| Dossier: English & American |
| Introduction |
| The original English edition is translated by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge. Most of their translations are also available on the American market, except for five books (6, 8, 10, 12 and 22) that were translated by Robert Steven Caron. Curiously, the two translations lead to different names for some of the main characters, e.g., Malacoustix vs. Cacofonix, within the same (American) series. National Geographic introduced the Gauls in their may 1977 edition. This special introduction was especially made for the USA market.
wikipedia English translations of Asterix |
| UK & USA versions | ||
Englishtr. Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge.The year is 50 B.C. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well notentirely! One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds outagainst the invaders. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanumand Compendium... |
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Americantr. Robert Steven Caron.The year is 50 B.C. All of Gaul is occupied by the Romans. All? Notquite! A village inhabitated by indomitable Gauls is holding out, strong asever, against the invader. Life is not easy for the Roman legionaries stationed in the fortified camps of Aquarium, Delirium, Nohappimedium and Opprobrium... |
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| Political correctness (British edition) | |
pronunciationIn the original French edition, the black pirate speaks with the accent of one of the French colonies. Most remarkably, he cannot pronounce the 'R'. This joke is carried over to many translations, mostly literally: the Dutch pirate cannot say 'R' either, but we do not have a clue why! The first English editions had an adaptation of the accent for the British context. Nowadays the translators do not think this to be funny, and they changed the text. |
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| English Little Ed | |
ValiantIn Valiant (16th November 1963) Asterix the Gaul began, as "Little Fred and Big Ed". Asterix was called "Little Fred (the ancient Brit with bags of grit)", and his friend Obelix "Big Ed". Both our heroes were true Brits, living in the village "Nevergiveup", defending Britain against the Roman invaders. Panels in the comic were edited and resized, with whole sections removed.Ranger & Look and LearnIn 1965 Asterix returned to the UK, as "Beric The Bold". Obelix was "Son of Boadicea". When "Asterix and the Big Fight" appeared in Ranger it was renamed "Britons Never, Never, Never Shall Be Slaves". Later the journal was merged in Look and Learn, and Asterix and Cleoopatra ran as "In the days of good queen Cleo". |
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| American Readymix | |
US NewspaperIn a short-lived syndication for the North American market, Getafix was translated as Readymix (an illusion to a brand of concrete). We have traced only a few strips of this newspaper edition of the Cleopatra story. Here is an example. |
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| Black and white edition | |
Special UK A5 format editionsThere has been a peculiar b&w Asterix edition around 1971 by Knight books. The covers of these books are rather original. |
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| Publishers & first prints in the UK | |
Asterix is printed in the English text by several publishers. Sometimes it was only another department, and hence another name, of the same publisher. Let's have a look for Asterix for the UK market...
Brockhampton or Knight Books published the following books: [1,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,12,14,15,16,17,18,19](the English text copyright was held by Brockhampton Press Ltd.) 1969 1,4,6 1970 8,10 1971 7,14 1972 15,12 1973 16,17 1974 3,18 
Hodder Dargaud published the following books: [1-27]1975 19,2 1976 13,22 1977 11,21 1978 9,23 1979 20,5 1980 24 1981 25 1982 26 1983 27 All the following numbers were republished by Hodder Dargaud 1,3,4,6,7,8,10,12,14,15,16,17,18. Hodder & Stoughton published the following books: [1-30] 1988 28 1991 29 1996 30 All books from 1 to 27 were republished by Hodder & Stoughton. Orion published the following books: [1-32] 2001 25,26,27,31 2002 28,29,30 2003 32 2004 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22 2005 23,24 P.B.S. Limited Victoria Mills also had permission to publish 6 albums (total edition) and outside the UK we also see several other publishers. See 'English' in the manylanguage section. |
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