The Asterix Phenomenon

Asterix first appeared in the Pilote magazine on October 29, 1959, and became a worldwide hit. The first comic book, *Asterix the Gaul*, was published in 1961 with only 6,000 copies. Since then, the series has sold over 370 million copies around the world.

If you laid all those books end to end, they would go around the Earth twice. And together, they would weigh about 12,900 tonnes — the same as 400 fully loaded 35-ton trucks!