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Astérix en Lusitanie’ Hits Bookstores Worldwide With 5 Million First Printing

Written by Fabcaro with art by Didier Conrad, the travel album turns Portugal’s fado tradition plus the notion of saudade into recurring comic beats.

Overview

  • The 41st Astérix volume launched on October 23 in 19 languages across 25 countries, with an initial run of 5 million copies, including 2 million for francophone markets.
  • Astérix, Obélix and Idéfix sail to ancient Lusitania after a plea for help, answering a call to aid a small garum maker accused of poisoning Caesar.
  • Early press reactions describe a successful, funny travel entry that preserves the series’ classic gags while slipping in light contemporary nods.
  • Portuguese touchstones such as fado, saudade, local cuisine and iconic pavements and tiles are folded into the humor with an emphasis on researched, good‑natured depiction.
  • The simultaneous rollout demanded intensive adaptation work, with translators localizing wordplay for markets ranging from German to minority languages such as kokkola and Guarani.