this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
23 points (96.0% liked)
askchapo
22959 readers
144 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
enough about tintin, i want to know about Asterix and Obelix, i used to love those as a kid and i halfway remember that they switched authors at some point
They kinda had to because the original author Rene Goscinny died. I think there are still new Asterix stories to this day, don't know who's writing them now.
Many of the stories relied on national stereotypes, but at least they're aimed at other E*ropean countries, it's been a long time since I've read the comics so I'm not discounting there being some horrifying racism too.
The time they went to the Americas it was bad in a "This was made by pre-boomer Europeans" kinda way, but not in an actively malicious way. It's very noble savage-y. The African pirate and Numidians are just golliwogs, it's messed up.
The Indians are... uhhh... yeah.
But again it's all in a very "This was written by people from the 1920s" way and less in an overtly colonialist and racist way, and some of the more racist portrayals were made in attempts to pay tribute to members of ethnic minorities. Which is certainly a choice. It is absolutely racist by any standard, but if you're comparing it to the guy who wrote rexist propaganda and collaborated with the nazis, it comes out shiny and clean.
I didn't even remember there was a story where they went to the Americas, but like I said, it's been many years. The African pirate is the most questionable recurring character I thought of.
there are some racist elements in asterix I think? Not as open as "Lucky Luke" but I would screen them before giving them to my kid. I think there is one where Asterix goes to america? If thats ok than the rest should be ok too
Africans (Mostly Numidians) are portrayed as golliwogs. Like there's no ambiguity here that's just a racist portrayal.
oh I missed that issue or dont remember it then. Well thanks for saving me the time, another huge comic book series crossed off. Childrens entertainment is in such a dire condition
It's not as interesting. Garsceny started out writing a couple of other comics, Iznugood was racist but not in an overtly "We should do colonialism" way, more in a "This story is set in the middle east and I'm a european born in the 1920s" kinda way and Lucky Luke (The portrayals of Mexicans here is very iffy). Both of which are pretty good but have problems with representation. He briefly worked for Tintin magazine handing ideas over to other writers who would then flesh them out. Then he wrote Asterix, but died in the 70s, so the artist took over and continued the series on his own until 2009 when he retired.
A quick search of 'asterix Numidians' I found very antisemetic depictions of Jewsish people in eqypt (alongside the plentiful racist af depictions of Black people)
Happy Passover I guess