Mathias - 'Les Dieux du Lac'.
Marcel Uderzo was the younger brother of 'Asterix' co-creator Albert Uderzo. Between 1964 and 1979, he assisted his brother on his aviation adventure comic 'Tanguy & Laverdure' and the globally popular historical humor series 'Astérix'. From 1980 on, Marcel embarked on a solo career. Many of his comics are educational one-shots with historical settings, revolving around military, army or sports subjects. His most notable series was 'Les Mémoires de Mathias' (1981-1985), an adventure comic set in 18th-century Canada, scripted by Moloch. Uderzo's personal comic career has always remained in the shadow of his more famous brother, with whom he had bitter (and frequently mediatized) fall-out.
Early life
Marcel Uderzo was born in 1933 in Clichy-sous-Bois into a family of Italian immigrants. In 1938, the family moved to Paris, where his father worked as a luthier. Marcel was destined to follow in his father's footsteps, and worked in the family guitar craft atelier until the latter's retirement in 1964. He then switched to comics, learning the trade while assisting his older brother Albert.
Assistance of Albert Uderzo
From 1964 on, Marcel Uderzo helped his brother with inking the aviation comic 'Tanguy et Laverdure', which ran in Pilote magazine, scripted by Jean-Michel Charlier. When Jijé took over this comic's art duties, Marcel began contributing to 'Astérix'. Between 1965 and 1972, and again from 1974 to 1979, Marcel provided inking, lettering and coloring to all 'Astérix' stories, from 'Astérix et Cléopâtre' ('Asterix and Cleopatra', 1963) to 'Les Lauriers de César' ('Asterix and the Laurel Wreath', 1971). By September 1967, it had become a full-time career. Particularly in the field of coloring was Marcel's aid much appreciated, since Albert was color blind. In February 1972, a two-year long hiatus followed, but from September 1974 on, Marcel started working for Albert again, lasting from 'La Grande Traversée' ('Asterix and the Great Crossing', 1975) until 'Astérix Chez Les Belges' ('Asterix in Belgium', 1979). One of Marcel's most notable contributions to the series is the parody of the famous painting 'The Peasant Wedding' by Pieter Bruegel The Elder, which appears at the end of 'Astérix Chez les Belges'. Marcel actually painted the entire spoof on a canvas, which was then reprinted in the comic.
Apart from working on the regular 'Astérix' comics, in 1966 Marcel Uderzo was also asked by publishing company Dargaud to provide artwork for official merchandise, including wallpapers and mustard glass imagery.
Parody of Pieter Bruegel's 'The Peasant Wedding', from 'Astérix Chez les Belges'.
The 12 Tasks of Asterix
In 1976, the animated feature 'Les 12 Travaux d'Astérix' ('The Twelve Tasks of Astérix') came out in theaters, directed by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. For a serialization in Sud Ouest magazine, Marcel Uderzo faithfully adapted the entire film into a comic story. This extremely rare story was never included in the regular 'Astérix' book series, since Albert Uderzo had no involvement with it. In the 1970s, this comic book saw various foreign translations in Dutch (as a supplement to the comic magazine Eppo), German (published in Comixene), Italian, Spanish and Serbo-Croatian. Some of these translations were published in comic book format, but then as part of a stand-alone commercial action. None were ever reprinted either. Another version, published by Dargaud, was presented in the style of an illustrated storybook, with panels accompanying a written text. A third version, released in 1999, was also presented as an illustrated storybook, but with artwork directly based on Uderzo's original animation designs, readapted and streamlined for the book. In 2016, to celebrate the film's 40th anniversary, a special book came out, 'Les XII Travaux d'Astérix' (2016), containing original storyboards, preliminary sketches and even new artwork by Albert Uderzo. This book has received official translations in Dutch, German, English, Italian and Portuguese.
'Les 12 Travaux d'Astérix', from a Dutch newspaper publication.
Fall-out with Albert Uderzo
In 1977, after the death of René Goscinny, Albert Uderzo took the decision to continue 'Astérix' on his own. The first 'Astérix' story written and drawn by Albert alone appeared under the title: 'La Grand Fossé' ('Asterix and the Great Divide', 1981). However, in January 1980 Marcel and Albert had a serious fall-out. Marcel was never credited for his important contributions to 'Astérix', being treated as nothing more than a ghost artist. He didn't receive any royalties either. General audiences didn't find out about Marcel's contributions to 'Asterix' until decades later. As a result, Marcel embarked on a solo career and Albert didn't invite him to join his new publishing company Éditions Albert René, where all new 'Astérix' stories would be released. The siblings broke all ties and never reconciled.
Contributions to other series
Marcel Uderzo's earliest solo effort was the second album about fighter pilot 'Yves Sainclair' ('À l'Est du Yangzi', 1976), which he drew for publisher Dargaud in cooperation with Patrice Serres from a script by Claude Moliterni. In 1987, Marcel drew the adventure comic 'La Mort Rouge', the sole album in the series 'Marie l'Aventure', written by François Migeat and Jean-Louis Ughetto for publisher Dargaud. It tells the story of a young female doctor who is a imprisoned by slave traders and then becomes a pirate.
Collaborations with Moloch
Marcel's best-known solo work are the three books of 'Les Mémoires de Mathias' (1981-1985), which he made with writer Moloch (Michel Clatigny) for the publishing house Delachaux & Niestlé. Mathias is an elderly Norman, who tells the local children about his adventures in the French-Canadian plains in the 1750s. The stories follow the younger Mathias during his adventures with Native Americans, trappers and lumberjacks against the setting of the French-Native American War. Matthias is always accompanied by his bear Titan, whom he had adopted as a cub after his mother was shot. In the 2010s, reprints of 'Les Mémoires de Mathias' were released by Idées+.
In 1982 and 1983, Uderzo and Moloch also made two adaptations of Gérard de Villiers' erotic crime novel series 'Brigade Mondaine' for Livre Essor. For this erotic excursion, Uderzo used the pen name Cristini. The Uderzo-Moloch team also produced the humorous advertising book 'L'A.B.D. de l'Épargne' (1982) by commission of a savings bank.
'Les Mémoires de Mathias'. Dutch-language version.
Military history comics
By the mid-1980s, Marcel Uderzo assumed a realistic drawing style when making comic stories about military history for the collection 'Les Grandes Batailles de l'Histoire en BD' by Larousse (1984-1985). Uderzo has provided artwork to several comic books about France's military history. He collaborated on two volumes from the series 'Les Grandes Batailles de l'Histoire en Bandes Dessinées', which adapts important battles from world history. Together with Daniel Chauvin, he illustrated 'Missiles et Sous-Marins - Le Conflit des Malouines' (Larousse, 1984), scripted by Georges Castellar and Joe Righi, while he and Yves Bordes co-drew 'La Grande Guerre. La Marne - Verdun' (Larousse, 1985), written by Jean Mabire.
Uderzo provided the volume about the village of Ascq during World War II with Olivier Gilleron in the collection 'Villes en Guerre' (Le Téméraire, 1994), and made the comic book 'Commando Kieffer' (Éditions du Triomphe, 2012) with Philippe Zytka, about Lieutenant Philippe Kieffer's Fusiliers Marins commando during the D-Day landings.
Sports-themed comics
Marcel Uderzo created several sports-themed comic books. For the Parisian association football team Paris Saint-Germain, he and Jérôme Le Fauconnier created 'L' Épopée du Paris Saint-Germain' (1966). Commissioned by the national Pétanque Federation, scriptwriter Claude Azéma and him worked on 'Passion... Pétanque' (1996), which also featured contributions by French comedy singer Henri Salvador who, even in old age, was a pétanque enthusiast. Marcel teamed up with scriptwriter Pascal Marry on 'Premiers Galops' (1996) to promote the French Pony Club. Other sports-related works were comic biographies of soccer player Youri Djorkaeff for Nutella (with Daniel Pecqueur, 1999) and judo champions Marie Claire Restoux and David Douillet ('Champions! Judo' with Moloch, 2000), followed in 2005 by a graphic novel about the Tour de France ('Des Pays et des Hommes', with Alexandre Luczkiewicz).
'Histoires et Légendes Normandes' #2.
Historical comics
Marcel Uderzo also contributed to 'L'Alsace' (Éditions du Signe, 2001-2010), a comic book series by Marie-Thérèse Fischer about the history of the Alsace region, and to collective series about the Normandy region for Eure du Terroir: 'Histoires et Légendes Normandes' (2009-2016) and 'Mont Saint Michel - Histoires et Légendes' (2017). With Marc Bourgne, Uderzo also made a comic book about emperor Charles I of Austria ('Charles Ier, L'Empereur de la Paix', Fleurus, 2007). Teaming up with scriptwriter Jean-François Miniac, Marcel made a contribution to the true crime collection 'Les Grandes Affaires Criminelles et Mystérieuses' (De Borée, 2012), namely the story about Albert Spaggiari (1932-1989). Among his final work were contributions to Normandy-related anthology comics for publisher Petit à Petit, including a book about the city of Dieppe (Petit à Petit, 2018).
Literary adaptations
Marcel Uderzo visualized a couple of literary classics throughout his career. In 1995, Uderzo illustrated comic adaptations of Jules Verne stories for the publisher Connivence. Years later, he made comic versions of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'The Sinking Ship' with Didier Ray (Filapomb, 2009) and James Fenimore Cooper's 'The Last of the Mohicans' with Marc Bourgne (Glénat, 2010). Between 2018 and 2019, he livened up two collections with adaptations of short stories by Normandy writer Guy De Maupassant (2018-2019).
'Commando Kieffer'
Aviation comics
Marcel Uderzo's main body of work deals with the history of aviation. With writer Jean-Pierre Lefèvre-Garros, Uderzo made comics about the famous aviators Roland Garros (Mémoire d'Europe, 1993) and the Wright Brothers (Claude Lefrancq Éditeur, 2005) in the collection 'Biggles Raconte'. In that same collection, he shared the art duties with Daniel Chauvin for the installment about the Falklands War by Joël Rideau and Bernard Asso ('La Bataille des Malouines', 1997).
'L'Histoire de l'Aéronautique'.
Idées +
From 2009 on, Marcel Uderzo was a regular artist for several aviation books by Éric Stoffel and Franck Coste at the publishing house Idées+. These included the first installments of the educational series 'L'Histoire de l'Aéronautique' ("The History of Aeronautics"), dealing with aviator Louis Blériot ('Des Origines à Blériot', 2009) and the pioneer years of French aviation ('1909, l'Année de Tous les Défis', 2010). The latter was drawn in collaboration with Frédéric Allali. Uderzo also made contributions to the publisher's collective series 'Histoires de Pilotes' (2010-2015) and 'Patrouilles Aériennes Acrobatiques' (2011-2014). One of them was a comic biography of Charles Lindbergh, made with scriptwriter Francis Bergèse (Idées+, 2015). Between 2018 and 2020, he was also among the illustrators of the publisher's landscape-format books about classic cars and motorcycles. Idées+ additionally reprinted Uderzo's old 'Mathias' stories and released the artbook 'Les Pin-Up de Marcel Uderzo' (2012), a collection of 16 pin-up illustrations.
Other educational comics
For Éditions Fleurus, Marcel Uderzo drew educational albums about hunting ('L'Affût' with Monique Amiel, 1987) and the French Defence Health Service ('Opération Esculape' with Albéric De Palmaert, 1988). Other promotional work dealt with the commune of Charenton-Le-Pont (with Jean-Pierre Lefèvre-Garros, 1994), and subjects like moral behavior ('Éducation Civique et Morale' with Erone, 1997), healthy nourishment ('Les Excès du Sénateur Angorus' with Antoine Piwnik, 1998) and the European Union ('Vivre l'Euro', with Antoine Piwnik for GPA Assurances, 2001).
Final years, death and legacy
Marcel Uderzo remained active until old age. The veteran artist regularly visited comic festivals, and remained available for commissions, including occasional 'Astérix' drawings. On 24 January 2021, ten months after his brother Albert, Marcel Uderzo passed away in Évreux from COVID-19. He was 87 years old.
Marcel Uderzo is a classic example of a brother who always stood in the shadow of a more famous and succesful sibling. One one hand, he owed much of his solo commissions to his connection with Albert, which made publishers eager to work with him and deliberately put his last name on every book release, to drive up sales. On the other hand, Marcel was always compared, even confused, with Albert, instead of being judged on his own merits. He sometimes considered using a pseudonym, but publishers always convinced him otherwise. Journalists were often more interested in his contributions to 'Astérix' and especially the juicy stories behind his break-up with Albert than any of his own comics. Interviewed by Yann Blake (13 March 2014), Marcel said: "People often told me that I share a strong resemblance with Assurancetourix (Cacofonix, the bard who is always smashed or tied up due to his horrible singing) in 'Astérix'. As a child, I too enjoyed singing. Thinking about it, I have the impression that I've always been treated in the same manner as him." Nevertheless, in an interview for Le Parisien (17 February 2015), Marcel added: "I don't feel spiteful, nor envy. I was sometimes jealous of him, when he kept buying Ferrari's, but nothing more than that. I have a very small pension. I haven't saved millions, there have been difficult times... But I still enjoy drawing, and that's the most important thing."
Pin-up by Marcel Uderzo.