New Asterix comic takes pro-independence stance

Jean-Yves Ferri, author of the forthcoming 'Asterix chez les Pictes' at Glasgow Univesity. Picture: Robert Perry

THE author of the new Asterix comic book has told how the Scottish independence debate inspired the latest epic adventure of Asterix and his clan of Picts.

Jean Yves-Ferri, who is the first person to script an episode other than the original creators, explained there was an allusion to the referendum debate, showing all the clans divided and united.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Yves-Ferri said the country’s landscapes were the perfect backdrop for the latest comic. He said: “I love the landscapes of Scotland, especially at the north, up in the highlands. And it’s the landscape for a story of Asterix - an ideal landscape.

“Politics are the background. But the story - the principle story - is a kind of love story between a Pict character and a girl. And Asterix and Obelix went to Scotland to help him.

“And it’s a symbol, for Scotland united and free.”

He added that Asterix and the Picts meet warriors and ancient clans, discover whisky, bagpipes and the Loch Ness Monster.

Mr Yves-Ferri and illustrator Didier Conrad have taken over from the creator and illustrator Albert Uderzo and scriptwriter Rene Goscinny. Mr Uderzo, who wrote the books himself after Mr Goscinny died in 1977, retired two years ago.