OK ... so it is well known that Asterix was reprinted over here in the UK under the title 'Britons Never Never Never Shall be Slaves', which reprinted 'Asterix le Gaulois' from the pages of Pilote, but when did this delightful one page strip appear?
Presumably Britons .......Slaves was also referred to as Beric The Briton? Ranger, and after 40 issues Look and Learn, reprinted Asterix as Beric and Obelix became Doric (an architectural link!)However, Beric the Briton was I believe a late Victorian text story. It seemed odd that an educational magazine such as Look and Learn would print such a strange slant on history as Beric - when very young I remember my form teacher putting up pages on the wall from a comic/magazine such as Eagle (?) which featured the story of the Normans and Saxons and the eventual Battle of Hastings in gloriously coloured artwork and as close to the known truth as possible.
I think that's a page from 'Asterix and the Big Fight'. I don't have my copy to hand but if you look closely at the final panel you should see that Franquin's Marsupilami makes a cameo appearance.
Well spotted, George and Jeremy. I believe the strip was serialised in Pilote in 1965 and this page may be from issue 294 (6 October 1965), although that needs to be checked. Anyone know if Pilote from that era is available anywhere on the www?
Presumably Britons .......Slaves was also referred to as Beric The Briton? Ranger, and after 40 issues Look and Learn, reprinted Asterix as Beric and Obelix became Doric (an architectural link!)However, Beric the Briton was I believe a late Victorian text story. It seemed odd that an educational magazine such as Look and Learn would print such a strange slant on history as Beric - when very young I remember my form teacher putting up pages on the wall from a comic/magazine such as Eagle (?) which featured the story of the Normans and Saxons and the eventual Battle of Hastings in gloriously coloured artwork and as close to the known truth as possible.
ReplyDeleteI think that's a page from 'Asterix and the Big Fight'. I don't have my copy to hand but if you look closely at the final panel you should see that Franquin's Marsupilami makes a cameo appearance.
ReplyDeleteSpot on George - art page 34 of Asterix and the Big Fight. The stall selling Ranger in this version is "WH Smix" in the modern UK version.
ReplyDeleteJeremy
Well spotted, George and Jeremy. I believe the strip was serialised in Pilote in 1965 and this page may be from issue 294 (6 October 1965), although that needs to be checked. Anyone know if Pilote from that era is available anywhere on the www?
ReplyDeletePILOTE 293, june 3rd, 1965
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction, Marc-André. I managed to screw up the date royally - 6-10 rather than 10-6 (10th June), and even that was a week out!
ReplyDelete