Alix

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The Adventures of Alix

The cover of the first book
Publisher Tintin, Lombard, Casterman
Publication date 1948–
Main character(s) Alix
Enak
Creative team
Writer(s) Jacques Martin, François Maingoval, Patrick Weber
Artist(s) Jacques Martin, Rafael Moralès, Marc Henniquiau, Cédric Hervan, Christophe Simon, Ferry
Creator(s) Jacques Martin

Alix, or The Adventures of Alix, is a popular Franco-Belgian comics series drawn in the ligne claire style, by one its masters, Jacques Martin. The stories revolve around a young Gallo-Roman man named Alix in the late Roman Republic. Although the series is renowned for its historical accuracy and stunning set detail, the hero has been known to wander into anachronistic situations up to two centuries out of his era. The stories unfold throughout the reaches of the Roman world, including the city of Rome, Gaul, the German frontier, Mesopotamia, Africa and Asia Minor. One voyage goes as far as China.

Contents

Premise

Alix is fearless, generous, and devoted to just causes. Born in Gaul, separated from his parents and sold into slavery, he is later adopted by a Roman noble contemporary to Julius Caesar. This mixed background provides Alix with an identity crisis and divided loyalties, especially in the context of the founding myths of French nationalism revolving around Vercingetorix. In the second adventure Alix is joined by Enak, a slightly younger Egyptian orphan, who remains his constant companion and sounding board. Critics have suggested that Alix and Enak are closet homosexuals, and parodies have overtly depicted them as such. Originally forbidden to have a female companion by the 1949 law governing children's literature, Alix later finds himself entangled with amorous women, but he always hesitates to commit, and the pursuit of social justice provides a pretext for moving on.

The authors

Jacques Martin created the Alix series as one of his earliest heroes, and he continued solo conception, plot, dialogue and illustration for fifty years, even while developing other series such as Lefranc. Due to failing eyesight and advancing age, Martin has since 1998 gradually retired from the series, turning over tasks to various assistants. Rafael Morales became his first assistant, taking charge of the final illustrations with some assistance by Marc Henniquiau, while Martin continued writing the stories and performing the first sketches and layouts.[1]. In 2006, Martin turned over the final writing task to François Maingoval, while still conceiving the main story line in rough draft form. In 2008, Maingoval shifted his attention to a spin-off series (see Alix raconte below), while Patrick Weber assumed the mantle of writing the main Alix series.

Characters

  • Alix: the hero of the series in the title role, pure of heart, perpetually twenty-five, and wise for his years.
  • Enak: a boy of fourteen, who meets Alix in Le sphinx d'or. Not originally intended as a principal character, he becomes Alix's constant and faithful companion.
  • Arbacès: sworn enemy of the heroes, this crafty and cruel Greek keeps turning up in their path.
  • Julius Caesar: friend and protector of Alix, the latter nevertheless finds himself sometimes torn between just causes and the interests of the great man.
  • Pompey: Caesar's rival, he repeatedly seeks to eliminate Alix, obviously without succeeding to end the series.
  • Vanik: cousin of Alix.
  • Astorix: Gallic chieftain, and father of Alix, not to be confused with Asterix, his burlesque counterpart who entered the world stage a little more than a decade later.
  • Honorus Galla: Roman governor, friend and loyal lieutenant of Julius Caesar, who adopted Alix as his son.

The canon of Alix titles

The series first appeared as a serial in the comics magazine Tintin, on 16 September 1948.[2] Three more adventures appeared before Les Editions du Lombard (the publishing house responsible for Tintin) began reissuing them in hardcover book form. Lapsing in 1959, Lombard turned over rights to Casterman (publisher of the Tintin books) in 1965. After going out of print for several years, the earlier Lombard volumes were also reintroduced to new readers in 1969-1973. As Tintin declined in sales and popularity, L'enfant grec (1979) was the last Alix story to appear in its pages. Thereafter Alix was only published in book form.

The Adventures of Alix by Jacques Martin as sole creator

Title Tintin Lombard Casterman
1. Alix l'intrépide 1948-1949 1956 1973
2. Le sphinx d'or 1949-1950 1956 1971
3. L'île maudite 1951-1952 1957 1969
4. La tiare d'Oribal 1955-1956 1958 1969
5. La griffe noire 1958-1959 1959 1965
6. Les légions perdues 1962-1963 1965
7. Le dernier Spartiate 1966-1967 1967
8. Le tombeau étrusque 1967-1968 1968
9. Le dieu sauvage 1969 1970
10. Iorix le grand 1971-1972 1972
11. Le prince du Nil 1973 1974
12. Le fils de Spartacus 1974 1975
13. Le spectre de Carthage 1976 1977
14. Les proies du volcan 1977 1978
15. L'enfant grec 1979 1980
16. La tour de Babel 1981
17. L'empereur de Chine 1983
18. Vercingétorix 1985
19. Le cheval de Troie 1988
20. Ô Alexandrie 1996

The adventures of Alix by Jacques Martin with collaborators

Title Date Creation Text Illustration
21. Les barbares 1998 Jacques Martin Jacques Martin Rafael Moralès
Marc Henniquiau
22. La chute d'Icare 2001 Jacques Martin Jacques Martin Rafael Moralès
Marc Henniquiau
23. Le fleuve de jade 2003 Jacques Martin Jacques Martin Rafael Moralès
Marc Henniquiau
24. Roma, Roma... 2005 Jacques Martin Jacques Martin Rafael Moralès
Marc Henniquiau
25. C'était à Khorsabad 2006 Jacques Martin François Maingoval Cédric Hervan
Christophe Simon
26. L'Ibère 2007 Jacques Martin François Maingoval
Patrick Weber		 Christophe Simon
27. Le démon de Pharos (forthcoming, 2008) Jacques Martin Patrick Weber Christophe Simon
28. La Cité engloutie (forthcoming, 2009) Jacques Martin Patrick Weber Ferry

Alix in English

Alix has seen little translation into English. In 1971 the London publisher Ward Lock & Co issued two titles, The Sacred Helmet (La tiare d'Oribal), and The Black Claw (La griffe noire). These books are now considered relatively rare. Two more titles, The Lost Legions (Les légions perdues), and The Altar of Fire (Le dernier Spartiate) were also projected for publication that year, but never appeared. A reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement found Alix singularly lacking in humour compared to Asterix, effectively killing prospects for continued publication in a market not yet acculurated to the wider Franco-Belgian tradition.[3]

Alix in other languages

The strip has been translated into several other european languages, such as German, Dutch, etc. Le fils de Spartacus has been published in Latin.

Les Voyages d'Alix

This series depicts the culture and geography of antiquity with illustrations inspired by the adventures of Alix. Printed in full colour on higher quality stock than the comics series, these books aim to educate in a style identical to Jacques Martin's. Alix and Enak can frequently be seen in various settings. The series is not available in English.

  • Rome 1 (illustrated by Gilles Chaillet) (1996)
  • L'Égypte 1 (illustrated by Rafael Moralès) (1996)
  • La marine antique 1 (illustrated by Marc Henniquiau) (1997)
  • La Grèce 1 (illustrated by Pierre de Broche) (1997)
  • La Grèce 2 (illustrated by Pierre de Broche) (1998)
  • Rome 2 (illustrated by Gilles Chaillet) (1999)
  • La marine antique 2 (illustrated by Marc Henniquiau) (1999)
  • Le costume antique 1 (illustrated by Jacques Denoël) (1999)
  • L'Égypte 2 (illustrated by Rafael Moralès) (2000)
  • Le costume antique 2 (illustrated by Jacques Denoël) (2000)
  • Carthage (illustrated by Vincent Hénin) (2000)
  • Athènes (illustrated by Laurent Bouhy) (2001)
  • Le costume antique 3 (illustrated by Jacques Denoël) (2002)
  • Jérusalem (illustrated by Vincent Hénin) (2002)
  • Pompéi 1 (illustrated by Marc Henniquiau) (2002)
  • Persépolis (illustrated by Cédric Hevan) (2003)
  • Pétra (illustrated by Vincent Hénin) (2003)
  • Les Mayas (illustrated by Jean Torton) (2004)
  • Les Étrusques (illustrated by Jean Torton) (2004)
  • Les Jeux Olympiques (illustrated by Cédric Hervan and Yves Plateau) (2004)
  • Les Mayas 2 (illustrated by Jean Torton) (2005)
  • Les Aztèques (illustrated by Jean Torton) (2005)
  • Lutèce (illustrated by Vincent Hénin) (2006)
  • Les Vikings (illustrated by Eric Lenaerts) (2006)
  • Les Incas (illustrated by Jean Torton) (2006)
  • Les Étrusques 2 (illustrated by Jacques Denoël) (2007)

Alix raconte

Each book in this series presents a somewhat fictionalized biography of a famous person of Antiquity in comic strip form. When Alix is a contemporary of the subject, he occasionally appears as a secondary character. Texts are by François Maingoval. The series is not available in English.

  • Alexandre le Grand (illustrated by Jean Torton) (2008)
  • Cléopâtre (illustrated by Eric Leenaerts) (2008)
  • Néron (illustrated by Yves Plateau) (forthcoming, 2008)

Works not in series

Parodies

Awards

Sources

Footnotes
  1. ^ Lambiek Comiclopedia. "Rafael Morales".
  2. ^ BDoubliées. "Tintin année 1948" (in French).
  3. ^ Times Literary Supplement, 2 July 1971, p. 774.
  4. ^ ToutenBD. "Le palmarès 1978".(French)

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Alix"

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