Asterix and Cleopatra, a landmark work

This story by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo has been adapted twice for the cinema: a cartoon produced by Belvision (1968), and Alain Chabat's film (2002), re-released last May in a restored and expanded version. The gouache original of the album cover will go on sale at Millon in Brussels on 10 December.

This week, let's turn the spotlight from the Pharos Tower on Asterix and Cleopatra !

Autumn 1963. A few weeks after its world premiere in New York, Joseph Mankiewicz's feature film Cleopatra is being released in France. Filming was particularly hectic, taking longer than expected. It is the film of all records and all excesses. Film specialist Olivier Rachjman reports some figures in his essay Hollywood no longer responds (Perrin, «Tempus» series, 2022): «The 47 interior and 34 exterior sets, the 26,000 costumes made and the 48,000 square metres of the Forum.»... «Even more vulgar, the budget had mysteriously jumped from thirty-six to forty-four million dollars.» The film also caused a stir in the press because of the adulterous affair that took place between the two leads, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, during filming.

Two French viewers were particularly inspired by the film: René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo : «we were bursting with laughter», he recalls. « Not least because of a banquet scene in which Burton and Taylor are seated around an American-style dining room table: at the time, everyone already knew that the Romans ate lying down on sofas. In short, the whole film was perfectly grotesque...».» (Read special edition, The Secret History of Asterix, 2004).

Things moved very quickly from then on: Goscinny wrote an original script that owed nothing to Mankiewicz's film, while making a few mocking allusions to it. The pre-publication of Asterix's Tour of Gaul in the magazine Pilot had barely finished, an advertising page announcing the new story appeared in issue 214 of 28 November 1963. Albert Uderzo adapted one of the posters from Cleopatra Asterix and Obelix pose on either side of the Queen of Egypt, in place of Mark Antony and Caesar. «The greatest adventure that has ever been drawn».» [sicWe're warned. The rest of the description is the same: «14 litres of Indian ink, 30 brushes, 62 grease pencils...».», etc, «were needed to make it happen!»

A name for Obelix's dog

The pre-publication of’Asterix and Cleopatra starts the following week in Pilot and continued until 24 September 1964, the day of publication of 44^th and last panel. For the cover of the album, which appeared in the summer of 1965 in the «Pilote» collection published by Dargaud, Uderzo and Goscinny used the various elements of their advertisement page, modifying their layout slightly. The letters were retraced. They also removed the error that had crept into the slogan: «The greatest adventure ever drawn.»

As usual, René Goscinny has peppered this new Asterix adventure with puns and revised certain aspects of history to suit his own taste. We find out how the Sphinx of Giza lost his nose, or how, long before Napoleon Bonaparte, Getafix uttered these historic words: «From the top of these pyramids, twenty centuries look down on us!» We also learn that the stadium, an ancient measurement worth 168 m, is equivalent to 42 alexandrines...

Asterix and Cleopatra also has a few special features. Obelix has definitely adopted a little dog who, in the previous album, crossed paths with our two heroes and followed them to the end of their journey. It was the readers who demanded his return, and as the doggie had no name, a competition was organised to give him one. Without consulting each other, five participants proposed «Dogmatix» and each won an autographed album. Uniquely, during their stay in Egypt, Getafix agreed to pour three drops of magic potion into Obelix's mouth. We know that he fell into it when he was a child, and that in principle he is no longer allowed to drink it. But Obelix doesn't feel any particular effects after swallowing this tiny portion. It's without any difficulty that he manages to demolish a heavy stone door in the pyramid where he and his friends are locked up!

1965, a pivotal year

For the first time, two’Asterix were released in the same year, as Asterix and the Banquet was published in January 1965 (a pattern that would continue until the early 1970s). Asterix and Cleopatra had an initial print run of 100,000 copies - the previous volume had 60,000 - and reached the million mark two years later. The Gaul with the blond moustache became an increasingly important figure. While René Goscinny continued to work with Jean Tabary (Iznogoud), Morris (Lucky Luke) and a few others, in 1965 he put an end to the stories of Petit Nicolas illustrated by Sempé.

As for Albert Uderzo, who co-wrote the adventures of fighter pilots Tanguy and Laverdure with Jean-Michel Charlier, that same year he announced that he was abandoning the series. «After producing eight albums, and tired of the extra work, I informed him of my decision not to produce any more episodes of Tanguy » (Albert Uderzo tells his story..., Stock, 2008). He handed over to Jijé and soon devoted himself exclusively to Asterix.

In 2002, Asterix and Cleopatra will be reissued with a completely redesigned cover. The humorous formulas that added to its flavour will unfortunately be lost in this modernisation operation. Which prompted the mischievous Olivier Roche to say: «We will nevertheless regret the disappearance [...] the 67 litres of beer (among other things) needed to make this album».» (Les Cahiers de la BD special edition, Asterix the Gaul, 2019).

Finally, did you know? Conrad, Uderzo's successor as illustrator, told the magazine Casemate (no. 173, November 2023) that one of his favourite albums in the series is Asterix and Cleopatra. Because he finds it «very visual», and also... «because I love the film Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor » !