MV Comix #48/1968
MV Comix #48/1968 belongs to the foundational run during which Egmont Ehapa first introduced German-speaking audiences to the core cast of the Asterix village in their now-familiar German-language forms. The issue appears in the critical weekly phase of late 1968, right as Ehapa was cementing Asterix as its flagship Franco-Belgian property ahead of launching the standalone album series in December of that year. Characters appearing here — Asterix, Majestix, Automatix, and Troubadix — were still finding their definitive German identities in this period: notably, the Ehapa editions only standardized the smith's name as 'Automatix' (rather than the earlier 'Armamix') from the Tour de France serialization onward, making late-1968 MV Comix issues the moment that translation stabilized. As part of a weekly magazine run that predated the collected album format, this issue represents the form in which most German children first encountered these characters — in serialized magazine installments rather than the bound albums that would later define the series.
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MV Comix grew out of Ehapa's earlier Mickyvision magazine, transitioning into a predominantly Franco-Belgian anthology from late 1965 onward; from issue #21/41 in October 1967, it switched to weekly publication partly to accommodate the addition of Asterix, who had previously been published in the rival Kauka title Lupo Modern under the localized name 'Siggi.' Egmont Ehapa took over the German rights and began running Asterix stories in MV Comix from late 1967, with all new adventures appearing there as pre-publication serials until 1977. The magazine published in a large 'Überformat' through late 1968 and renumbered to 1/1969 at the start of the new year, making the #48/1968 issue one of the final installments in that transitional weekly format before the biweekly rebrand.
Trivia · 8 facts
- MV Comix #48/1968 was published by Egmont Ehapa as part of a weekly run that had begun in late 1967 specifically to carry Asterix content in Germany.
- The issue falls within the period immediately preceding the launch of Ehapa's standalone Asterix album series, which began with Asterix der Gallier on 16 December 1968.
- All four indexed characters — Asterix, Automatix, Majestix, and Troubadix — were created by writer René Goscinny and artist Albert Uderzo, who first introduced them in the French magazine Pilote beginning in 1959.
- Automatix (French: Cétautomatix), the village blacksmith, appeared in Ehapa editions under the name 'Armamix' in early printings of Asterix der Gallier; the name 'Automatix' was only standardized in Ehapa's German editions starting with the Tour de France serialization (MV Comix #23–31/1968), just issues before #48.
- Majestix (French: Abraracourcix), the village chief, made his first appearance in the very first Asterix story; his German name is derived from the word 'Majestät' (majesty), a localization choice by Ehapa's translators.
- Troubadix (French: Assurancetourix), the village bard whose singing is dreaded by his fellow villagers, is one of the three cloak-wearing dignitaries of the Gaulish village alongside Majestix and Miraculix.
- MV Comix served as the exclusive pre-publication venue for all new Asterix adventures in Germany through 1977, making any 1968 issue a document of Asterix's earliest German-market presence before the album format took hold.
- The magazine's late-1968 weekly issues (including #48) were published in an oversized 'Überformat,' a production format that was discontinued after issue #3/1969 when MV Comix shifted to its biweekly schedule and standard sizing.