It all began in 1959 on the balcony of Albert Uderzo’s council flat in Bobigny. There were only three months to go before the trial edition of Pilote was due out, and the two authors René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo were really under pressure: they had to come up with a completely original comic strip series based on French culture. They browsed through the history of France in search of inspiration on which to base their heroes. And suddenly, in between bouts of laughter, there was a Eureka moment: they would use the period of the Gauls … which is how Asterix made his first appearance in Pilote magazine on 29th October 1959.

The comic strip soon became a cult: The Adventures of Asterix the Gaul.

60 years later, after many adventures and as the series success turns into a real phenomenon, the Indomitable Gauls remain timeless and are now playing a major role both in the univers of comics and in the hearts of their billions of readers around the world.

Here are several steps of creation of the very first box where we can see Asterix and Obelix, on the first panel of Asterix the Gaul.