Albert Uderzo and his love of the automobile (obituary)
03/29/2020
What do Michel Vaillant and Asterix have in common? Their fathers are car freaks. Jean Graton created the character Michel Vaillant in 1957 and the recently deceased Albert Uderzo created Asterix and Obelix. The Frenchman Uderzo loved Italian cars, which he not only collected but also drove himself. My friend and professional colleague Wolfgang Wilhelm was lucky enough to photograph a reportage with Uwe Brodbeck for "Auto, Motor und Sport" in 1985 with the inventor of the comic book heroes.
At the time, Uderzo was still driving a Ferrari 512 BB LM on the racetrack, a 400i on the road and a blue racing 308 was in the garage as a spare car. "I love racing Ferraris and want to use them accordingly. What good is a 512 LM, for example, if it just sits around in the garage?" That was Uderzo's philosophy, and where he is right, he is right.
He lost his personal battle as a "Gaul" against the "Romans" in Imola, when he was already too late when braking for the first chicane in his newly acquired P2 in 1977, which also won the 1967 Targa Florio with Bandini and Vaccharella, and hopped over the curbs, rupturing the fuel line and losing his freshly restored Ferrari in a sea of flames.
His fortune was made by the two boar-eating heroes, Asterix and Obelix, who were conceived by him and his friend and partner René Goscinny in Paris in October 1959. Uderzo, who never learned a trade and left school at the age of 14, smiled and said: "We had so much fun with our characters in the early days that we were at least convinced that these comic book heroes would be a certain success."
Years later, there were already 160 million Asterix readers around the world and the comic books were translated into 29 languages.
It was not until 1975 that Uderzo bought his first Ferrari, a 365 GT/4 BB. In 1977, his partner and lyricist Goscinny died at the age of 51, whereupon Uderzo also took over the writing part. A new Asterix adventure was published year after year.
In 2008, Uderzo and Goscinny's daughter sold the rights to Editions Albert René Hachette. The "father" of the invincible Gauls passed away this week at the age of 92 on the night of March 23-24, 2020, but his characters will live on as long as there is magic potion.
auto motor und sport has alsopublished a nice story about Albert Uderzo !
