"A Disappointing Crossing: the North American Reception of Asterix and Tintin."
Résumé
The 20th century’s two most popular western European graphic novel series, Hergé’s Tintin and R. Goscinny and A. Uderzo’s Astérix, are emblematic examples of failed cultural acclimatization to North America. The paper documents the at best lukewarm receptions of the two series when they were first introduced in the United States in the 50s (Tintin) and 70s (Asterix) and subsequently, with some differences between the USA and Canada thanks to this country’s substantial French element.
The reasons accounting for these disappointing exportations can be traced to then fundamental differences between Europe and America in conceptions of comics marketing, in the legitimacy of the comic medium as well as the American public’s limited sensitivity to each series’ specific references to western European culture, or, in Asterix’s case, Goscinny’s taste for puns and witticisms. Despite all sorts of adaptation strategies (ranging from the simple marketing of British translations to the making of translations designed expressly for the North American market to the remodeling of Asterix albums into daily strips for newspaper syndication) neither series has managed to become a staple of mainstream cultural consumption in America. Both carry connotations of quasi-highbrow cosmopolitanism because they are accessible either in British translations or in the original French. While Tintin’s Belgian origin is not particularly conspicuous to North Americans Asterix retains very strong French connotations and is sometimes referred to in the American quality press in relation to France and its culture.
The failure of Tintin and Asterix to become palatable to North American cultural consumption (notwithstanding Steven Spielberg’s Tintin movie) is finally contrasted with the counter-example of the Smurfs, another classic post-World War II Franco-Belgian graphic novel series, that enjoyed considerable North American popularity by shedding its European traits and experiencing intense trans-media Americanization.