Albert Uderzo has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Albert Uderzo has died

#121

Post by fruffy » Wed, Mar 25, 2020, 3:34 PM UTC

jordigh wrote: post #119

fruffy wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are talking about the first publisher who tried to insert controversial elements into Asterix. He was somewhat of a nationalist. His license got pulled and the comics got re-released in the normal format. Those were two different things.

Right, are you younger and far removed from the experience of a German reading this comic soon after WW2? Those were the Germans who did not like this comic.

Yes, I was not born when the original German translations were released, so I cannot comment on the reactions in the time. But I can also not recall any media controversy around the comic other than the initial publisher mishap, that is why I am bit confused about these comments. Surely there must be some people that complained to Uderzo but that is unavoidable.

Erbfeindschaft (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French%E2%80%93German_enmity) is still alive and well in Germany so it's not like there is no awareness of these sentiments anymore. Although under the EU project that has improved a lot in the recent two decades because both the French and Germans found a common enemy in the Brits ha.

Re: Albert Uderzo has died

#122

Post by andrepd » Wed, Mar 25, 2020, 4:19 PM UTC

bvandewalle wrote: post #93

andrepd wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were different times. Tintin is rather fascinating in that regard, in that the first 3 albums at least are egregiously incorrect caricatures of russia/africa/america with a decidedly colonialist, white supermacist, paternalist bent (very real, inarguably so, take a read yourself). A product of being literally ordered by an ultraconservative catholic priest. At a certain point in his life, Hergé (the author) met…

It is also a good reminder that the moral standards back in those days were completely different and I think we cannot judge those books with the moral standards of today.

Even in "those days" that posture was already inexcusable. The man who edited Le Petit Vingtième was a literal fascist. Quoting from wikipedia:

>Beginning a series of newspaper supplements in late 1928, Wallez founded a supplement for children, Le Petit Vingtième (The Little Twentieth), which subsequently appeared in Le Vingtième Siècle every Thursday. Carrying strong Catholic and fascist messages, many of its passages were explicitly anti-semitic.

To my mind what forgives this is not the fact that it was done long ago, but simply the fact that he so drastically changed his worldview, and repudiated his earlier work. It takes particular strength of character to admit one was wrong in one's core beliefs, and effect real change which reflects true regret.

Re: Albert Uderzo has died

#123

Post by 205guy » Wed, Mar 25, 2020, 7:23 PM UTC

lonelappde wrote: post #95

205guy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaston is one of my favorites, laugh-out-loud funny as a kid and adult. Such great set-ups, visual gags, and word-play. For adventure, sci-fi, and incredible art, Yoko Tsuno was another great one that has stood the test of time. Oddly, I don't like Tintin as an adult, it's too whiz-bang and bumbling. After growing up on European comics, the ones in the US were bland, just plain crude (Garfield), or overtly political…

Peanuts? The Far Side? Family Circle (sometimes, and before the original author died)

Peanuts was in its prime before my time, but when I read it, it was cute but not funny. To me it seemed like a bunch of kids with adult neuroses, it seemed disconnected.

I loved the Far Side when it was at its peak in the late 80's, but it's just disconnected one-frame gags. And upon re-reading as an adult, they were very inconsistent, and the surrealism hasn't aged well. Maybe some comics just belong in childhood/teenage years, but it's clear that some really work for adults as well.

Family Circle falls into the cute one-strip category, but it didn't have much depth either--too saccharine. To me it didn't compare to European comics focused on family antics like Boule et Bill, or Mafalda (Argentinian).

I really think the American comics were hampered by the daily strip in the newspaper format. Many authors did try to make longer story arcs over a week of strips, and I preferred those. Calvin and Hobbes was the best at it, but there were other good ones such as Mutts and Over the Hedge. There were/are authors working outside the strip format, making whole book comics like in Europe, but I never got into those--too dark (Maus) or super-hero (Watchmen) or never-ending. For example, the more recent Amulet series started out well, but each book went deeper and deeper into the story and never really resolved the initial tension--I gave up after 7 or 8 books.

Re: Albert Uderzo has died

#124

Post by coldtea » Wed, Mar 25, 2020, 8:31 PM UTC

lonelappde wrote: post #99

coldtea wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Astérix and the Goths was an early and very unfavourable depiction of the Germans as militaristic and ruthless As opposed to the real life French experience of them? > My point here is that "political correctness" has a point. That we should ignore historical experience and portray peoples and cultures as totally the same and interchangeable except in purely decorative areas (e.g. cuisine, music)? Because a Germany…

The English genocided southeast Asia contemporaneously but I'm not sure that was part of their characterization in the comics.

It would have been if the comics were made by southeastern Asians, but they were made by French who had other experiences (and weren't themselves that good to southeastern Asians)...