Alberto Aleandro Uderzo (; ; 25 April 1927 – 24 March 2020), better known as Albert Uderzo, was a French comic book artist and

scriptwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. T ...

. He is best known as the co-creator and illustrator of the '' Astérix'' series in collaboration with

René Goscinny René Goscinny (, ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created the ''Astérix'' comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Raised largely in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he attended French schoo ...

. He also drew other comics such as '' Oumpah-pah'', again with Goscinny. Uderzo retired in September 2011.

Early life

Uderzo was born in

Fismes Fismes () is a commune in the Marne department in the Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Fismois'' or ''Fismoises'' The commune has been awarded three flowers in the '' Competition of cities ...

in the Marne department of France on 25 April 1927 as the fourth child of Italian immigrants Silvio Uderzo (1888–1985) and his wife Iria Uderzo (born Crestini, 1897–1997). His parents had met in 1915 in La Spezia, where Silvio Uderzo was recovering after he had been wounded in his service for the Royal Italian Army during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Uderzo's mother, Iria Crestini, was working in the arsenals of La Spezia, along with many young Italian women at the time. Silvio was dismissed from military service after the end of the war, on 19 June 1919. The two became a couple and married shortly before the birth of their first child, Bruno (1920–2004). After Bruno, they had Rina in 1922. They moved from Italy to France with their then two children, first settling in Chauny in the Aisne departement. Because of Silvio's occupation as a carpenter, they had to change location regularly. In Chauny, a son named Albert was born in 1925 but died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

at the age of 8 months. The Uderzos decided to name their next son in honor of the late brother. The name "Albert", that of the deceased brother, became the Italian "Alberto" because the registrar misunderstood Silvio Uderzo's heavy Italian accent. The name "Aleandro" is in honor of Uderzo's paternal grandfather. Uderzo à Paris

Uderzo was born on the morning of 25 April 1927 around 07:00. At this point, he was an Italian citizen rather than a French one. Uderzo was born with six fingers on each hand. The additional fingers were surgically removed early in childhood as a precaution, as the infant Uderzo would sometimes violently pull on them when enraged or annoyed. In 1929, the Uderzos moved to

Clichy-sous-Bois Clichy-sous-Bois () is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from central Paris.Mussolini's dictatorship and its involvement in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

. Uderzo at one particular point became the target of the anger of a victim of Italian-German bombardment in the Spanish Civil War, and said a man spat in his face. However, apart from the occasional ethnic resentment against Italians, Uderzo views his childhood and education in Clichy-sous-Bois fondly in retrospect. His mother gave birth to two more children: Jeanne was born in 1932 and Marcel in 1933. Uderzo came in touch with the arts for the first time during kindergarten, where he was noted as talented for his age. Most of his siblings also shared certain artistic talents, and their mother used sheets of paper and pencils to give the children, especially her oldest son Bruno, something to do. Bruno became an inspiration for Albert and in turn, soon noted the younger brother's talent. At this point, Albert did not yet aim to become a professional artist later in life and instead dreamt about a career as a clown and, after dropping that aspiration, aimed to follow Bruno into the craft of aircraft engineering. At the same time, he came in contact with the American comic and animated cartoon cultures, particularly with the early works of

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. The family moved to the Rue de Montreuil in the 11th arrondissement of Paris in October 1938, changing both schools and the social vicinity. Although Albert, now with a Parisian accent, was no longer easily recognized as of Italian heritage, he nonetheless had problems in school. His only successful area in his educational pursuits was sketching and the arts. It would take him until around the age of 11 or 12 to go from sketching to painting in colors, however, which was when his parents discovered that Uderzo was

color blind Color blindness or color vision deficiency (CVD) is the decreased ability to see color or differences in color. It can impair tasks such as selecting ripe fruit, choosing clothing, and reading traffic lights. Color blindness may make some aca ...

. From then on, Uderzo would use labels on his colors, but as he mostly stuck with black-and-white sketching, it would not make a huge impact on his artistic career either way. In September 1939,

Germany invaded Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...

and France declared war on Germany in response. Albert's father Silvio, by then 51, was too old to be conscripted into the French army, whereas Albert himself was too young at 12. Bruno, however, was of military age and was called to action. He survived his military service without injury, and the Battle of France lasted between 10 May and 25 June 1940, ending in a decisive German victory and resulting in a German occupation of France. Albert soon finished his basic education at the age of 13 and decided to follow Bruno into aircraft engineering.

Working with Goscinny

Throughout some more creations and travelling for the next few years, he eventually met

in 1951. The two men quickly became good friends, and decided to work together in 1952 at the newly opened Paris office of the Belgian company, World Press. Their first creations were the characters Oumpah-pah, Jehan Pistolet and Luc Junior. In 1958 they adapted ''Oumpah-pah'' for serial publication in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''

Tintin Tintin or Tin Tin may refer to: ''The Adventures of Tintin'' * ''The Adventures of Tintin'', a comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé ** Tintin (character), a fictional character in the series ** ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (film), 2011, ...

'', where it ran until 1962. In 1959 Goscinny and Uderzo became editor and artistic director (respectively) of ''

Pilote Cover of the first ''Pilote'' issue #0 ''Pilote'' () was a French comic magazine published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as ''Astérix'', '' ...

'' magazine, a new venture aimed at older children. The magazine's first issue introduced Astérix to the French world, and it was an instant hit. During this period Uderzo also collaborated with

Jean-Michel Charlier Jean-Michel Charlier (; 30 October 1924 – 10 July 1989) was a Belgian comics writer. He was a co-founder of the famed Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''Pilote''. Life Charlier was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). ...

on the realistic series '' Michel Tanguy'', later named ''Les Aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure''. Astérix was serialised in ''Pilote'', and in 1961 the first story ''Astérix le gaulois (Asterix the Gaul)'' was published as an individual album. After Goscinny's death in 1977, Uderzo continued to write and illustrate the books on his own, published by his own publishing house "Albert René", though at a significantly slower pace (averaging one edition every three to five years compared to two editions a year when working with Goscinny).

Family

Uderzo married Ada Milani in 1953 and had one daughter Sylvie Uderzo (b. 1956). After Uderzo fired Sylvie and her husband in 2007 as managers of his estate and agreed to sell his share of

Éditions Albert René Éditions Albert René is a French Publishing, publishing house created in 1979 by cartoonist Albert Uderzo, two years after the death of his collaborater scriptwriter René Goscinny. The company Hachette (publisher), Hachette Livre owns 100% of t ...

Hachette Livre Hachette () is a French publisher. Founded in 1826 by Louis Hachette as Brédif, the company later became L. Hachette et Compagnie, Librairie Hachette, Hachette SA and Hachette Livre in France. After acquiring an Australian publisher, Hachette ...

, Sylvie accused him in a column in ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', that with this sale to a corporation it was "as if the gates of the Gaulish village had been thrown open to the Roman Empire". Uderzo had previously stated in interviews that Asterix would end with his death; however, the terms of the sale to Hachette allowed the company to continue producing Asterix titles indefinitely with or without Uderzo's participation. Uderzo in 2013 sued his daughter and son-in-law for "psychological violence". Sylvie responded with a lawsuit claiming persons unnamed had abused her father's "frailty". Her case was thrown out of court in 2014 and the two reached an amicable settlement. Upon Uderzo's retirement in 2011, Asterix was taken over by Jean-Yves Ferri (script) and Didier Conrad (art). Sylvie owned 40% of

before selling her parts to Hachette. The publishing group now owns 100%, after the remaining 60%, previously owned by Uderzo and by Goscinny's daughter, were also sold to Hachette Livre. Uderzo's brother, Marcel, was also a cartoonist.

Marcel Uderzo Marcel Uderzo (20 December 1933 – 24 January 2021) was a French comic book artist. He was the younger brother of fellow comic book artist Albert Uderzo. Biography Uderzo was born in Clichy-sous-Bois on 20 December 1933 to a family of Italian ...

worked with his brother Albert for the drawing and coloring of about twelve Asterix albums.

Death

On 24 March 2020, Uderzo died in his sleep at his home in Neuilly-sur-Seine, after suffering a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

. His son-in-law Bernard de Choisy said the heart attack was not linked to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

, and that Uderzo had felt very tired for several weeks prior to his death.

Awards

* 1985: Awarded the Knight of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

* 1999:

Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême The Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is a lifetime achievement award given annually during the Angoulême International Comics Festival to a comics author. Although not a monetary award, it is considered the most prestigious award in Franco-Be ...

, special prize for the millennium * 2004: Max & Moritz Prize Special Prize for outstanding life's work * 2005: Inducted into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame, U.S. * 2006: Awarded the Knight of the

Order of the Netherlands Lion The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands ( nl, De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, french: L'Ordre du Lion Néerlandais) is a Dutch order of chivalry founded by King William I of the Netherlands on ...

* 2013: Awarded the Officer of the

According to the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

's Index Translationum, Uderzo is the 10th most often translated French language author (Goscinny being 4th) and the third most often translated French language comics author behind

and

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...

References

External links

*
''Astérix'' official site
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Uderzo, Albert 1927 births 2020 deaths 20th-century French artists 21st-century French artists 20th-century French writers 21st-century French writers French comics artists French comics writers People from Marne (department) French people of Italian descent People of Venetian descent People of Tuscan descent Asterix Writers who illustrated their own writing Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême winners People from Clichy-sous-Bois People with polydactyly