Good Luck, And Thanks For All The Fish Fights

This appeared in THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE #1865 Published Nov.2011 but cover-dated Jan.2012.
A special tribute cartoon to the retirement of ALBERT UDERZO, co-creator/artist of the classic French series ASTERIX THE GAUL. Mr. Uderzo, in my opinion, had a art style that made him the French equivalent of Walt Kelly, which was the perfect complement to the scripts of Rene Gosginny, who wrote the series until his death.
Uderzo, who always had a hand in the plotting, shouldered the burden of both artist and writer after the passing of Gosginny, Although there is much debate on the story quality of his solo albums, there is no doubt that at least the art and the characterizations stayed top-notch, and albums like THE GREAT DIVIDE and ASTERIX AND SON are standouts. And I have to admire his courage in trying to pull off ASTERIX AND THE FALLING SKY. Which embodies the only major complaint I had about the Uderzo-only albums. Gosginny would very, VERY rarely touch on magical elements outside of the Druid Getafix's Magic potion (the reason why the Gauls were able to hold off the Romans) Uderzo tended to go off too much into fantasy - magic carpets, and a visit to Atlantis(which had a flying cow) which, while fun to look at, seemed little more than an easy plot device.
Now in his eighties, Uderzo is retiring and grooming one of his assistants and a new writer to carry on the adventures of the Crazy Gauls. It'll be interesting to see how this new era for the series starts.