"NO NEWS 
IZNOGOUD NEWS"
September 8, 2011
FAREWELL JEAN TABARY - 1930-2011
It is with great sadness that I give news of Jean Tabary's passing on August 18, 2011. He was 81.
We will miss you, Jean Tabary. But your name lives on just as the adventures of Iznogoud live on in our hearts and imaginations.
Coincidentally,
and on a happier note, August 2011 has also seen all 8 original Iznogoud
books published again in English after decades of being out-of-print.
With the release through Cinebook UK of #8 "Iznogoud Rockets to
Stardom" along with the March release of #7 "Iznogoud the
Infamous", all of the English-speaking world can once again read
about the exploits of Iznogoud and appreciate again the genius of this
great Goscinny and Tabary collaboration. Now we can look forward to
new translations for at least 4 more books, starting in March 2012.
To Tabary: may you join your old friend René
Goscinny on a magic carpet ride once again!
March 20, 2010
Publication
of Iznogoud continues in the UK this month with #5, "A Carrot for
Iznogoud". Coming up in August, keep an eye out for #6 in the Cinebook
series, "Iznogoud and the Magic Carpet". Distribution of these
books has continued to increase, and they can easily be ordered on Amazon
or found through many other booksellers.
It's great to see Iznogoud books available again after nearly 30 years of being out-of-print, especially in the USA where Iznogoud was never easy to find even during the original run.
August 24, 2009
In the UK, Cinebook has continued to publish Iznogoud in English at the rate of two books per year. In March was #3, "Iznogoud and the Day of Misrule". And book #4 has just come out this month, "Iznogoud and the Magic Computer".
Cinebook plans to continue publication of the first 13 Iznogoud books in the original series.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
INDIA - Big, big Iznogoud news for English readers! As mentioned earlier, Euro Books India has come through with their intent to publish 12 Iznogoud books in English...all at once. And as it turns out, all 12 of these books have never before been published in English. They are now out and available in stores in India. Here are the titles that have just been published:
- The Nightmares of Iznogoud
- The Accomplice of Iznogoud
- Iznogoud and the Women
- The Returns of Iznogoud
- More Nightmares of Iznogoud
- The Nightmarish Birthday of Iznogoud
- Some More Nightmares of Iznogoud
- The Trap of the Siren
- Caliph at Last!
- Who Killed the Caliph?
- The Ancestor's Mistake
- A Likeable Monster
In addition to these 12 single books, Euro Books has also published 4 anthologies collecting all of the above into 3-in-1 volumes.
With so many Iznogoud books now finally available in English, it's a great time to be an Iznogoud fan.
November 11, 2008
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
FRANCE - The new Iznogoud book, "Les mille et une nuits du Calife" (The Thousand and One Nights of the Caliph - see cover image and details below) has been given a release date of November 19th. You can go to the now-expanded Editions Tabary website for more details here.
August 24, 2008
Iznogoud
#2 is out! We have received a copy of the second book in the series
published by Cinebook, "The Caliph's Vacation". And like #1,
"The Wicked Wiles of Iznogoud", the quality is fantastic and
the new text layout looks superb. Also, in the back pages of the book
they announce that the next one in the series (#3) is due out in March
2009, "Iznogoud and the Day of Misrule".
An interesting note: "The Caliph's Vacation" is actually the North American translation by Beatrice Soss, not the UK version translated by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, which was titled "Iznogoud on Holiday".
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
INDIA - According to the Euro Books India website, they will soon be publishing 12 Iznogoud books in English in India. See the link to their Coming Soon section here. If this holds true, then we may see the first-ever English translations of 4 Iznogoud books, as only 8 have ever been published in English before! We assume that Tara Press (who were previously intending to publish English language Iznogoud books in India) has transferred the rights to Euro Books India, but we don't have any official confirmation of that so far.
June 22, 2008
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
FRANCE
- Iznogoud returns yet again! After an absence of 4 years (the last
new Iznogoud book was published in 2004), Iznogoud is coming back with
a brand new adventure entitled "Les mille et une nuits du Calife"
(The Thousand and One Nights of the Caliph). Now we know what the Tabary
website was hinting at back in 2007. This will be the 28th Iznogoud
book, scheduled to be published in November 2008.
Additionally, the news is out that Iznogoud illustrator Jean Tabary has decided to retire after over 50 years of work in the comics world, passing the torch on to his children: Stephan, Nicolas and Muriel. With this new book, Muriel and Stephan will be taking over the writing while Nicolas (who has already done work with his father previously) takes over the illustration of the Iznogoud series.
This is indeed very big news, and I would like to take a moment to congratulate Jean Tabary for his many years of service in creating Iznogoud, and to wish him well on his well-deserved retirement. It is good to know that Iznogoud will not be retiring from his never-ending goal to become Caliph instead of the Caliph, but that he will live on in new adventures carried forth by Tabary's own children.
Thanks to Marko Ajdaric for the news, as well as Belgian site Le Graphivore for further details.
December 13, 2007
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
CROATIA - As of October this year, Bookglobe is now printing books 1-8 of Iznogud in Croatian, including new reprints of books 1 and 3. No word on whether or not more books will be printed beyond this.
September 30, 2007
BIG NEWS - IZNOGOUD RETURNS IN ENGLISH AT LAST!!
It
has been a while since we had any updates here, but this time it's worth
the wait. After a lengthy absence (the last English-language book proper
was published in 1982), Iznogoud is coming back in print - in English!
Cinebook in
the UK has given us of their publishing dates for the first two books
in the new series:
The Wicked Wiles of Iznogoud (initial vol. 2) - March
2008
The Holidays of the Caliph (initial vol. 3) - August 2008
And we have a preview of the new cover art for Wicked Wiles. More news on this will definitely follow as it comes in, so stay tuned. You heard it here first.
April 15, 2007
There's an interesting animated update over on the official Tabary website here. This is a translation of the French text:
Since the dawn of time, he dreams only of one thing...
To be Caliph in place of the Caliph!
And if the dream became reality...
November 2007, Iznogoud returns!
What does it mean? We don't know yet. Could it be it's another book on the way, or something else?
March 12, 2007
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
SPAIN & GREECE - Well, it appears the entire run of Iznogoud has been translated into both Spanish and Greek, up through the most recent book #27. Planeta DeAgostini in Spain publishes the former (as mentioned in earlier news from December 2005 here), and Mamouth Comix in Greece publishes the latter. As far as we know, these are the only two countries that have published the whole series to date.
Also, in some other extremely exciting news, there has been talk of some English editions of the Iznogoud books being published at last out of India. More information on this to come later as it arrives. No English version books have been published since 1980, apart from a small run of 3 British Iznogoud magazines in 1996. Only 8 Iznogoud books have ever been translated into English.
March 7, 2006
INTERNATIONAL
NEWS
PORTUGAL - A newly translated Iznogoud book has been published in Portuguese by ASA in Portugal: "Uma Cenoura para Iznogoud", which is a translation of "Une Carotte pour Iznogoud" (A Carrot For Iznogoud). The last book was published in 2004 and in 2002 before that, so it seems Portugal may be getting one new translation every two years or so.
Thanks to Marko Adjaric on the Iznogoud mailing list for this news.
January 16, 2006
IZNOGOUD FILM: ENGLISH-SUBTITLED TRAILERS ONLINE
We're not sure when they went up, but the trailers for the Iznogoud film are now available with English subtitles online at the TF1 International website here. Enjoy!
January 7, 2006
Happy New Year once again! Some of you may have noticed our new Iznogoud comic strip on the intro page to this site. Hope you enjoyed it...
SITE NEWS: NEW FILMS SECTION OPENS
At last! A new section for Iznogoudworld has opened, as you'll see in the menu to the left. We now have a section for FILMS, which at the moment include the one and only live action Iznogoud film. Keep an eye on it in the coming days, as we begin to add more content to it, including photos, merchandise details, news and other info.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
THAILAND
- And, speaking of news about the Iznogoud film: the Iznogoud film has
been released in Thailand in both regular and special edition versions.
And in addition to the French audio, the film is supposed to have both
Thai and English subtitles. This is good news for both English and Thai-speaking
fans!
USA - There's never much Iznogoud news for the USA, so every little bit counts. Unfortunately, this one is a little bit late. On November 13th, 2005, the Iznogoud film premiered in the USA through France Cinéma Miami in Florida. Shown in French with English subtitles, this would have been a prime opportunity (and perhaps the ONLY opportunity) to catch this film in a theater in the US.
December 12, 2005
INTERNATIONAL
NEWS
SPAIN - Great news for Spanish-speaking Iznogoud fans!
As of this month (December), publisher Planeta DeAgostini is releasing
new editions of at least 3 Iznogoud books in Spanish, with more to come
soon. Most of the books have been printed in Spanish at one time or
another by other publishers, but they've been out of print now for quite
some time. These books will have the newer revised artwork for the covers,
and a new look that is different from any other Iznogoud book so far.
Could this signal similar reprints in other parts of the world? Only
time will tell.
For more information, visit the Planeta DeAgostini comics website here.
November 12, 2005
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
It's been quiet for a while... but here's a little bit of news on the international front:
GREECE
- Some of the Saban Iznogoud cartoons have shown up on promotional DVDs
in Greece. Also, the recent Iznogoud film is now available on DVD there
as well. Greece is very lucky, being the only country outside of France
right now with all of the Iznogoud books currently in print.
THE NETHERLANDS - Three volumes of Saban's Iznogoud cartoons are now available on DVD.
Hopefully we'll begin to see more DVDs of the film and cartoons start to show up in more countries.
July 1, 2005
SITE
NEWS: 1974 GERMAN ISNOGUD SONG NOW ONLINE
As a special exclusive to our readers, we have now made available an mp3 of a German Isnogud song called "Ich will Kalife sein" (I will be Caliph). This was kind of a theme song created for the three Isnogud audio storybook records and cassettes released in Germany in the 70s, and it appeared throughout each of the stories. The song is sung by voice actor Joachim Wolff with music by Tommy Nagel, and is a great little lost artifact.
Download here. (mp3 format, 2.5 MB)
March 5, 2005
HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY TO JEAN TABARY
Once again, a very happy birthday to Jean Tabary, 75 years young today! With a new Iznogoud book last year, a film based on Iznogoud just released, and new products still being made all the time, Tabary is still going strong. We wish him all the best.
SITE NEWS: EXCLUSIVE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF "THE GENIE"
As an Iznogoudworld exclusive, we bring you our English translation of the first story from the first Iznogoud book "Le Grand Vizir Iznogoud", called "The Genie". This story originally appeared in the pages of Record #36 in 1964. It has never been published in English before, so it is our pleasure to allow English readers the chance to experience this story for the first time. Click below on the corresponding number for each page of the story.
Note: pages are very large for clarity, so please be patient
while they are loading.
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THE GENIE |
February 19, 2005
We are very much overdue for an update... some big news to report:
IZNOGOUD
FILM RELEASED FEBRUARY 9TH
The brand new Iznogoud film has finally been released in France. Now titled "Iznogoud: Calife à la place du Calife", it is by all reports a visually rich film filled with many elements based on the original Iznogoud stories. Details and lots of fun Iznogoud-related information can be found at the film's official website, http://www.iznogoud-lefilm.com (in French) - have a look! There are trailers, games, wallpapers, behind the scenes video, song samples, and much more. Hopefully the film gains an international release as well.
LEADING IZNOGOUD FILM ACTOR JACQUES VILLERET DIES
We are sad to report that Jacques Villeret, who played
the Caliph in the new Iznogoud film, passed away on January 28 this
year. He was 53.
SECOND IZNOGOUD FIGURINE PRODUCED
Leblon-Delienne (English site here) has done it again. For their second Iznogoud series figurine, they have produced the Caliph in all his portulent glory. This is again a limited edition production, standing 15 cm high, limited to 777 copies, and priced at 145 Euros.
NEW IZNOGOUD CARTOON DVDS RELEASED
To
tie in with the release of the new Izngoud film, a whole new set of
two Iznogoud DVDs have been released, this time by M6 in France. These
are completely different from the previous two DVDs that were released
by Citel Vidéo, even though one of them has the same title ("Le
Jour des Fous"). There are four episodes on each, plus two bonus
episodes, for a total of six episodes. In addition to this, each DVD
has a host of extras which include sneak peeks and trailers from the
new Iznogoud film.
Reportedly, the discs are to be released in 24 different countries.
September 12, 2004
IZNOGOUD CARTOONS ON DVD IN FRANCE
This
news is a little late in the breaking, but nonetheless worthy of reporting.
Two volumes of Iznogoud cartoons have finally made it to DVD, though
only in France so far. Each volume contains four episodes. The DVD titles
are "Le Tapis Magique" (The Magic Carpet) and "Le Jour
des Fous" (The Day of Fools).
Since the series has been translated into a number of languages, including English, German, Greek, Dutch, and Italian, hopefully we may see episodes begin to show up on DVD in other languages as well.
June 2, 2004
IZNOGOUD FILM NEWS AND SYNOPSIS
As
we reported earlier, the Iznogoud live-action movie is currently in
production, with filming currently in progress on location in Morocco,
India and Tunisia. The filming is expected to take 15 weeks. Actors
in the film include Michaël Youn, Jacques Villeret, Magloire Delcros-Varaud,
Franck Dubosc, Bernard Farcy, Elsa Pataky, Kad Merad, and Olivier Barroux.
The expected release date is Spring 2005.
In addition to the movie poster artwork shown at left here, we have the first photos of Michaël Youn in his Iznogoud costume, sans red coat and turban! You can see them here and here, thanks to PHENOMENE YOUN and the AlloCiné forums.
Below is the movie synopsis for Iznogoud, as found at TF1 International:
Grand Vizir Iznogoud hatches yet another plot to dethrone the chubby Caliph Haroun El-Poussah, with farcical results. Adapted from the best-selling comic book by the creator of Asterix.
The Grand Vizir Iznogoud has a dream: he would be Caliph in place of the Caliph, the corpulent and somnolent Haroun El-Poussah! Unfortunately, that's all it is, a dream. All the cunning schemes he hatches with his hapless sidekick Dilat Laraht fail dismally and comically. Until one day, lady luck finally shines her light on Iznogoud. He sneaks into the Caliph's harem and learns that the beautiful slave-girl, Prehti Ouhman, that Haroun has lined up as his 250th wife, is in fact the daughter of the savage Sultan Pullmankar. With the help of a pair of mercurial and disputatious genies, and of course the trusty Dilat Laraht, Iznogoud connives with Pullmankar to ruin the Caliph's wedding day. After Pullmankar slaughters Haroun, Iznogoud will marry Prehti Ouhman and, at long last, become Caliph in place of the Caliph! The only trouble is, the delightful princess has a secret, an identity crisis she shares with her maidservant Plassahssiz, who has fallen for Haroun's rotund charm. Iznogoud may have to wait a little longer before taking his seat on the Caliph's spacious throne.
May 16, 2004
IZNOGOUD
ALBUM #27 RELEASED
It's finally here... the long-awaited new Iznogoud book,
"La Faute de l'Ancêtre" (Fault of the Ancestor) was
released at last in April through Éditions
Tabary. We'll know more once we have our own copy, but the assumption
is that it's the same as the book previously titled "La Genèse",
which was to feature the very first two Iznogoud strips that Goscinny
and Tabary collaborated on, and which have never been published in any
of the albums to far. The French Books section has now been updated
to reflect the new book's title and cover.
NEW IZNOGOUD FIGURINE AVAILABLE
From the French company Leblon-Delienne (English version of the site here), makers of very fine figurines of Asterix, Tintin, Spirou, Lucky Luke and many others, comes a very welcome addition to their line: Iznogoud, realized in full three-dimensional glory! This piece is part of their new Spring Statues Collection. Iznogoud stands 11 cm high, is limited to 1500 pieces, and is priced at 90 Euros. This may be the first such Iznogoud statue produced to date, to the best of our knowledge.
March 12, 2004
WELCOME TO IZNOGOUDWORLD.COM
Yes, you heard right... this site has a new domain name now and can be found at last under the simple URL of www.iznogoudworld.com. Hopefully this will help to continue to expand the exposure of Iznogoud so that he may finally be infamous throughout the whole world!
NEW IZNOGOUD BOOK PUBLICATION DATE AND TITLE CHANGE
According to Amazon France, the newest Iznogoud book formerly titled "La Genèse" (The Genesis) is now titled "Faute de l'Ancêtre" (Fault of the Ancestor), and is scheduled to be published on April 8th, 2004. More news on this as it arrives.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
VIETNAM - Finally it is confirmed: Iznogoud was published in Vietnamese in the year 1999. I have very little other information at this point, but there were at least 8 books published there. This makes at least 18 different languages now that Iznogoud has been published in. Not as widely travelled as Asterix perhaps, but Iznogoud sure gets around!
January 1, 2004
Happy New Year!
ÉDITIONS TABARY WEBSITE OPENS
I am pleased to report the opening of the official website for Éditions Tabary, Jean Tabary's publishing house for Iznogoud. It can be found here. At this point the site is still in progress, and there is only a welcome page so far, but hopefully soon we'll see it start to fill out.
October 21, 2003
PUBLICATION DATE FOR THE NEW IZNOGOUD BOOK
From the mouth of Tabary himself: the new Iznogoud book, "La Genèse" is slated to be published in March 2004 (see January 19, 2003 news for further details on the book itself). The anticipation is immense!
SITE HOSTING PROBLEMS
My deepest apologies for this site going AWOL for a while and then changing locations, leaving many of you probably unable to find it afterwards. The old site location suddenly had the plug pulled on it with no forwarding address, leaving many links and references to this page unreachable, and the site going from the top of the search engines to practically disappearing from them. We will soon be back in full force again.
July 11, 2003
IZNOGOUD MOVIE - INTERVIEW WITH MICHAËL YOUN
The website Goscinny.net posted a small interview with Michaël Youn, who plays Iznogoud in the upcoming film. Here is an exclusive English translation of the interview question:
Michaël Youn speaks about Iznogoud (May 23, 2003)
In the May 21, 2003 issue of the magazine "Ecran Total" [Total Screen], Michaël Youn answers the question, "You lent yourself to auditions for Iznogoud, which you will shoot this winter with Patrick Braoudé for Vertigo. Why?"
Michaël Youn's response: "The role is difficult. I am taller and a younger person than Iznogoud such as he appears in the comic strip, and it had to be seen whether I could correspond to the energy of the character, who rebounds in all directions. Iznogoud, he is Louis de Funès! Goscinny had drawn a film scenario from his comic books that he had proposed to him. De Funès had refused it and made La Folie des Grandeurs in its place, a kind of Iznogoud in the 17th century! Patrick Braoudé wrote a scenario which I read a draft of and accepted immediately. It is a beautiful story and a popular film, which I would like now. My origin may be from television, but I wish to go seek out the people. For me, the cinema, it is primarily to entertain the audience. And to play the malicious ones, it is fun for an actor. We film in February, March and April in Morocco, in India and in France."
The original French version can be found here.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
PORTUGAL - I have just found out that in addition to the Brazilian Portuguese Iznogud books, there are Portuguese Portuguese books which are under the title of Iznogoud, and which are completely different versions. It appears that there are at least two books available currently, published by ASA. See the Books section of this site for more details.
May 28, 2003
MORE ON THE IZNOGOUD MOVIE AND... LUCKY LUKE?
Last
month we mentioned that comedic duo Eric and Ramzy (at right) would
be playing the parts of two genies in the up-and-coming Iznogoud film.
AlloCiné
reports that they will also be in another movie based on a Goscinny
creation: an upcoming Lucky Luke film, where they will be playing Joe
and Averell Dalton of the notorious Dalton Brothers.
Photo from AlloCiné.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
CHINA - A Chinese Iznogoud? Yes, it's true. We have recently been informed that Iznogoud has been published in Mandarin Chinese within the last couple years. See the Books section for more details on these publications. The number of languages for Iznogoud keeps on growing.
April 15, 2003
IZNOGOUD MOVIE UPDATE - GARCIA OUT, YOUN IN
An
update on the Iznogoud film situation: José Garcia is no longer
up for the role of Iznogoud (but apparently will still star as Obelix
in the third Asterix film). Now, comic actor Michaël
Youn (pictured at left) will be Grand Vizier instead of the Grand
Vizier.
Also,
actor Jacques
Villeret (pictured at right) has landed the role of Caliph Haroun
el Poussah, and comedic duo Eric
and Ramzy
will be cast as two genies. No word yet on who will play Iznogoud's
henchman Dilat Larath.
Shooting is expected to begin in early 2004. The film will be directed by Patrick Braoudé with producers Aïssa Djabri, Farid Lahouassa and Manuel Munz, and is a production of M6 Films and Vertigo Productions.
Thanks to AlloCiné for actor photos and some of the information above.
March 5, 2003
Happy Birthday Jean Tabary!
73 years young today... here's to many more years and many more Iznogoud
adventures!
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
INDIA - Lion Comics in southern India has been publishing
Iznogoud in the Tamil language. So far I know that "Thalai keelai
oru dhinam" (The Upside-Down Day, aka The Day of Misrule) has been
published recently, and that "Oru carrotin kathai" (The Carrot
Story, aka A Carrot for Iznogoud) is on the way. The books are being
published as part of their Lion Comics series. More details and ordering
information can be found at the Lion
Comics website, although most of it is written in Tamil. Also see
the Books section here for cover images and publication info.
February 8, 2003
IZNOGOUD ROCKETS TO STARDOM
With
the news of the space shuttle Columbia's demise, I hope this tidbit
I recently discovered might be a little more uplifting. On February
7, 1999, NASA launched its Stardust spacecraft aboard a Delta II rocket
(right). Its mission: to rendezvous with the comet named Wild-2 in 2004
and bring samples back to Earth in January of 2006. In addition to this,
however, the spacecraft is carrying a set of two microchips into space
with over one million personal names that were submitted between 1997-1998.
Amongst the names in that list: IZNOGOUD GRAND VIZIR.
To see NASA's Stardust website, click here. To see the list that includes Iznogoud's name, click here.
UPDATE ON THE NEW IZNOGOUD BOOK
I recently received my order from a bookstore in France, and the new Iznogoud book "La Genèse" was not there. According to the notation it still has not been printed yet, and "the book will be available in the next few days." I doubt this is the case, but I will keep my eyes open. I guess we're still waiting...
January 19, 2003
Welcome to the brand new News section of the site! Updates here promise to be sporadic and even rare, but certainly there will be some occasional things to report. This time we have a few great tidbits...
NEW IZNOGOUD BOOK
First of all, many of us have been eagerly awaiting the release of the latest book in the Iznogoud series, "La Genèse" (The Genesis). This is the 27th Iznogoud book, and it features the very first two Iznogoud strips that Goscinny and Tabary collaborated on, which were originally published in Record magazine way back in 1962 and which have never been published in any of the albums so far. The original publication date was given on Amazon as June 1st, 2002 - but I have yet to see a copy. More updates on this soon since one is supposed to be on its way here now! Thanks to BD Central for some of this info.
IZNOGOUD: THE MOVIE
Yes,
apparently a big-screen adaptation of Iznogoud is in the works. Following
the success of the two recent Asterix films in France, "Asterix
and Obelix vs. Caesar" and "Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra"
(the first one being the second biggest film of all time in France,
according to reports), it's not much of a surprise that another Goscinny-written
BD comic is being made into a movie. It will be through Arena Films/Pathé
International (who also handled "Mission: Cleopatra"),
and reportedly will involve Patrick Braoudé as a writer or producer
as well as actor José Garcia in the starring role (pictured at
right) who, according to reports, may also end up being Obelix in the
third Asterix film. Thanks to Comics2film
for some of this info. More news on this as we receive it.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
GREECE - In the last 6 months or so, Mamouth Comix in Greece has published books 25 and 26 of the Iznogoud series, meaning that all of the books have now been translated and published there. If only the rest of the countries in the world could be so lucky...
POLAND - "Wakacje kalifa" (Caliph's Vacation) has been recently reprinted by Egmont Poland, continuing their series of Iznogoud reprints in Polish.
That's it for this time!