The original artist and co-creator of Asterix, Albert Uderzo died a month ago, aged 92, after the sixtieth anniversary of the creation of the characters. While new Asterix volumes will continue to be published without him, there's one new album coming, a lost story by Uderzo and original writer Rene Goscinny, Asterix and the Golden Menhir.

An adaptation of an audiobook written by Goscinny with illustrations by Uderzo. Published in 1967, it hasn't been republished since and was never translated. Copies have sold recently on eBay for around $90.

It will be published on October 21st by Albert René Editions in France and Belgium and by Panini in other territories. The production of this book was the last project in which Albert Uderzo participated before his death, restoring his old work and recreating a new cover.

In the Golden Menhir, the bard Cacaphoniix goes to the Carnutes forest, accompanied by Asterix and Obelix as bodyguards, for a competition which will see him challenge other bards to win the Golden Menhir award. This would later be reflected in the Asterix and the Golden Sickle comic book which saw druid Getafix enter his own competition against other Gaulish Druids. There seem to have been a lot of golden awards ceremonies going around in pre-Christian era Gaul.

This 44-page Asterix and the Golden Menhir book will have an initial print run of just 100,000 copies, which is two percent of the usual Asterix print run, for ten Euros a pop, which the original audio version will be reissued for one Euro.