MV Comix #27/1972
MV Comix #27/1972 falls squarely within the period when Egmont Ehapa used its biweekly anthology magazine as the mandatory first port of call for every new Asterix adventure in the German-speaking world — a practice that held from 1967 all the way through 1977. The issue carries material from 'Asterix bei den Olympischen Spielen' (Album 12), which Ehapa timed with deliberate cultural precision to coincide with the XX Summer Olympiad in Munich: the German album edition appeared on 4 May 1972 and the magazine serialization ran in parallel, meaning MV Comix issues of that year served as the mass-market introduction to the story for millions of German readers before or alongside the hardcover. The adventure itself is notable for deploying the full ensemble of Gaulish village characters — Majestix, Automatix, Verleihnix, Methusalix, Gutemine, and others — as comic tourists in ancient Greece, weaving a sustained satire of both antique athletic culture and modern mass tourism that researchers have described as unusually well-grounded in ancient sources for a popular comic.
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MV Comix grew out of the magazine that had been called Mickyvision since 1962, transforming through successive name changes — Neue Mickyvision, MV 66, MV 67, MV 68 — before settling on MV Comix with issue 35/1968, as Egmont Ehapa progressively replaced its Disney material with Franco-Belgian series from Tintin and Pilote. Asterix joined in October 1967 (issue 21/41) after departing the Rolf Kauka stable, and from that point every new Goscinny-and-Uderzo album received its German-language serial premiere in the magazine's pages before appearing as a standalone Ehapa hardcover. By 1972 the magazine ran biweekly and had also added DC superhero material and Spanish series from the Recreo Bargada Studio to its mix, making issues like #27/1972 genuinely eclectic multi-title anthologies rather than pure Asterix vehicles. The German translation of 'Asterix bei den Olympischen Spielen' was the work of Gudrun Penndorf, who would go on to render all 29 Goscinny-era albums into German.
Trivia · 8 facts
- MV Comix was published by Egmont Ehapa (West Germany) from 1968 through 1977 — a 354-issue run descended directly from the earlier Mickyvision magazine founded in 1962.
- From issue 21/41 (October 1967) through issue 13/1977, every new Asterix album received its German-language magazine serialization exclusively in MV Comix before being collected in Ehapa's hardcover album series.
- Issue #27/1972 contains material from 'Asterix bei den Olympischen Spielen' (French original: Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques, Dargaud 1968, Album 12), written by René Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo.
- The Ehapa German album edition of 'Asterix bei den Olympischen Spielen' was released on 4 May 1972, deliberately timed to the opening of the Munich XX Summer Olympiad — an editorial strategy Ehapa employed to maximize cultural relevance.
- The 1972 German publication featured a revised coloring and a linguistically updated text compared to the story's first German magazine serialization (MV Comix issues 42–49, 1968/1969).
- The German translation across all Goscinny-era albums, including this adventure, was by Gudrun Penndorf, who translated Albums 1–29.
- The adventure prominently features village ensemble characters — Majestix (chief), Automatix (blacksmith), Verleihnix (fishmonger), Methusalix, Madame Methusalix, and Gutemine — traveling as a group to ancient Greece, giving the story an unusually large cast of Gaulish supporting players compared to earlier albums.
- A live-action film adaptation of 'Asterix bei den Olympischen Spielen' was released in 2008, directed by Frédéric Forestier and Thomas Langmann, starring Gérard Depardieu as Obelix and Alain Delon as Julius Caesar.
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