It's very hot. The apartment belonging to Ada, Sylvie and Albert Uderzo looks onto the Pantin cemetery in the suburbs of Lutetia. It's August 1959 and the new French Constitution established by General de Gaulle is less than a year old. Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny have been friends for eight years old now. They have already explored all aspects of comic sketching from Oumpah-Pah and Luc Junior to advertising work for commercials and even a series on good manners. Even though they may have trouble making ends meet at the end of the month, they couldn't care less since their work is more important than money. It is not really work, they are having fun together.

And so it is during these hot summer days, René and Albert, from their comfortable balcony setting, are launching into a new project where pastis and cigarettes (both in moderation of course) are the market research tools at hand. François Clauteaux, he of L'Oréal, tired of the American cultural invasion wants to create a weekly publication for young people, based on French values and French talent. He asked a small team (because they were worth it) to develop a new series of comics in the period of just a few months.
This team brought together the talents of René Goscinny, Albert Uderzo and Jean-Michel Charlier… He certainly picked the right door to knock on. The whole irony of the story is that our two protagonists, René and Albert, were both of immigrant backgrounds…! However, as the sun sets and the ice cubes melt, René and Albert continue to brainstorm. What kind of series would they come up with? From the far away depths of history, inspiration came suddenly from the Celts, the Gauls ... and Caesar, who - if our heroes' schoolbooks are to be believed - gave the former a real hiding. And in minutes, they have rewritten the history of the resistance for years to come! The first Asterix strip would be published two months later in the first issue of Pilote, on October 29th 1959…