The new ‘Asterix’ comes from Gütersloh – Mohn Media prints "Asterix and the Missing Scroll"
They're back – the most popular indomitable Gauls in comic book history. The latest adventure of Asterix, Obelix and co. entitled “Asterix and the Missing Scroll” is now available in bookshops and on newsstands. Volume 36 in Egmont Ehapa Media’s iconic series was once again produced in great secrecy at the Gütersloh and Marienfeld sites of the Arvato subsidiary Mohn Media, which has printed “Asterix” volumes since 2001.
After the 35th volume, “Asterix and the Picts” in 2013, “Asterix and the Missing Scroll” is the second adventure from the new “Asterix” team of writer Jean-Yves Ferri and illustrator Didier Conrad. The action is once again set in Gaul after Asterix and Obelix’s trip to the Scottish clans in the previous volume. The work “The Gallic War,” describing Caesar’s campaign of conquest, served as inspiration for the new book. This time Ferri and Conrad created the characters of Blockbustus, a kind of media advisor to Caesar who pulls the strings in the background, and Doublepolemix, an investigative journalist with the distinctive facial features of “WikiLeaks” founder Julian Assange.
Kirsten Hansmeier, Customer Manager at Mohn Media, says the Egmont Ehapa Media contract included the production of 1.5 million softcover copies for the main German edition and six other national versions for Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Czech Republic and Poland. A French printing company was commissioned for the French market. “The 48 pages of content and four cover pages were printed in the second half of September and consumed more than 300 tons of paper in total,” says Hansmeier. To maintain the suspense until the last moment, it was imperative that no details were leaked from either the printing in Gütersloh or the subsequent adhesive binding in Marienfeld. For instance, the pallets with printed “Asterix” books were covered with black foil until the last moment to keep the contents of the latest volume secret. Until today – despite a Munich bookseller illegally displaying the new volume in its window last Tuesday, which was reported by various media. From today, however, all “Asterix” fans are officially allowed to read the latest adventures of the Gauls and Romans.
For Heinrich Reker, Product Line Manager Magazines at Mohn Media, production of the new “Asterix” volume style was once more a great team effort: “We have delivered a product that we can be proud of. In any event the customer is completely satisfied with our work.”
