New Astérix Stamps

Today the French Post Office announced a new sheet celebrating the 50th anniversary of BD hero Astérix Le Gaule. It features seven stamps with the main characters from the series created by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny. Each of the stamps mentions France as their country of origin, but also Gaule, the country's name in the series.

The main stamp, showing Astérix himself on top of a golden "50" is also available as a solo stamp.

Additionally, an illustrated booklet was published showcasing the comic, and containing a cancelled stamp.

Le petit Nicolas

The French Post Office announced a new set of stamps yesterday featuring illustrations from the well-loved Petit Nicolas books by author and comic writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé.

The stamps were launched to coincide with the premiere of the Petit Nicolas film, later this week.

Le Petit Nicolas was first published in 1959. In that same year Goscinny, who had already gained notoriety thanks to the Lucky Luke stories he wrote for Morris, would become editor of Pilote Magazine, and would create the famous Astérix Le Gaule series with Albert Uderzo. Jean-Jacques Sempé, who had already started publishing in Paris-Match, would later become quite famous in the US as well for his cartoons and covers for the New Yorker magazine.

Belgian comics stamps 2009

Leave it to the Belgian Post Office to keep you in the dark on what they're going to be publishing this year until you stumble across a very unprofessional pdf document buried deep in their website.

But anyway - not a lot of comics-related material, or so it would seem. June sees the yearly Youth Philately issue, with Roger Leloup's Yoko Tsuno (one sheet of 10 stamps, announced for June 26th). Then on October 5th a special commemorative sheet is planned on the 20th anniversary of the Brussels Centre de la Bande Dessinée.


Possibly of interest is a series on great composers, with portraits by cartoonist and illustrator, Jan de Maesschalck (later this month).