Unlike everyone else in the Gaul village still holding out against the Roman forces, the ancestor of the village chief Vitalsttistix, Vercingetorix, a real Gaulish figure, warrior and chief. He has a Wikipedia page and everything. He led the fight against the Roman invasion but was defeated, captured and executed by the Romans. In Asterix, Vitalstatistix is still meant to stand on Vercingetorix' old shield, with featured prominently in Asterix And The Chieftain's Shield

Bleeding Cool seems to have been the only English-speaking country present at the press announcement of the new volume, Asterix And The Chieftain's Daughter, held in Parc Asterix today. The French title is La Fille De Vercingetorix, the daughter of Vercingetorix. There seems to have been some controversy over the English title removing his name and replacing it with The Chieftain. I'll try to find more when I get home. It may simply be that Vercingetorix is a much better known figure in France, the French equivalent of Boadicea.

Here's a better look at some of the imagery released today below… and from the printed the press release, thrown through an OCR and Google Translate…

60 years after his first appearance in the pages of Pilote, the hero created by two geniuses of the 9th art, René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, is back! If Asterix and Obelix thought they could recover from their previous journey in the tranquility of their beautiful Armorica, they have failed! Escorted by two Arvernes chiefs, a mysterious teenager has just arrived at the village. Caesar and his legionnaries seek her, and for good reasons: In the village, it is rumored that the father of the visitor would be no other than … the great Vercingetorix himself, once defeated at Alesia! On October 24, Asterix & Obetix return in a new adventure that will be called The daughter of Vercingetorix, always imagined by the famous tandem Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad. "WHO'S THAT GIRL?" "What we know," reveal the two authors, "is she's a revolting teenager. That's normal, it's not easy to be called Vercingetorix"" We have pretty much investigated her for the book: her appearance, her name, her character … As you know, Vercingetorix was very discreet about his Privacy, and historical sources are rare. But you will see, we managed to get many scoops!"



