Admittedly Asterix is the most complex and full-rounded of them, and I can't honestly say how much I'd love the other two if I hadn't enjoyed them as a kid.
(It'll be the name of my next band: "Admittedly Asterix".)
Thursday, November 24, 2011
René Goscinny
I was just wondering what happened to the wonderful comedic comics which warmed my childhood and youth. Then I looked things up and realized that René Goscinny created and wrote Luky Luke, Asterix, and Iznogoud. And he died in 1977, so there went the neighborhood! It's just incredible that a single man could create and write three of the very best long-standing comedic comic books ever. I miss him.
Admittedly Asterix is the most complex and full-rounded of them, and I can't honestly say how much I'd love the other two if I hadn't enjoyed them as a kid.
(It'll be the name of my next band: "Admittedly Asterix".)
Admittedly Asterix is the most complex and full-rounded of them, and I can't honestly say how much I'd love the other two if I hadn't enjoyed them as a kid.
(It'll be the name of my next band: "Admittedly Asterix".)
Only Asterix is any good.
ReplyDeleteNever encountered Iznogoud, I think I prefer Asterix over Lucky Luke, but then again, I only saw LL a few times in French newspapers and only recently in books in the US. Maybe the kids will like Iznogoud, I'll get them one as a stocking stuffer.
ReplyDeleteI thought Iznogoud was very imaginative.
ReplyDeleteLucky Luke less so, of course, but the setting does that. I think LL grows on one, it's a great one for variations on a theme, for instance the four bandit brothers (I don't know their original last name) are hysterical, the way they do basically the same idiotic things every time in different ways.
Many, it's been years since I read any of these, I wonder if they're out digitally.
Lucky Luke is good too!! Maybe not all of them, but definitely, it's hilarious. Actually I do prefer the ones where the Daltons are not playing.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, Asterix... so cool.
And actually he created another character too! He is not in comics, it is a series of books about "Le petit Nicolas", Little Nicolas, and it's fun too and very widely known in France.
Actually I didn't know about Iznogoud.
Yeah, I saw Little Nicolas when I looked up Goscinny. But it seems he is only available in French and German, and I'm far from capable in either, despite having had them in school.
ReplyDeleteFor me, René Goscinny is a person who wrote the hillarious book about a boy called Nicholas (the original title of the book is 'Le Petit Nicolas'). I remember laughing and laughing while reading the book about Nicholas' pranks and funny adventures...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theparisblog.com/le-petit-nicholas/
What about Tintin? I thoroughly enjoyed his adventures as a kid and am looking forward to the upcoming movie:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0983193/
Written by Stephen Moffat and directed by Spielberg...what could go wrong? :-)
Pascal is also much looking forward to the Tintin movie.
ReplyDeleteHe also praised Moffat. But I only know him from "Coupled" TV show, what makes him so respected as a film maker to you guys?
Eo, Coupling should be enough for anyone's CV :-)
ReplyDeleteHe also wrote the TV episodes of Sherlock and was screenwriter for a season or two of Doctor Who.
I was never a Dr. Who fan, but I liked Coupling. Like Stephen said himself, it broke with the tradition of british comedies being about "ugly people being mean to each other, in the rain"... !
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, that little under-used blonde mouthful, Sarah Alexander, mmm.
(Ooh, see Green Wing.)
I never paid any attention to Green Wing (which is easy when you live in the States), but upon your suggestion I found out the first two seasons are available for free streaming on Hulu. I watched the first episode, and while funny, I felt I'd seen many of the characters before in other series, though I do find the Scottish staff liaison lady hilarious. One thing I don't care for is the slow motion portions; really, it adds nothing to the show and just annoys me.
ReplyDeleteAll that said, I'll watch a few more episodes in the background while I'm working and see what happens :-)
Thanks.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Scottish chick is awesome.
Holey digested swiss cheese! I had almost forgotten that Stephen "the man" Moffat is involved in the new Tintin movie. Yet another reason for me to absolutely-urgently-I-must-have-to watch it.
ReplyDeleteCheck out his Wikipedia page for an overview of what he's done so far. I'm no good with names naturally, so when I run into something exceptional (like, say, a certain nude site unlike all the e-junk out there...), I do my best to spot the name behing it and then remember it. This is how I noticed that several masterful TV series had a certain name behind them : Jekyll, Sherlock, recent Doctor Who episodes (more like "Doctor Woo", if you're not terminally allergic to action-sci-fi)...
Dude was a complete stranger to me until very recently. Having seen his aforementioned work, I have now granted him my blind trust. I'm sure he can only produce excellent stuff.
But by all means, judge by yourselves. Check out Jekyll and Sherlock, and then we can debate on WHY exactly they're so excellent. :-)
Samely, anytime I spot the names Genndy Tartakowsky or Craig Mc Cracken, I hog the family TV. Samurai Jack? Just a modern-day art masterpiece in moving cartoons.
May I also recommend the (relatively recent) animated series "The New Adventures of Lucky Luke"? A must-see for any half-interested fan. Why, just yesterday, there was a crooked regional big shot on trial whose incriminating witnesses kept ending up dead... and the man had the face of Marlon Brando. A welcome new style in "kiddie films" : including lots of jokes aimed at grown-ups. "You can get too familiar with vegetables, you know."
There's another recent trend I very much like in some TV series nowadays : interesting, creative topics, fun witty dialogue, self-derision, and fast pace that doesn't let you blink twice in a row for fear you'll miss something enjoyable. In other words, the complete opposite of soap operas!
Some series which earned my appreciation for this are House, Lie To Me, Bones, and great cartoons like Fairly Oddparents or Phineas & Ferb. You just never get bored! It's like a creative mind's version of illegal narcotics, keeping your imagination in a non-stop high. Some of these series, some people might say "it's always the same stuff". Yeah, well, you could say likewise abut Shakespeare. Always the same GREAT stuff, but always fresh, creative, renewed.
"Oh, there you are, kitty the snugglepuss."
Sorry, gotta go. I'm due for my night shift as a piece of warm-blooded furniture. (^_^)
FTR, my long-delayed blog post from last May is finally "englishized", and I'm dedicatedly preparing a few new ones. Among which, my views on the "arab spring", and a piece on latino lard-sucling vampires. No, really!
It's been a busy year. And now it's duck season. (Little private joke there.)
Oh, Moffat was behind Jekyll? I really liked that one.
ReplyDeleteI'll rent Sherlock, thanks.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the stories didn't keep me after a while, I loved the abstract look of Samurai Jack.
ReplyDeleteI'll see the Tintin movie but I'm not sure I'm looking forward to it as it's motion capture. It might just look freaky. I'm not much of a Doctor Who fan either bu I did see Sherlock. My only complaints about that one are the way Moriarty ws played and how there were only three episodes. Even for England that's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think mo-cap is so far a bit of a failure. The northpole express and xmas carol were not the greatest things I've seen. Not sure why, you'd think it would be easier than animators messing with every little movement.
ReplyDelete