The China Mail - Gauls on tour: Asterix does Portugal for 41st comic

"Asterix in Lusitania" will be the second adventure penned by Fabcaro, whose 2023 "Asterix and the White Iris" earned the critics' plaudits while gaining a fair penny at the bookshop till, and a seventh outing for cartoonist Didier Conrad.

The story will feature a call-back to the 1971 album "The Mansions of the Gods", published during the antiquity-themed comics' imperial phase under the dual oversight of late writer Rene Goscinny and cartoonist Albert Uderzo.

In the upcoming jape, the returning Portuguese character will canvass Asterix and his indomitable sidekick Obelix for aid in kicking out the Romans besieging their corner of the Iberian peninsula.

"I wanted a country with sunshine, where Asterix has never been," said Fabcaro.

At the time of the comic's setting -- 44 years before the birth of Jesus Christ -- Rome under Julius Caesar's military genius has conquered much of the old world, including all of France bar Asterix's holdout hometown.

For the Romans, conquering ancient Portugal represented a way to access the land's rich veins of minerals such as gold and tin, according to anthropologist Manuel Neves, cited by the Editions Albert Rene publisher.

The album will likely tap into the attention of France's significant Portuguese community.

"When I told my editor (that it would be set in Portugal) he said: 'ah that will make them happy because it's been a fair while that they've been asking for such an album'," writer Fabcaro said.

Coming out on October 23 in French, the album will kick off sales with an initial print copy of five million copies in 18 other languages across the world.

Since Asterix first sallied forth against the Roman eagle in 1959 the comics chronicling his hijinks have sold around 400 million copies.

X.So--ThChM