Coronavirus (cartoon character)

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Coronavirus illustration
Jean-Yves Ferri , Didier Conrad , 2017
Asterix and the Chariot Race
published on March 26, 2020 in Hindustan Times on the website of The Business Standard

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

The Asterix logo of the German language edition
Albert Uderzo (1927–2020), co-founder of Asterix , who only supervised the design in 2017, photographed in 2005

Coronavirus is the name of a cartoon character in the French original edition and in almost all translations of the 37th  Asterix - strip Asterix in Italy (Astérix et la Transitalique) . In the German translation he got the name Caligarius . The story, published simultaneously in French and German on October 19, 2017 , takes place - as is usual with Asterix - during the time of the Roman Empire under Julius Caesar . As a charioteer in a chariot race leading through Italy , Caligarius is the main opponent of Obelix and his copilot Asterix . In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic , often colloquially known as the "coronavirus pandemic", the figure received a wide response in the media in February and March 2020 because of its original name ; In social networks this ranged from a few to conspiracy theories .

Caligarius in the Asterix comic 2017

action

In the volume Asterix in Italy (in French: Astérix et la Transitalique ), Caligarius and his copilot Bleifus (French: Bacillus) are the main opponents of Obelix and his copilot Asterix. As charioteers ("Aurigen") you compete in the Transcaliga (French: Transitalique ), a long-distance race with animal- drawn chariots from ancient Monza to Naples , which is intended to bring out the first-class quality of the Roman roads. In addition to the Gallic and the official Roman team, numerous other teams from different parts of the Roman Empire and the whole known world are represented, including Goths , British , Helvetians , Lusitanians , Arabs and Hellenes .

At the start, Caligarius is announced as the greatest ancient charioteer. The favorite, who always wears a golden mask with a big smile during the race , provokes at the start of the race with an unpunished jump start , but is cheered by the masses and supported with battle cries. On the way, the opponents are exposed to numerous unfair maneuvers on the part of Caligarius and manipulations by the organizing Senator Lactus Bifidus. As Asterix and Obelix both in flagrante surprise at last agreements and an early victory celebration turns out to be the unmasked coronavirus as the grumpy -looking, from Sicily dating Testus Sterone.

During the race, Caligarius is apparently unassailable in the lead, albeit through multiple sabotage by third parties. However, he himself gave up the race shortly before the finish when he thought of his feudal domicile on the island of Capri and realized the extent to which his co-pilot and the organizer wanted to influence the outcome of the race with unfair means. But now Caesar himself takes on the masquerade and role of Caligarius in order to demonstrate Rome's superiority over the rest of the world through a victory. However, he is eliminated shortly before the finish line when he gets into a deep pothole with his car , so that in the end Obelix and Asterix win.

Allusions and backgrounds to Coronavirus / Caligarius

Immortalized by the German translator in the 37th  Asterix volume with the name allusion Caligarius (instead of Coronavirus): the racing driver Michael Schumacher
Immortalized by the French Asterix makers with his facial features as a coronavirus charioteer: the racing driver Alain Prost

As usual with Asterix , the comic also contains numerous allusions to historical or contemporary events relating to Coronavirus / Caligarius :

  • As part of the name, Corona stands for the ancient wreath of honor or victory wreath , which is also awarded at chariot races .
  • In the second part of the name there is the Latin word vir , in German man .
  • The classic ending -us identifies him as a male Roman.
  • After living in France, Germany Asterix translators Klaus Joeken the second part of the name stands -virus in French - unlike in German - "less for a disease , something Un appetizing or disgusting , but rather as a synonym for something dangerous and nasty" .
  • Coronaviruses were already known in various forms in 2017 through the SARS pandemic of 2002/2003 due to the SARS-CoV and through the MERS-CoV discovered in 2012 , which caused epidemics on the Arabian Peninsula .
  • The German-speaking name as Caligarius , which goes back largely to Jöken and the German publisher Egmont Comic Collection , on the one hand refers to the classic film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari , one of the first German films in which the main role is a villain. On the other hand, in Latin it literally means “belonging to the boot”, which is based on Italy with its characteristic country form. It also stands for the shoemaker's profession in Latin and thus refers to the seven-time German Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher and his - sometimes rude - driving maneuvers.
  • When he appears without a mask at Senator Lactus Bifidus, the face turns out to be a caricature of the four-time French Formula 1 world champion Alain Prost .
  • The number of 1462 victories alludes to Gaius Appuleius Diocles , who was one of the most successful charioteers of his time with 4257 races and 1462 significant victories between the ages of 18 and 42. Gaius Appuleius Diocles was from Lusitania and lived from 104 to 146 or 147.

Media coverage 2017 on the choice of name for Caligarius in the German translation instead of coronavirus

As early as 2017, the decision to replace the name Coronavirus with Caligarius in the German-language edition sparked discussion. The Asterix translator Jöken justified this to the press as follows:

“Coronavirus is a disease. We Germans perceive illnesses as something very unsavory and disgusting. For the French, a virus is more of a synonym for something dangerous and mean. The German publisher and I wanted a different name - which was quite difficult: As a Roman name, it had to end in -us, and at the same time it had to start with C because his car is always marked with the logo. Coronavirus became Caligarius in German. "

- Klaus Jöken, 2017

The translator himself saw a disadvantage of renaming characters: creating a new name carries the risk that it could be "burned" in a new edition if the German translation in the original French edition is later used as the name for a new character would. Then the translator would have to come up with a new name. The same applies in this Asterix volume for the change from the Germanic tribe of the Cimbri to that of the Marcomanni in order to save an otherwise untranslatable French play on words into German.

Media coverage in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic 2019/2020

From February 2020, the comic figure Coronavirus from the Asterix comic from 2017 received wide media coverage in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic , including (not always serious) conspiracy theories. The main connection point is the name identity between the comic figure, with its long-term bad character, and the virus that causes pandemics. In addition, individual media point to other surprising parallels: Coronavirus occurs regularly with a face mask. The race with the fast, aggressive coronavirus is playing in Italy of all places, the country most severely affected by the "coronavirus pandemic" in March 2020. In addition, the new French Asterix authors Jean-Yves Ferri as copywriter and Didier Conrad as illustrator announced the 37th volume with coronavirus in April 2017 in Bologna , northern Italy of all places , one of the cities in the country most affected by the pandemic in 2020.

In the United Kingdom , the conspiracy theories surrounding the cartoon character Coronavirus and its namesake were discussed in the tabloid Daily Star and in the weekly The Week on February 22, 2020 . In Spain, too, there was a report in El País .

Some sources describe the Asterix story with coronavirus as similarly visionary as the episode Bart's Look into the Future of the American cartoon series The Simpsons , in which Donald Trump was "foreseen" as the future US President back in 2000 . Already on 27 February 2020, there was the radio program of SWR3 : "Does a Asterix ? Comic book coronavirus already predicted in 2017," The BZ took up the issue on 28 February 2020, taking the title to: Prophetic comic? Why coronavirus appeared in "Asterix" in 2017 . On March 6, 2020, RP Online headlined : “Vision or Coincidence? - Why the coronavirus appears in an "Asterix" comic from 2017. " The Süddeutsche Zeitung included the Asterix story about coronavirus on March 7, 2020 in its corona glossary - The New Elbow Society .

In France itself, for example, the comic figure Coronavirus received new, broader attention through a background report in the economically liberal and socially conservative daily Le Figaro on March 3, 2020 and a report on CNews.

In Austria , for example, the journalist Robert Sedlaczek devoted himself to the topic in the Wiener Zeitung on March 10, 2020, in Switzerland, for example, the news portal Nau on March 2, 2020.

The attention was also increased by the fact that Albert Uderzo, co-“inventor” of the Asterix stories alongside Goscinny (1926–1977), died of a heart attack on March 24, 2020 near Paris amid the COVID-19 pandemic at the age of 92 .

So asked the Stuttgarter Zeitung headlined , coronavirus' was also in Asterix the evil on March 24, 2020: "Were so the Uderzo's successor Jean-Yves Ferri and draftsman Didier Conrad clairvoyant when they launched the band Astérix et la Transitalique designed ? "The newspaper denied it, referring to Ferri, who had already stressed in 2017 when the new comic was presented that" they chose the name 'Coronavirus' because it sounds 'bad' ". In addition, the coronavirus family, which triggered the SARS epidemic of 2002 and 2003 with hundreds of deaths, is already known to a broader population.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Asterix in Italy on the web portal comedix.de , accessed on March 27, 2020.
  2. ^ A b c d Jean-Yves Ferri , Didier Conrad : Astérix et la Transitalique . Les Éditions Albert René, Paris, France, October 2017, ISBN 978-2-86497-327-0 (French).
  3. ^ A b c d Jean-Yves Ferri, Didier Conrad: Asterix in Italy . Egmont Comic Collection, Berlin, October 2017, ISBN 978-3-77044-037-5 .
  4. ↑ a b c Details on the Transcaliga chariot race from the Asterix volume in Italy on the comedix.de web portal , accessed on March 27, 2020.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Details about the charioteer Caligarius (in the original: Coronavirus ) from the volume Asterix in Italy on the web portal comedix.de , accessed on March 27, 2020.
  6. ↑ a b Details on the character Testus Sterone aka Coronavirus / Caligarius from the volume Asterix in Italy on the web portal comedix.de , accessed on March 27, 2020.
  7. ↑ a b c d Marc Reichwein: New Asterix Volume in German - Why Coronavirus has a different name with us . Die Welt , Berlin, October 19, 2017.
  8. ↑ René Hofmann: No consideration for relatives and acquaintances . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , Munich, May 19, 2010.
  9. ↑ Commentary under: Marc Reichwein: New Asterix Volume in German - Why Coronavirus Was Too Disgusting as a Figure Name Die Welt , Berlin, October 21, 2017, accessed on March 30, 2020.
  10. ↑ Emma Parker: Coronavirus conspiracy theory as villain in 2017 comic book named after disease . In: Daily Star, London, United Kingdom, February 22, 2020, accessed March 30, 2020.
  11. ↑ Villain in 2017 Asterix comic book was called Coronavirus , The Week , February 24, 2020
  12. ↑ Jaime Rubio Hancock: Tu cerobro y tú: Ni Astérix ni 'Los Simpson' predijeron el coronavirus: por qué nos gusta buscar coincidencias en la actualidad , El País , March 2, 2020
  13. ↑ a b NN: Why the coronavirus appears in an "Asterix" comic from 2017 , in: RP Online, March 6, 2020, accessed on March 30, 2020.
  14. ↑ a b Prophetic comic? Why coronavirus appeared in "Asterix" in 2017 . In: BZ, Berlin, February 28, 2020, accessed on March 30, 2020.
  15. ↑ a b In "Asterix" the coronavirus appeared as a villain in 2017 , on the web portal nau.ch , March 2, 2020, accessed on March 30, 2020.
  16. ↑ Did an Asterix comic predict the coronavirus in 2017? on the web portal swr3.de , February 27, 2020, accessed on March 30, 2020.
  17. ↑ A. Fischhaber et al.: Corona Glossary - Die neue Ellenbogen-Gesellschaft , on the web portal sueddeutsche.de , March 7, 2020, accessed on March 30, 2020.
  18. ^ Dans Astérix, le coronavirus existait déjà et avançait masqué . In: Le Figaro , Paris, France, March 3, 2020, accessed March 30, 2020 (French).
  19. ↑ ASTÉRIX ET OBÉLIX: LA RÉFÉRENCE AU CORONAVIRUS RETROUVÉE DANS L'ALBUM “LA TRANSITALIQUE” , CNews, March 24, 2020
  20. ↑ Robert Sedlaczek : Corona is more than a virus . In: Wiener Zeitung, Vienna, Austria, March 10, 2020, accessed on March 30, 2020.
  21. ↑ "Coronavirus" was also the bad guy at Asterix . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung , Stuttgart, March 24, 2020, accessed on March 30, 2020.
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