In 1973, during the summer holidays, a chance visit to the National Library in Kolkata introduced me to the magical world of indomitable Ga...
In 1973, during the summer holidays, a chance visit to the National Library in Kolkata introduced me to the magical world of indomitable Gauls. I did not know French and the children’s section at the library only had editions in that language. For a long time, the Asterix comics led to a fight with my schoolmates, for I was convinced that these fantastic adventures were created by one person, Goscinny Uderzo. I lived with that belief for several years, till a much-used copy of Asterix the Gaul landed in my hands.
I was astonished when I learnt that Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo were two separate people. It was some time in 1977. That year Goscinny, the brilliant writer of the series, which was originally serialised in the French comics magazine Pilote in 1958-59, bid his partner goodbye. The memories of that discovery were refreshed when Uderzo followed Goscinny to the little Gaulish village in the sky on March 20, 2020.
Much later when I came across the works of the Brazilian cartoonists Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon, the seamless integration of words and pictures reminded me of “Goscinny Uderzo” yet again. Goscinny’s almost untranslatable (though not in the able hands of Anthea Bell) French wordplay...
