Asterix returns in a new adventure

A girl reads Asterix chez les Pictes (Asterix and the Picts), the new comic of the popular Asterix series written by France's Jean-Yves Ferri and illustrated by France's Didier Conrad. AFP PHOTO / PATRICK KOVARIK Source: AFP

Comic book hero Asterix and his rotund sidekick Obelix have returned for their first new adventure in eight years, reviving a global phenomenon that has sold millions of copies around the world.

Five million copies of Asterix and the Picts - the 35th instalment in a series that has become a publishing juggernaut - were released in 15 countries and 23 languages on Thursday, after months of anticipation.

The Gallic duo's latest adventures take them for the first time to ancient Scotland, with the new edition's cover depicting Obelix in full caber toss as a winking Asterix sits nearby.

Two million copies were printed for France and another three million for foreign audiences, including copies in Gaelic.

The Asterix series - created by illustrator Albert Uderzo and writer Rene Goscinny in 1959 - is a bestseller in the comic book world, with 352 million copies sold worldwide and translations in more than 110 languages and dialects.

It features the adventures of an indomitable tribe of Gauls resisting Roman occupation, often with the help of a Druid-brewed magic potion that grants them superhuman strength.

The series has been adapted into four live-action films and is the inspiration for a popular theme park, Parc Asterix, outside Paris.

The latest edition is the work of writer Jean-Yves Ferri and artist Didier Conrad, and is the first not written and illustrated by one of the series' original creators.

Uderzo, who took over the writing when Goscinny died in 1977, announced in 2011 that he would no longer be drawing the series. The 86-year-old did supervise production of the latest book however, and drew the Obelix featured on the cover.

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Ms Marvel returns as Muslim teen

A comic book image showing the newly revamped Ms Marvel character Kamala Khan  second left, with her family Aamir, father Yusuf, mother Disha and friend Bruno, from the first Ms. Marvel issue. Picture: AP Photo/Marvel Comics Source: AP

Ms Marvel will explore what it means to be young and lost while coming to grips with having superpowers, similar to Peter Parker, Marvel says. Picture: AFP Source: AP

MARVEL Comics is bringing Ms Marvel back as a 16-year-old daughter of Pakistani immigrants living in Jersey City named Kamala Khan.

The character - among the first to be a series protagonist who is both female and Muslim - is part of Marvel Entertainment's efforts to reflect a growing diversity among its readers while keeping ahold of the contemporary relevance that have underlined its foundation since the creation of Spider-Man and the X-Men in the early 1960s.

Writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona, working with editor Sana Amanat, say the series reflects Khan's vibrant but kinetic world, learning to deal with superpowers, family expectations and adolescence.

Amanat calls the series a "desire to explore the Muslim-American diaspora from an authentic perspective" and what it means to be young and lost amid expectations by others while also telling the story of a teenager coming to grips with having amazing powers.

"I wanted Ms. Marvel to be true-to-life, something real people could relate to, particularly young women.

"High school was a very vivid time in my life, so I drew heavily on those experiences - impending adulthood, dealing with school, emotionally charged friendships that are such a huge part of being a teenager," said Wilson, a convert to Islam whose previous comics work includes the graphic novel Cairo and series Air from Vertigo.

"It's for all the geek girls out there and everybody else who's ever looked at life from the fringe."

This Ms. Marvel can grow and shrink her limbs and her body and, Wilson said, ultimately, she'll be able to shape shift into other forms.

The idea came after a discussion with senior editor Stephen Wacker as he and Amanat, a Muslim-American, compared stories about growing up.

From there it germinated into a "character for all those little girls who are growing up now the way you are growing up," she recalled. Wilson was brought on board to write the series and the team quickly got approval from Marvel's creative committee to move forward.

DC Comics last fall relaunched its Green Lantern series with Simon Baz, an Arab American and Muslim. The character reflects writer Geoff Johns' Lebanese ancestry and his upbringing in the Detroit area.

There have been a few others: Marvel Comics has Dust, a young Afghan woman whose mutant ability to manipulate sand and dust has been part of the popular X-Men books. DC Comics in late 2010 introduced Nightrunner, a young Muslim hero of Algerian descent reared in Paris.

The creative team said that Khan's backstory, growing up Muslim, is an element of the story, but not the critical foundation, either.

"Kamala is not unlike Peter Parker," said Marvel Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso of the teenager turned Spider-Man.

"She's a 16-year-old girl from the suburbs who is trying to figure out who she is and trying to forge an identity when she suddenly bestows great power and learns the great responsibility that comes with it."

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Man returns from motorcycle ride to home ablaze

UPSHUR COUNTY, TX (KLTV) -

An East Texas man lost everything today when his house burned to the ground. It happened on Aspen Trail near Gilmer in Upshur County.

The homeowner says he left for an early morning motorcycle ride and when he returned just minutes later, his house was completely engulfed.

Riding motorcycles has been Ronnie Jenkins' favorite pastime since he was young. He received his first one at the age of four. Today, taking an early morning joy ride may have saved his life.

"I wasn't gone five minutes and I've lost everything I had," he said.

He went just two miles.

"The flames all the way up the top of them trees there, and I was not gone five minutes," he said.

When he arrived home, his entire house was engulfed. He had just finished adding on a living room.

"It was like an airline done hit it," he said.

Both Gilmer and Pritchett Volunteer Fire Departments responded, but by the time they arrived, the house was a total loss.

With no insurance, Ronnie says his home is now just a pile of junk. But his neighbors were hear all morning, to make sure Ronnie would get back on a motorcycle soon enough.

"Well, I mean, we're neighbors and I hate it that it happened to him," Frances Woolery said.

After calling 911, the Woolerys spent all morning by Ronnie's side.

"I love them people to death; I've been here twelve years and they've been the best neighbors you could ask for," he said.

The American Red Cross was also on scene to help Jenkins.

"I should have known not to go outside; today was Friday the thirteenth," he said, although today, his luck, and his motorcycle, led him safely outdoors.

There were no injuries, but two of his indoor cats perished, as did some of the strays that lived under his deck. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but Gilmer Fire officials tell us it is not being investigated as suspicious.

Copyright 2013 KLTV. All rights reserved.

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Two decades on, king of the jungle returns to Sarajevo

1 of 2. A lion is pictured at the zoo in Sarajevo April 17, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Dado Ruvic

By Daria Sito-Sucic

SARAJEVO | Thu Apr 18, 2013 8:37am EDT

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Some still recall the roar of caged lions punctuating the long nights during the siege of Sarajevo.

Like the bears and other big cats, they starved to death after the zookeepers who risked their lives to feed them were killed or wounded in the bombardment by Bosnian Serb forces in the first months of the 1992-95 war.

Two decades on, the king of the jungle is back in the Bosnian capital.

A donation from Bulgaria, two lions arrived this month at the zoo's new "wild garden", a 225,000-euro ($293,000) enclosure built after four years of lobbying and fundraising by zoo workers and officials.

The lioness of the pair died shortly after arrival of unknown causes. An autopsy is pending.

But Esad Tajic, the zoo's general manager, said he expected the remaining big cat, a 3-year-old African lion, to help double the number of visitors to about 1 million a year.

"The king of the jungle remains here. The queen unfortunately died, but we'll make every effort to get a new lioness as soon as possible and start our own reproduction cycle next year," he told Reuters.

The lion's arrival has been big news in Sarajevo, where the zoo, nestled near apartment buildings half a mile from the city center, was once trapped on the frontline of a siege that raged for 43 months, killing more than 11,000 people.

The animals slowly succumbed to hunger, their carcasses left to rot. Some 100,000 people would eventually die in the Bosnian war, the worst of the conflicts that erupted with the collapse of federal Yugoslavia.

The zoo reopened two years after the end of the war, cleared of landmines and unexploded mortar shells. Some surrounding buildings still bear the scars of the war.

The gift by the Sofia zoo has been welcomed as a rare sign of normality in a country still grappling with ethnic division and political crisis.

The lion is as yet nameless. The zoo plans to invite suggestions from the public once a new lioness arrives, but officials have yet to find the donors to pay for a trip to check prospective mates.

"Until now, our children could only see lions in the films, in cartoons," said Kenan Memisevic, a Sarajevo resident visiting the zoo with his son after school.

"This is a big news for them," he said, as the lion prowled behind a wall of stone and glass.

Visitor Irfana Trampa added: "The presence of such a beautiful animal in our beautiful city is a ray of hope for us, the citizens of Sarajevo." ($1 = 0.7668 euros)

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Matt Robinson and Alison Williams)

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