French series.
Les Aventures D'Alix, also commonly known as Alix, is a comic book series created by legendary French author and illustrator Jacques Martin in 1948 in the pages of Le Journal De Tintin. It is considered as one of the big classics of Franco-Belgian comics, alongside such fare as Les Aventures De Tintin, Spirou Et Fantasio, Les Aventures D'Astérix Le Gaulois, Les Aventures De Blake Et Mortimer and Yoko Tsuno, and is Martin's best known creation with the modern-set Les Aventures De Lefranc.
Set in the ancient world, around Julius Caesar's reign, the series follows the adventures of the titular Alix, a young Gaul, accompanied by his Egyptian best friend Enak from the second issue onwards as they travel across and beyond the Roman Empire, interact with historical figures such as Caesar, Cleopatra or Pompey, solve mysteries and unravel conspiracies.
The first 18 adventures were all first published periodically in the pages of Le Journal De Tintin before being collected in album form, first by Le Lombard starting in 1956 before Casterman bought the rights from the sixth adventure onwards and republished the first five issues between 1965 and 1973.
Jacques Martin wrote and drew all the issues until the 20th before failing eyesight forced him to give his assistants greater responsibilities and eventually give up drawing altogether to concentrate on the scripts. Following Martin's death in 2010, as per his wishes, the series has gone on with other authors, just like his other creations, though the newer adventures are generally regarded by the public as not holding the comparision to Martin's own work.
In 1998 the series was adapted into a 25 episode animated TV series. Only two adventures have ever been translated in English as Adventures of Alix in 1971. More were planned by publisher by Ward Lock & Co, but disappointing sales and reception led to its cancellation.
Alix's success has led to the creation of numerous spin-offs, including:
- Alix Senator, launched in 2012, a comic book series scripted by Valérie Mangin and Thierry Démarez set some 20 years after the main series, during the reign of Emperor Augustus, which aims to tell the story of an older Alix, now a senator living in Rome with his son Titus and his late best friend's son Kephren.
- Les Voyages D'Alix, initially launched in 1990 as Les Voyages D'Orion, based on Martin's less popular Les Aventures D'Orion series but rebranded after 5 issues, a series of illustrated historical books with educational purposes inviting the reader to learn about the places and customs of the ancient world. Though created by Martin, he never actually worked on any of the albums, but the series led to similar efforts on many of Martin's other franchises, including Lefranc, Jhen and Loïs.
- Alix Raconte, launched in 2008 by François Maingoval, a series of fictionalized comic book biographies based on important figures of the Ancient World such as Alexander The Great, Nero and Cleopatra and sometimes featuring Alix as a secondary character. Cancelled after three issues.
- Alix novels, four illustrated novels published in 2004, two of which adapt pre-existing adventures while the two other are original stories.
And more.
Translation
- German translation (Kult Editionen)
- German translation (Reiner-Feest-Verlag)
- French first album edition (Le Lombard 1956)
- English translation (Ward Lock & Co 1971)
- Swedish translation (Carlsen Comics 1974)
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