Why didn't Asterix ever catch on in the US...

Why didn't Asterix ever catch on in the US? I have a hard time believing the source-material being so European could have had such a substantial effect as some seem to say, at least not in somewhat modern times. Was there just not ever a real concentrated effort to bring them over or something? Along with Tintin and Valerian, it seems strange that stories with such adventure and humor never made it over at a larger scale.

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something something capeshit

I've heard that before. If that truly is the case then it's extremely sad. I'm not American but it's kind of baffling to me how something so huge here just never made it over.

>Was there just not ever a real concentrated effort to bring them over or something?
Basically this. I'm a burger who grew up reading both Asterix and Tintin, and that was only because my dad read them as a kid from his parents frequenting an import store.
The BD format isn't one that Americans are used to, and there really weren't any financial incentives to distribute them widely (and kids' companies also didn't really sell them either). It's really only nowadays that you can reliably get foreign comics in the US.

>Along with Tintin and Valerian, it seems strange that stories with such adventure and humor never made it over at a larger scale.
I think Tintin has a better chance of being well-known since it's a heavy inspiration for stuff like Indiana Jones, plus there's also that cartoon series that aired in the 90s.
But both it and Valerian suffer the problems of being ripped off by American media and now can come across as a bit hokey, even if they've aged relatively well.
Asterix, though I personally like it, is very European and is probably why it's not had that much recognition.

Also compounding the issue is that since Americans are hypersensitive about racism, people will only denounce those series for the "racist" parts even though they're not indicative of the IP as a whole.

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Most of the time if it's not Big 2 or funny pages, you're shit out of luck.

I (t. American) had this show on DVD when I was really little, like 4-5. It actually taught me how to speed-read though relying on the subtitles to understand what was happening, since there was no english dub on the dvds we had. It was a good show, way better than most of the junk we had for cartoons at the time

Tell me about it. My mother was a French professor so I had the movies and books growing up as a kid in middle of nowhere Ohio. I never got into capeshit and had had no media taste in common with other kids.

I remember Fox Kids had some random promotion where you could win the Sega Genesis Asterix game and I was floored.

Americans don't like stuff that isn't all violence and explosions, and they're scared shitless of nudity and sex,

Thank cauliguafix for the english dubbed films

Every kid read these when I was growing up, but I'm French Canadian from northern Ontario so it was just part of our culture.

Because Americans hate the French.

Sadly the most common reason, at least in my experience, has been that it is passed up because Americans fear it may be an educational cartoon.

>and they're scared shitless of nudity and sex,
In Asterix? In Tintin?

I'll grant you Valérian, given that there are a few panels throughout the entirety of the comic that show Laureline's breasts, plus a sex scene in one of the later books.

For me, I'm not a fan of gag comics, with few exceptions. I liked Tintin a lot more.

Because half the jokes are word games that are only funny in french, izznogud is even worse on that regard.

That's no excuse, everybody hates the french!

I'm a wizard, i kill threads.

virgin wizard?

btw a gaston storytime is up for french comic fans.

Did Asterix have any influence on the Rayman series? Something just seems similar about the two?

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Well, the guy who designed him, Michel Ancel, was French, so I'd say it's pretty likely.

considering that even disney comics are more well-liked in europe than in the us it's honestly not that far off the mark

Asterix worked perfectly fine in German. Just need a good translator.

Even Blueberry barely made it to the US

Most likely this, we had Asterix and TinTin comics in Apartheid South Africa of all places, no way the US just didn't know about them, they must have actively rejected them cause "muh superman" or some shit.

The English translations of Asterix are a work of art, they double down on the puns like you wouldn't believe.

Spanish version on the other hand barely bothers and even so Asterix is popular there. More than in the UK, now that I think of it.

Asterix and Tintin have always been available in the United States. They just haven't been popular. But even 30 years ago you could walk into an American bookstore and find them.

It is popular in the US...but it's an import for sure.

Americans like the "buy read throw away" model, which demand weekly content and easy to catch stories. It doesn't work with Euro comics who tend to shit 46 page a year at the very best, with a structured plot.

Market was already saturated with toon characters. Disney dominated the field.

The Swedish versions are also fantastic with how they're written. The jokes still feel completely organic. I love how every Gaul is named differently in different languages to make them still make sense.

in the USA? lmao.