Mathias - 'Les Dieux du Lac'.
Marcel Uderzo was the younger brother of 'Astérix' 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 Uderzo embarked upon a solo career. Many of his comics were educational one-shots with historical settings, revolving around military subjects, aviation history and sports, often by commission of third parties and in collaboration with various writers. His most notable series was 'Les Mémoires de Mathias' (1981-1985), a humorous 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 fall-out.
Early life
Marcel Uderzo was born in 1933 in the Parisian suburb Clichy-sous-Bois as the youngest son of the Italian immigrant woodworker Silvio Uderzo (1888-1985) and his wife Iria Crestini (1897-1997). One of his older brothers was the future comic artist Albert Uderzo. In 1938, the family moved to the city of 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 brother Albert.
Parody of Pieter Bruegel's 'The Peasant Wedding', from 'Astérix Chez les Belges'.
Assistance of Albert Uderzo
From 1964 on, Marcel Uderzo helped his brother with inking the realistic aviation comic 'Tanguy et Laverdure', which ran in Pilote magazine, scripted by Jean-Michel Charlier. When Jijé took over this comic's art duties in 1966, Marcel began contributing to 'Astérix', starting with the episode 'Astérix Légionnaire' ('Asterix the Legionary'). From then on, he collaborated with his brother on twelve albums in total, doing inking, lettering and coloring duties. Particularly in the field of coloring, Marcel's aid was much appreciated, since Albert was color blind. Apart from working on the regular 'Astérix' comics, in 1966 Marcel Uderzo was also hired by publishing company Dargaud to provide artwork for official merchandise, including wallpapers and drawings for mustard glass labels. By September 1967, Marcel Uderzo was working in his brother's studio full time. 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 Uderzo's most notable contributions to the series was the parody of the famous painting 'The Peasant Wedding' by Pieter Bruegel The Elder, which appeared at the end of 'Astérix Chez les Belges'. Marcel Uderzo actually painted the entire spoof on canvas, which was then reprinted in the comic.
'Les 12 Travaux d'Astérix', from a Dutch newspaper publication.
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 in it. In the 1970s, this comic book appeared in 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 campaign. None of them were ever reprinted either. Another version, published by Dargaud, was presented in the style of an illustrated storybook, with panels accompanying a written text. Only in the UK, did this particular book become part of the official 'Astérix' series, in a translation by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge. A third version, released in 1999, was also presented as an illustrated storybook, but with artwork directly based on the 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', 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. Meanwhile, the original comic strip version by Marcel Uderzo has faded into obscurity.
Going solo
As his work for his brother was done anonymously, Marcel Uderzo's first credited artwork was the second album about fighter pilot 'Yves Sainclair' ('À l'Est du Yangzi', 1976), which he drew for publisher Dargaud in collaboration with Patrice Serres from a script by Claude Moliterni. By the late 1970s, Marcel Uderzo showed ambitions for a solo career, something that his brother Albert couldn't stand. As a result of their conflicting personalities, Marcel and Albert Uderzo always had a complicated relationship. In 1979, it came to a definitive rift. After the death of scriptwriter René Goscinny, Albert Uderzo decided to continue 'Astérix' on his own, establishing his own publishing company Les Éditions Albert-René. However, he didn't ask his brother Marcel to join him in his new publishing venture, and worked with other assistants in the following decades. The siblings broke all ties and never reconciled. Despite his important contributions to twelve 'Astérix' books, Marcel Uderzo was never credited for his work on the series, and was treated as nothing more than a ghost artist. General audiences didn't find out about Marcel's contributions to 'Asterix' until decades later.
'Les Mémoires de Mathias'. Dutch-language version.
Collaborations with Moloch
Marcel Uderzo's best-known solo work were 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 collaborated on 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.
History/educational 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' (Larousse, 1984-1985), which adapts important battles from world history. His artwork appeared in the volumes 'Missiles et Sous-Marins - Le Conflit des Malouines' (1984), co-drawn with Daniel Chauvin and scripted by Georges Castellar and Joe Righi, and 'La Grande Guerre: La Marne - Verdun' (1985), written by Jean Mabire and co-drawn by Yves Bordes. 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. It remained his final attempt at starting a series, as from then on, he worked on mostly historical stand-alone comics, often by commission of third parties and in collaboration with various writers.
Several of these comics had military history or aviation as subjects. For the collection 'Villes en Guerre' (Le Téméraire, 1994), Uderzo provided the volume about the village of Ascq with writer Olivier Gilleron. With Philippe Zytka, he made the comic book 'Commando Kieffer' (Éditions du Triomphe, 2012), about Lieutenant Philippe Kieffer's Fusiliers Marins commando during the D-Day landings. A large part of Marcel Uderzo's body of work dealt 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).
'Commando Kieffer'
Sports-themed comics
In the field of historical/educational comics, Marcel Uderzo tackled several other subjects too. 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).
A recurring theme in his work was sports. For the Parisian association football team Paris Saint-Germain, Uderzo and Jérôme Le Fauconnier created 'L'Épopée du Paris Saint-Germain' (Albin Michel/Canal+, 1996). Commissioned by the national Pétanque Federation, scriptwriter Claude Azéma and Marcel Uderzo collaborated on 'Passion... Pétanque' (Editions Archives, 1996), which also featured contributions by French comedy singer Henri Salvador who, even in old age, was a pétanque enthusiast. With scriptwriter Pascal Marry, Uderzo created the comic book 'Premiers Galops' (Connivence, 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 for Yves Kerguelen Editions).
Literary adaptations
Throughout his career, Marcel Uderzo visualized a couple of literary classics in comic format. In 1995, he 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).
'Histoires et Légendes Normandes' #2.
Local history and biographies
Other comics by Marcel Uderzo dealt with regional history or comic biographies. For instance, he 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 Uderzo 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).
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 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.
'L'Histoire de l'Aéronautique'.
Final years, death and legacy
Marcel Uderzo remained active until old age. 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) and two collections with adaptations of short stories by Normandy writer Guy De Maupassant (2018-2019). 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 remained 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 Uderzo 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 Uderzo 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 Ferraris, 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.