical Asterix. To draw him, Didier Conrad first imagined a fairly young man. But with the screenwriter and the editor, the choice fell on a mature man with white, shoulder-length hair. “We started with people who were a little flamboyant: Dominique de Villepin, Bernard-Henri Lévy…” revealed the designer.

Each new Asterix album, despite the disappearance of its two creators (the screenwriter René Goscinny in 1977 and the designer Albert Uderzo in 2020), is a huge event in bookstores, every two years.

Also read “Albert Uderzo, the French spirit”

“Asterix couldn’t be better,” said the general director of Hachette Livre Illustré, Isabelle Magnac. She noted the record attendance at Parc Astérix, in Plailly, north of Paris, with more than 2.8 million visitors in 2022. Editions Albert René, which holds the rights, is one of the most profitable houses of Hachette Livre, a group in the process of being bought, along with the rest of Lagardère, by Vivendi, controlled by billionaire Vincent Bolloré.