On the occasion of its 60 years, Asterix, the indomitable Gauls created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo will join the prestigious collections of the national Library of France (BnF) in the framework of the european Heritage Days.

all of The original boards of the first album of the series, Asterix the Gaul as well as the handwritten notes, the synopsis and the storyline of this album, lent by Anne Goscinny, daughter of Rene Goscinny, will be presented to the public from 20 to 22 September on the site François-Mitterrand. This is the first time that is presented to the full original documents (texts and drawings) of the first album of Asterix. This exhibition, open free to the public, following the major retrospective exhibition of the BnF devoted to Asterix 2013.

” READ ALSO – Asterix: gauloiseries to the BnF

Asterix and the BnF have a privileged relationship since march 2011, the cartoonist Albert Uderzo donated to the institution than 120 original illustrations from the first two albums of the series, Asterix the Gaul and The Sickle of gold , but also his last collaboration with René Goscinny, Asterix at the Belgians .

The 44 original plates on display from September 20 to 22, will highlight the genesis of a work that is developed and experimented over the boxes, like the portrait of Julius Caesar, unrecognizable between the first and the last board.

First handwritten notes

These large planks (the format is almost doubled compared to the album print) inked with the brush over the pencil, labeled in pen, “give to see the design to the bare, the force of the movement, the play of shadows and lights, the verve cartoonist, the effectiveness of the onomatopoeia, the art of the letter” highlighted the BnF.

next to the original boards, the first handwritten notes by René Goscinny, as well as the synopsis and the screenplay typescripts and preparatory to this first adventure of Asterix allow to better understand the birth and the manufactures of this “work phenomenal that never ends to enchant generations of readers”, she added.

Asterix has made its appearance on 29 October 1959 in the first issue of the weekly Driver . Over the last six decades and 37 adventures (the 38th album, The daughter of Vercingetorix , appears to be the 24 October), the saga has become a “place of memory” of the French identity, if ingéniant a parody of the myth of “our ancestors the Gauls”. Since its creation, the 380 million albums have been sold in the world. The adventures of Asterix have been translated into over a hundred languages.