They have chosen the time and the landing site; they have selected their hero. In the dead of winter, while schoolchildren are still wrapped in their mufflers every time they go out in order to hide their runny noses, the undisputed head of the Vikings (some renowned historians also call them Normans - as in the men from the North), Timandahaf sent out his spies with such alarming names as Telegraf and Cryptograf… Nobody knows about it yet: Europe is to be taken unawares as usual! It has no idea as to what is brewing! Vikings are true warriors who do not know the meaning of fear… and this time they are extremely well organised.
Here is some highly confidential information: the Vikings have, in fact, been planning this operation for years. Do you want proof? They have already surrounded Lutetia, starting the encircling operation on the west beltway of the Gauls' vice-capital. Let me just remind the uninformed among you that the capital of Gaul is Lyon (cf "Asterix and the Banquet" by R. Goscinny and A. Uderzo)! On the avenue leading up to the Arc de Triomphe, they have taken over the immense glass huts of a television network and transformed it into their base camp. Their message is menacingly clear to all Gauls: now that the Vikings have landed things are going to change around here!
All the more so as they have asked the help of two strategy specialists: Asterix and Obelix. With fortified camps in the Charentes region (Gaul), Lutetia (Gaul) and Copenhagen (Vikingsland), they now have a foothold close to the major cinematographic centres all over Europe. And, for a long time now, a mole has lain in our midst, biding their time…!
Sceptics and competitors are trying everything nonetheless to ensure that Doublehelix does not send his son Justforkix to do an internship in our favourite village of crazy people right during the spring holidays! Will they succeed? Justforkix, a hero to those rough men of the North despite his best efforts, against a return of the Ice Age?
The answer to this may well lie with the Vikings themselves! They are already familiar with the icy cold and crashing into icebergs never bothered them any! By Odin and Toutatis! This promises to be good brawl!
We promise to keep you informed as to the evolution of the European military situation. In any event, you had better be prepared for a real cold front!

Just before the Christmas holidays, and following months of meticulous work, the new teams at Gaumont, producer of three of the animated films (Asterix vs Caesar, Asterix in Britain and Operation Getafix), managed to penetrate their catacombs in the western suburbs of Lutetia (as we mentioned earlier) to excavate a number of Gaulish treasures. The result is a DVD box set with these very three films, an absolute must-have for culture lovers.
They have taken this exploit even further by sending reporters to the other side of the ocean to meet with and interview the elite of film animators! Why, you wonder? Simply because many of the very best animators (although some can still be reached in the Viking camps mentioned earlier) live and work on the West Coast of the Gobblers at the Tadsylwien (Walt Disney) and Dreamworks studios.
Extremely generous bonus features that bear witness to a little-known fact: while the Asterix films serve as a benchmark for most film animators throughout the world, many of these animators started out in their career thanks to one of the Asterix films. Their graphic idol is Albert Uderzo and they thank Belenos every day for the existence of the Goscinny/Uderzo partnership! Our hats off to you for this box set, people! We are impatiently awaiting the same thing from Dargaud with regard to the first three films - I still have some space on my must-have shelf!

During his last promotional tour, Albert Uderzo enjoyed a very successful visit to the Spanish capital. Extremely interested in the politicised humour of the 33rd album, the Spanish journalists showed up en masse: there were representatives from over fifty different media vehicles. Here are a few articles from the more influential magazines.

The reaction of these observers is in tune with the success of the 33rd album in Spain: taking the Catalan and Castilian versions together, sales of the last Asterix album have reached 300,000 copies. The publisher, Salvat, has just reprinted 30,000 extra copies! Viva España!

The Iberian Peninsula is definitely going through "asterixisation"! Portugal has gone wild over our Gauls: sales of the last album reached 100,000 copies in just 10 weeks and our partner Asa, a publisher who has seen the light, is currently reprinting 10,000 additional copies! In addition, the adventures in Mirandian, a Portuguese dialect, have just broken all sales records for the language and Asa is getting ready to launch a third reprint of "Asterix the Gaul".
Asterix will soon be paying them a visit, especially since Obelix has heard talk of a magical drink with the name of some Portuguese town…. For the record, the figures for Asterix in Mirandian are astonishing: 1st printing (09/2005), 4,000 copies; 1st reprint (10/2005), 1,500 copies; 2nd reprint (12/2005) 2,500 copies. If you do the math, you will come up with a grand total of 8,000 copies, whereas Mirandian is only spoken (and understood) by some 10,000 people in Portugal!!! Obrigado.

After just 10 weeks in British shops, the 33rd Asterix album has made its mark as the 2nd best selling of the Asterix albums with our publisher, Orion: over 80,000 copies have been sold!

An other words, in the mere 2 ½ months that it has been on the British market, "Asterix and the Falling Sky" has already surpassed the sales of "The Class Act" in its two years on the stands, and will soon be hot on the tail of "Asterix and the Actress", which has been on the British market for 4 whole years!

We knew that the Brits had started to appreciate the culture of continental Europe, and with their growing interest in our Gauls, we cannot help but think they have made the good choice, don't you agree?

While you were busy imbibing holiday cheer, we were working day and night in order to offer you plenty of new items on your favourite site!
Three new screen saver collections (Pastels, Evolution and Asterix and the Great Crossing) to refresh your screen are waiting to be discovered at Justforkix's hut. Excerpts from the Gaumont DVDs as well as some of the bonus material are available… just to whet your appetite.

We suggest you also visit Getafix's hut to read (and reread) the latest fascinating articles contributed by our enlightened and observant fans.
New info sheets on the 33rd album and on the magnificent catalogue from the Asterix Mirror World Exhibit have taken pride of place at Bravura's hut. And, our favourite bard now has some 589 covers and 242 first plates, making a grand total of 831 images to help present our albums! Even the Titans couldn't outdo this feat!