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Anonymous asked: I noticed you did post to acknowledge the death of Uderzo, the co-creator of the Asterix comics. I have to ask Tintin or Asterix? Which one do you prefer?

It’s like asking Stones or Beatles? I love both but for different reasons. I would hate to choose between the two.

Both Tintin and Asterix were the two halves of a comic dyad of my childhood. Whether it was India, China, Hong Kong, Japan, or the Middle East the one thing that threads my childhood experience of living in these countries was finding a quiet place in the home to get lost reading Asterix and Tintin.

Even when I was eventually carted off to boarding school back in England I took as many of my Tintin and Asterix comics books with me as I could. They became like underground black market currency to exchange with other girls for other things like food or chocolates sent by parents and other illicit things like alcohol. Having them and reading them was like having familiar friends close by to make you feel less lonely in new surroundings and survive the bear pit of other girls living together.

If you asked my parents - especially my father - he would say Tintin hands down. He has - and continues to have in his library at home - a huge collection of Tintin comic books in as many different language translations as possible. He’s still collecting translations of each of the Tintin books in the most obscure languages he can find. I have both all the Tintin comic books - but only in English and French translations, and the odd Norwegian one - as well as all the Asterix comic books (only in English and French).

Speaking for myself I would be torn to decide between the two. Each have their virtues and I appreciate them for different reasons.

Tintin was truly about adventure that spoke deeply to me. Tintin was always a good detective story that soon turned to a travel adventure. It has it all: technology, politics, science and history. Of course the art is more simpler, but it is also cleaner and translates the wondrous far-off locations beautifully and with a sense of awe that you don’t see in the Asterix books. Indeed Hergé was into film-noir and thriller movies, and the panels are almost like storyboards for The Maltese Falcon or African Queen.

The plot lines of Tintin are intriguing rather than overly clever but the gallery of characters are much deeper, more flawed and morally ambiguous. Take Captain Haddock I loved his pullover, his strangely large feet, his endless swearing and his inability to pass a bottle without emptying it. He combined bravery and helplessness in a manner I found irresistible.

I’ve read that there is a deeply Freudian reading to the Tintin books. I think there is a good case for it. The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure are both about Captain Haddock’s family. Haddock’s ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, is the illegitimate son of the French Sun King – and this mirrors what happened in Hergé’s family, who liked to believe that his father was the illegitimate son of the Belgian king. This theme played out in so many of the books. In The Castafiore Emerald, the opera singer sings the jewel song from Faust, which is about a lowly woman banged up by a nobleman – and she sings it right in front of Sir Francis Haddock, with the captain blocking his ears. It’s like the Finnegans Wake of the cartoon. Nothing happens - but everything happens.

Another great part is that the storylines continue on for several albums, allowing them to be more complex, instead of the more simplistic Asterix plot lines which are always wrapped up nicely at the end of each book.

Overall I felt a great affinity with Tintin - his youthful innocence, wanting to solve problems, always resourceful, optimistic, and brave. Above all Tintin gave me wanderlust. Was there a place he and Milou (Snowy) didn’t go to? When they had covered the four corners of the world Tintin and Milou went to the moon for heaven’s sake!

What I loved about Asterix was the style, specifically Uderzo’s visual style. I liked Hergé’s clean style, the ligne claire of his pen, but Asterix was drawn as caricature: the big noses, the huge bellies, often being prodded by sausage-like fingers. This was more appealing to little children because they were more fun to marvel at.

In particular I liked was the way Uderzo’s style progressed with each comic book. The panels of Asterix the Gaul felt rudimentary compared to the later works and by the time Asterix and Cleopatra, the sixth book to be published, came out, you finally felt that this was what they ought to look like. It was an important lesson for a child to learn: that you could get better at what you did over time. Each book seemed to have its own palette and perhaps Uderzo’s best work is in Asterix in Spain.

I also feel Asterix doesn’t get enough credit for being more complex. Once you peel back the initial layers, Asterix has some great literal depth going on - puns and word play, the English translation names are all extremely clever, there are many hidden details in the superb art to explore that you will quite often miss when you initially read it and in a lot of the truly classic albums they are satirising a real life country/group/person/political system, usually in an incredibly clever and humorous way.

What I found especially appealing was that it was also a brilliant microcosm of many classical studies subjects - ancient Egypt, the Romans and Greek art - and is a good first step for young children wanting to explore that stuff before studying it at school.

What I discovered recently was that Uderzo was colour blind which explains why he much preferred the clear line to any hint of shade, and it was that that enabled his drawings to redefine antiquity so distinctively in his own terms. For decades after the death of René Goscinny in 1977, Uderzo provided a living link to the golden age of the greatest series of comic books ever written: Paul McCartney to Goscinny’s John Lennon. Uderzo, as the Asterix illustrator, was better able to continue the series after Goscinny’s death than Goscinny would have been had Uderzo had died first, and yet the later books were, so almost every fan agrees, not a patch on the originals: very much Wings to the Beatles. What elevated the cartoons, brilliant though they were, to the level of genius was the quality of the scripts that inspired them. Again and again, in illustration after illustration, the visual humour depends for its full force on the accompaniment provided by Goscinny’s jokes.

Here below is a great example:

There’s a lot of genius in this. Uderzo copied Theodore Géricault’s iconic ‘Raft of the Medusa’ 1818 painting in ‘Asterix The Legionary’. The painting is generally regarded as an icon of Romanticism. It depicts an event whose human and political aspects greatly interested Géricault: the wreck of a French frigate, Medusa, off the coast of Senegal in 1816, with over 150 soldiers on board. But Anthea Bell’s translation of Goscinny’s text (including the pictorial and verbal pun ‘we’ve been framed, by Jericho’) is really extraordinary and captures the spirit of the Asterix cartoons perfectly.

This captures perfectly my sense of humour as it acknowledges the seriousness of life but finds humour in them through a sly cleverness and always with a open hearted joy. There is no question that if humour was the measuring yard stick then Asterix and not Tintin would win hands down.

It’s also a mistake to think that the world of Asterix was insular in comparison to the amazing countries Tintin had adventures. Asterix’s world is very much Europe.

Every nationality that Asterix encounters is gently satirised. No other post-war artistic duo offered Europeans a more universally popular portrait of themselves, perhaps, than did Goscinny and Uderzo. The stereotypes with which he made such affectionate play in his cartoons – the haughty Spaniard, the chocolate-loving Belgian, the stiff-upper-lipped Briton – seemed to be just what a continent left prostrate by war and nationalism were secretly craving. Many shrewd commentators believe that during the golden age when Goscinny was still alive to pen the scripts, that it was a fantasy on French resistance during occupation by Nazi Germany. Uderzo lived through the occupation and so there is truth in that. Perhaps this is why the Germans are the exceptions as they are treated unsympathetically in Asterix and the Goths, and why quite a few of the books turn on questions of loyalty and treachery.

Even the British are satirised with an affection that borders on love: the worst of the digs are about our appalling cuisine (everything is boiled, and served with mint sauce, and the beer is warm), but everything points to the Gauls’ and the Britons’ closeness. They have the same social structure, even down to having one village still holding out against the Romans; the crucial and extremely generous difference being that the Britons do not have a magic potion to help them fight. Instead they have tea, introduced to them by Getafix, via Asterix, which gives them so much of a psychological boost that it may as well have been the magic potion.

I re-read ‘Asterix in Britain’ (Astérix chez les Bretons) in the light of the 2016 Brexit referendum result and felt despaired that such a playful and respectful portrayal of this country was not reciprocated. Don’t get me wrong I voted for Brexit but I remain a staunch Europhile. It made me violently irritated to see many historically illiterate pro-Brexit oiks who mistakenly believed the EU and Europe were the same thing. They are not. One was originally a sincere band aid to heal and bring together two of the greatest warring powers in continental Europe that grotesquely grew into an unaccountable bureaucratic manager’s utopian wet dream, and the other is a cradle of Western achievement in culture, sciences and the arts that we are all heirs to.

What I loved about Asterix was that it cut across generations. As a young girl I often retreated into my imaginary world of Asterix where our family home had an imaginary timber fence and a dry moat to keep the world (or the Romans) out. I think this was partly because my parents were so busy as many friends and outsiders made demands on their time and they couldn’t say no or they were throwing lavish parties for their guests. Family time was sacred to us all but I felt especially miffed if our time got eaten away. Then, as I grew up, different levels of reading opened up to me apart from the humour in the names, the plays on words, and the illustrations. There is something about the notion of one tiny little village, where everybody knows each other, trying to hold off the dark forces of the rest of the world. Being the underdog, up against everyone, but with a sense of humour and having fun, really resonated with my child’s eye view of the world.

The thing about both Asterix and Tintin books is that they are at heart adventure comics with many layers of detail and themes built into them. For children, Asterix books are the clear winner, as they have much better art and are more fantastical. Most of the bad characters in the books are not truly evil either and no-one ever dies, which appeals hugely to children. For older readers, Tintin has danger, deeper characters with deep political themes, bad guys with truly evil motives, and even deaths. It’s more rooted in the real world, so a young reader can visualise themselves as Tintin, travelling to these real life places and being a hero.

As I get older and re-read Asterix and Tintin from time to time I discover new things. 

From Asterix, there is something about the notion of one tiny little village, where everybody knows each other, trying to hold off the dark forces of the rest of the world. Being the underdog, up against everyone, but with a sense of humour and having fun, really resonated with my child’s eye view of the world. In my adult world it now makes me appreciate the value of family, friends, and community and even national identity. Even as globalisation and the rise of homogenous consumerism threatens to envelope the unique diversity of our cultures, like Asterix, we can defend to the death the cultural values that define us but not through isolation or by diminishing the respect due to other cultures and their cultural achievements.

From Tintin I got wanderlust. This fierce even urgent need to travel and explore the world was in part due to reading the adventures of Tintin. It was by living in such diverse cultures overseas and trying to get under the skin of those cultures by learning their languages and respecting their customs that I realised how much I valued my own heritage and traditions without diminishing anyone else.

So I’m sorry but I can’t choose one over the other, I need both Asterix and Tintin as a dyad to remind me that the importance of home and heritage is best done through travel and adventure elsewhere.

Thanks for your question.

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Illustrations I did for the end credits of Asterix and the Vikings.

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I love you, my sons.

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For the dreamers ^^’

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My theory is that Sigyn is the daughter of Sol and Glenr ( Sol's husband who rides the Sun Chariot in the Norse Myths )

Srsly Sigyn's iconic headdresses in the Marvel Comics kinda resemble the sun, so it wont be surprising if Sigyn's mother is Sol

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Sigyn ... daughter of?

So there are several theories about who Sigyn’s parents are.

For Marvel, Freya is her mother and Iwaldi is her father (the dwarves who sew Loki’s lips were Iwaldi’s sons ^^’ DRAMA … if only Marvel did some research, SERIOUSLY)

For some people, Odin is her father and Frigg is her mother (which is makes things complicated because Baldur would be her brother then ^^’ MORE DRAMA ^^’ The fact that Wagner did not compose an opera about it??? A CRIME AGAINST THE GODS OF MUSIC. BRAGI IS NOT PLEASE, RICHARD.)

The last theory I saw was on this website (link below). Sigyn would be the daughter of Sol, goddess of the Sun (No drama? XD ) Her father would be Volundr, a master blacksmith… just like Iwaldi. It made me smile, thinking that actually two of her potential dads have the same job XDXD 

Sigyn, are you trying to tell us something?? XD

https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/Sigyn#:~:text=In%20Norse%20mythology%2C%20Sigyn%20(Old,13th%20century%20by%20Snorri%20Sturluson.

What are your theories? Please, share them!! :D 

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okay, listen.

i'm obsessed with the idea of thor settling down and taking up witchcraft as a way to reconnect with his family and throw a big fuck you to his people's old belief that you can either be a strong warrior or a magic user, not both, and that being the later is unbecoming for the royal family of odin the allfather, responsible for setting an example for their people. he remembers the weird looks and disappointed stares loki used to deal with for that exact reason, remembers frigga starting to tie her hair up and only use her abilities in front of her children, when no one else was around.

except he's on midgard now and wants to also honour his love for this realm, so instead of studying the illusions and the elaborate spellwork of asgardian magic, he takes up earth magic. and i don't mean the ancient sorcery of doctor strange and the other masters of the mystic arts. i mean actual earth human magic, with plants and oils and balms and incenses and crystals.

he grows his herbs with the utmost love and care in the backyard of his and bruce's cottage in new asgard, uses them for tea and smoke cleasing and healing.

he keeps dozens of little crystals on their bedside, gives them the purpose of helping with sleep and nightmares and depression and anxiety.

he, too, was raised by a witch, so he, too, can see with more than eyes, even if he doesn't know the technicalities of what he's doing or how he knows that stuff, so divination and intuition and dream work are particularly easy for him.

he times his appointments with the placements of stars and planets and dives deep back into his love for astronomy.

he uses the water from his storms to water the plants and make baths to that bring strength.

i don't know, i just love the mental image of this norse god bigger than a fridge painting his nails with colours that match his intent for the week, fussing over his small scientist husband with lavender and chamomile tea because "you are stressed and anxious, my love, i brewed this for you, my herbs were fresh", walking around his beloved little cottage burning dried rosemary to clean the energy, getting excited about the phases of the midgardian moon, when wanda shows up ultra powerful with her chaos magic and goes "i'm a witch" he answers "oh norns, me too!!!", leaving everyone else completely confused.

LET THOR BE A WITCH LIKE HIS MOTHER AND HIS SIBLING. PLEASE. I WANT HIM TO BE HAPPY IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK???

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I LOVE IT!

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sigyn wedding outfit idea

with a bit more royal and class element to it

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Its possible! Since Sigyn is a valkyrie and the Norse Goddess of Victory, anything is possible

Plus Sigyn's iconic headdress can be an allegory of sun halo or even resembling wings on Viking helmets

OMFG IMAGINE IN LOKI S2, LOKI SEES SIGYN AGAIN AND SHE GROWS A PAIR OF WINGS

LOKI WOULD BE SHOOK LOL

Also I imagine Sigyn to be a Light Elf or an Aesir/Light Elf hybrid

So yeah Sigyn having wings is a possibility

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A CONCEPT

Nike, the Greek goddess of Victory, has wings

COULD SIGYN HAVE WINGS TOO?? :D :D :D

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The Norse Goddess of Victory AND The Greek Goddess of Spring and Queen of Grecian Underworld having a picnic and talking about their husbands and all?

HELL YEAH

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the norse goddess Sigyn & greek goddess Persephone

i just know they would be friends

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🌼 Starting a prayer circle for Sigyn to be in Season 2 of Loki! 🌼

🔥 Come on Marvel, you can do it! 🔥

#JusticeforSigyn #JusticeforLogyn #JusticeforLoki

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My VHC for some Cuphead bosses who have yet to appear in the Cuphead Show ( part 2 )

. Hocus Pocus - March Hare in 1951 Alice in Wonderland

. Glumstone the Giant - Gustav the Giant in The Brave Little Tailor ( a 1930s Mickey Mouse Short )

. Spider Mobster - Vinny from Family Guy

. Moonshine Mob Snail - Perch Perkins from Spongebob

. Lightbug Lady - Marilyn Monroe

. Anteater - Ricky Ricardo from I love Lucy ( anteaters are found mainly in Central or South America. My HC is that the Anteater in Moonshine Mob is Argentinian btw )

. Phear Lap - Horace Horsecollar ( but with a more ghostly, phantom like voice )

. Pip - Par from The Casagrandes

. Dot - Candace Flynn from Phineas and Ferb

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Guys

GUYS

SPIDER MOBSTER ABD LIGHTBUG LADY ARE CANON

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My VHC on some Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss characters

. Sebastien Perrault - Dr Facilier from The Princess and the Frog

. Esther LeFevre - Eartha Kitt

. Henroin - Robert De Niro

. Constanza Vitelli - Bebe Neuwirth

. Paimon Goetia - Emperor Belos from The Owl House

. Amethyst Edelsten - Sarah Brightman

. Mimzy - Fanny Price from Guys and Dolls

. Baxter - Dr. Doofenshmirtz

. Valentino - Scar from The Lion King 1994

. Vox - Mark Hamill's Joker

. Velvet - Arleen Sorkin's Harley Quinn

. King Lucifer - Weird Al Yankovic

. Queen Lilith - Lady Gaga

. Molly - Kristin Chenoweth

. Rosie - Barbra Streisand in Hello Dolly

. Frederick Von Eldtrich - Jafar from Aladdin 1992

. Bethesa von Eldtrich - Michelle Pfeiffer's Velma Von Tussle

. Seviathan von Eldtrich - Gaston from Beauty and the Beast of 1991

. Helsa von Eldtrich - Rachel McAddams' Regina George

. Tilla ( Blitzo and Barbie Wire's mom ) - Lea Salonga

. Crymini - Amy Winehouse

. Arackniss - Psychicbubbles aka Zach Hadelack

. Mammon - Krusty the Clown

. Leviathan - Lucius Malfoy

. Andrealphus - The Devil from Cuphead Show

. Beezlebub - Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas

. Belphegor - Xibalba from The Book of Life

. Melody Tinderbox ( Moxxie and Millie's daughter ) - Lily Loud from Loud House

. Barbie Wire - Lucy Wilde from Despicable Me

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My VHC on some of the Cuphead bosses (both Dont deal with the Devil and DLC ) that have yet to appear in the Cuphead show

. Cala Maria - Sierra Boggess

. Chips Bettigan - Lucky Luke from the Lucky Luke Go West Movie ( English version )

. Mangosteen - Patrick Starr

. Hildaberg - Yellow Pearl from Steven Universe

. Ginette - Lauren Bacall

. Pirouletta - Xenia Onatopp from Goldeneye

. Dr Kahl - Dr Scratchansniff

. Wiener Werman - The German Vulture General from Daffy the Commando

. Ol' Ethan - Willie the Scots

. Rumulus - Mr Bauhofner from Loud House

. Baroness Von Bon Bon - Marie Antoinette from Animaniacs Revival

. Sally Stageplay - Leslie Kritzer

. Cagney Carnation - James Cagney

. The Chess King and Chess Queen - The King and Queen of Hearts ( Alice in Wonderland 1951 )

. Chess Knight - Goofy ( but make it more RP accent )

. Esther Winchester ( the Wild West cow ) - Clarabelle Cow (but more of an Wild West accent )

. Chef Saltbaker - James Monroe Iglehart

. Mortimer Freeze - The Snow King from Adventure Time

. Howling Aces Female Dog - Amelia Earhart from Night at the Museum series

. Djimmi the Great- Abu from the Simpsons

. Rumor Honeybottoms - Mrs Beakley from Ducktales 2017

. Beppi the Clown - Roger Rabbit

. Howling Aces Male Bulldog - Spike from Tom and Jerry

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Are you sad that June is over and you don’t have a pride month anymore? Fear not, friends! There’s a different pride month just beginning! lgballt

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Queen Amethyst Edelsten - Goetia ( my OC for Stolas' mom )

. Amethyst is from the Lust Ring, and the House of Edelsten is a Goetial County Household

. Stolas resembles his mother personality wise

. A very beautiful and majestic Goetial Owl Demon with Indigo feathers and white face ( like Stolas ), and 4 violet eyes

. Her main powers are plant Manipulation and healing powers ( Stolas got astrakinesis from Paimon who got darkness Manipulation and astrakinesis powers, and healing powers from Amethyst )

. A very elegant, majestic, and regal Goetial Queen....not to mention deadly.

. She and Paimon got married in a similar way Stolas and Stella did in the first place, except that Paimon and Amethyst actually love and care for each other.

. Shares similar disapproval of Stolas and Blitzo's affair at first ( they are more concerned of Stolas ' going astray and uncharacteristically cheating ' than Blitzo being an imp ), yet encourages Paimon and Stolas to ' take all the time you need ' after a spat between father and son concerning said affair. Eventually she and Paimon came around to it.

. Out of her 4 grandparents ( Stolas' parents and Stella's parents ), Octavia is closest to Amethyst

. Loves gardening, seance related things, visual arts and potion making.

. She and Paimon eventually cut ties with the DiGalaxis family when the DiGalaxis family's nefarious plans are revealed.

. Stolas is closer to his mom growing up.

. Dresses elegantly - floral crowns, quality jewelry, flowing capes, ornate ballgowns etc, yet she isnt above keeping up with the trends now and then.

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Tbh Paimon and Stolas' mom ( my HC name for Stolas' mom is Amethyst ) have valid reasons to disapprove of Stolas and Blitzo's affair - initially at first

But they DEFINITELY would draw the line at the DiGalaxis Family endangering their son, Octavia and everyone who isnt even involved with the custody battle in the first place.

Theory : The Goetia Family and the DiGalaxis family are friends for some time and how Stolas and Stella end up getting married in the first place is similar to Derek and Odette in Swan Princess ( except without the Swan curse and such )

So yeah when the DiGalaxis fam's nefarious actions became known.....let's just say the Goetia fam cut off all ties with Stella's fam.

And eventually Stolas' parents came around and accepted Stolas and Blitzo's relationship, understanding and accepting that there is no use ' stoking a dead flame ' in Stolas' first marriage with Stella in the first place

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There’s been some updates for helluva boss season 2, and we’ve recently got a glimpse of not only stolas’s brother in law and Stolas himself as a child, we’ve also gotten a glimpse of his father, paimon.

So far he seems intimidating, and many fans are speculating that stolas fears him and that he’s the one who forced stolas to marry Stella for political reasons and would reject his sons relationship with blitzo as he is an imp.

But I have my own theory about him.

While he would be furious that stolas is lending an imp his grimoire and how his affair with blitzo is ruining his reputation with the public as well as hurting octavia, who I believe paimon loves dearly next to stolas, I think he does love stolas and that he actually despises Stella and her brother.

We know that Stella wants to kill stolas for his affair with blitzo, and his brother in law will play a part in wanting to take him down and possibly take over as a member of the ars goetia. I can imagine that if stolas’s father found out that his daughter in law is trying to murder his son and possibly get his granddaughter killed in the process as she said “I don’t care who you have to go through, make it happen!” He would not have any of it.

I feel like there will be a stolas/blitzo arc of them showing hell and stolas’s father that they do love each other and it’ll make the high and low classes of hell think differently of their status’s, meanwhile octavia will have her own arc of where she fits into stolas’s life if he ends things with Stella and might even bond with loona and start to accept blitzo as she sees how toxic her parents relationship is.

As for paimon, I can see him putting stolas snd blitzo through the ring of fire to prove their love to each other as he deals with stella snd her brother.