New licenced theme: ASTERIX, from 2022

[Hadoque]

... since they were a parody on another comic series: Redbeard the Pirate.

I love the 'Redbeard' comics!
The series still exists (it has been picked up and continued by others)? and there is also the 'Young years of Redbeard.'

[Klickteryx]

These comics were everywhere when I was a kid, English versions obviously, same with Tintin and a pirate comic called Captain Pugwash.

The main cast were Asterix and Obelix
Getafix (get a fix [of medicine/drugs]) the druid
Cacofonix (cacophony - loud harsh noise) the bard
Dogmatix (dog, dogmatic from dogma) the dog
Chief Vitalstatistix (vital statistics)
Unhygenix (unhygienic) the fish seller
Fulliautomatix (fully automatic) the smith

[Bolingbroke]

I’ve spent the past few days re-reading some of my old Asterix comics and thinking how a reimagining into the PM-verse could work.

It is clear that there are basically three sizes of people in Asterix - the XL type of Obelix and many Roman soldiers, the smaller size of Asterix and others, and the normal size.

I imagine we will see fat-type soldiers, which could be quite nice for a change. I wonder if the uniforms will be accurate to the source material: the markings on the shields, for example, are quite plain in the comics and don’t really go with what’s been done before in the Roman theme, but that’s understandable.

I also wonder if they’ll give the Gauls clown shoes like they have in the comics.

Noses are such a distinctife feature of the look of many characters that I fear a lot will be lost in the switch to PM, but nothing can be done about that, short of having character specific, un-PM, head moulds, and I’m sure nobody - least of all PM’s budgeting department - wants that.

[tahra]

Noses are such a distinctife feature of the look of many characters that I fear a lot will be lost in the switch to PM, but nothing can be done about that, short of having character specific, un-PM, head moulds, and I’m sure nobody - least of all PM’s budgeting department - wants that.

May the gods hear you.

[bogol]

These comics were everywhere when I was a kid, English versions obviously, same with Tintin and a pirate comic called Captain Pugwash.

The main cast were Asterix and Obelix
Getafix (get a fix [of medicine/drugs]) the druid
Cacofonix (cacophony - loud harsh noise) the bard
Dogmatix (dog, dogmatic from dogma) the dog
Chief Vitalstatistix (vital statistics)
Unhygenix (unhygienic) the fish seller
Fulliautomatix (fully automatic) the smith

This is very interesting. The German names are as follows:

Druid: Miraculix (from Latin "miraculum", the miracle guy)
Bard: Troubadix (from Troubadoure, the medevial singers, could also be read as "truly bad" )
Dog: Idefix (just like in French, German knows the "fixe Idee")
Chief: Majestix (from Majestät, a majesty.)
Fish seller: Verleihnix (from "verleihe nichts", I will not lend anything to you)
Smith: Automatix (from "automatisch")
Old man: Methusalix (from the biblical Methuselah)
Chief's wife: Gutemine (from "gute Miene" or good face)

[Klickteryx]

Thanks, so the English name is not just a pun on dog but a calque of the original French name.
For some reason the comic released in America used different names for several of the characters to other English speaking countries.

[Oliver]

Thanks, so the English name is not just a pun on dog but a calque of the original French name.
For some reason the comic released in America used different names for several of the characters to other English speaking countries.

It seems that some of the books had a different translation in the USA which explains the different names.

I believe that for a while it was thought that Asterix was untranslatable. Here's a couple of articles,  one comparing the French and English jokes and an interview with Anthea Bell who did the English translations.

https://scroll.in/article/898780/translating-asterix-jokes-and-puns-the-genius-of-anthea-bell-and-derek-hockridge

https://www.connexionfrance.com/Archive/Making-Asterix-funny-in-English

[Macruran]

Those articles are of interest to anyone concerned with the ancient science of punmanship! 

Notable that the English versions are sufficiently different from the originals that annotated literal translations would be very interesting - there are many jokes in the French that we're missing out on! 

One thing the poster in the first link seem to have missed - and I didn't know this until I looked it up just now - is that the line "A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot" is a direct quote from a poem by Thomas Edward Brown, and indeed the ultimate source of the concept of godwottery - which I also didn't know about until I read the article! 

Couple of interesting excerpts from the second link, an interview with the UK translator:

Translating the character names must have been a challenge

Yes - there are 400 of them now. The druid Panoramix could have been kept as Panoramix in English, but the name Getafix presented itself as if on a plate. Some people say they are shocked, but I have a perfectly good explanation, which is that there is a theory that the ancient peoples used standing stones as an astronomical observatory to “get a fix” on the stars. In a way I regretted losing the dog’s name Idéfix [idée fixe - an obsession], which could have been understood in some circles in England, but not universally and there again Dogmatix presented itself on a plate. There are many English words ending in “ous” and those come in handy for the Romans - we had two soldiers called Sendervictorius and Appianglorius.

Naming names

ASTERIX and Obelix, needed no changing in English as the meanings (asterisk and obelisk) are the same as in French. When it came to the 400-strong supporting cast, however, Anthea Bell had carte blanche. In Obelix and Company, Saugrenus (saugrenu, ludicrous) means nothing to an English-speaker, so instead he became Preposterus. The character, a Roman official who tries to corrupt Asterix's village by making the inhabitants compete for money and status, is based on a young Jacques Chirac, prime minister at the time.

A youngster in Asterix the Gladiator, Keskonrix (qu’est-ce qu’on rit - we’re really having fun), became Picanmix. Some other name pairings include: the (talentless) bard Assurancetourix (assurance tous risques, fully-comprehensive insurance), becomes Cacafonix, British leader Zebigbos becomes Mykingdomforanos and Agecanonix (âge canonique - venerable age) becomes Geriatrix.

All the Gauls have names ending in -ix, in homage to the Gaulish leader Vercingetorix (in reality the suffix - rix was for a king)

Really beginning to wonder about the noses though...they seem to be an essential element that will be lost in the PM versions! 

[Bolingbroke]

Very interesting article! Goes on to show, however, how it is almost always preferable, when possible, to read a text in its original language!

[Joshua D]

They might make a new mold or something similar to the old clown noses. Perhaps a nose/mustache or beard combo? I’ll be interested to see what they come up with.