The kindness of a great artist is epitomised in Uderzo?s magnificent dedication to Duchêne: ?For Alain Duchêne, as a thank you for all your hard work and the huge amount you have done to bring people?s attention back to my early works. In deepest gratitude. Uderzo?Turkey ? or ?gobble-gobble? ? stuffed with wild boar! Another piece of fine irony from René Goscinny after he has just disem-barked his famous Galls and their little dog Idéfix on the shores of the New World, more than fifteen hundred years before Christopher Columbus!"La Grande Traversée" (The Great Crossing), illustrated by Albert Uderzo, is the 22nd album in the series.Asterix and Obelix were key to the success of Pilote magazine from its inception in 1959 ? a great many years before they became such a hit in the French cinema, enchanting adults and children alike.The story was first published in the French daily newspaper Sud Ouest in 1975, while coming out in book form the same year with Éditions Dargaud/Lombard, with an initial print run of 1,350.000 copies! Twenty years later, an animated movie was released under the title Astérix et les Indiens and Asterix Conquers America in its English-language version.