4 ms·
I'd recommend starting and stopping with the ones written while Goscinny was still alive. I've read a few of the post-Goscinny books, and I found their emptines
by idoubtit 8y ago
I'd recommend starting and stopping with the ones written while Goscinny was still alive. I've read a few of the post-Goscinny books, and I found their emptiness creepy, and almost never funny. Though for the most recent books, the former author tried various successors, so there might be some success among those.
I'd even argue that Asterix was great in the 50s and 60s, but the authors (Goscinny and Uderzo) were less inspired in the 70s. Their best period was from "Astérix et les Goths" (the third one) to "Astérix et les Normands" (ninth one, my personal favorite). Goscinny suddenly died in 1977, but the Asterix series had become such an institution that millions of copies of each book were sold, whatever the quality.
(edit: typos)
- btilly 8y agoThat's a matter of taste. I agree that the quality dropped, but it is up to the reader to decide whether a chance to revisit old friends is worth the fact that they aren't up to snuff. For me it was marginally worthwhile a couple of times. For others it is not. But I won't tell others not to do what I did.
- dwd 8y agoBlack Gold comes to mind as the best of the later books. Asterix and the Class Act I've meant to read for a while as the stories were written by Goscinny. Of course the English translations rely a lot on Bell and Hockridge. They are absolutely masters of the pun.
- andrepd 8y agoThe quality definitely took a dip after Goscinny wasn't writing anymore. It went from "constantly great" to "hit and miss". Kind of like the Simpsons post season 8-ish.
- coldtea 8y agoIt was even worse for Lucky Luke after Goscinny. Iznogood on the other hand, while it did change in character, it went even crazier and funnier when it went 100% Tabary.