Alberto Uderzo was born in Italy, but left for France to find work at an early age. He began work as an assistant cartoonist in 1940 for the strip "Junior", but his career really began in 1944 with his creation of the strip "Flamberge".

Uderzo's first collaborations with René Goscinny appeared in the Belgian magazine "Bonnes Soirees" in the 1950's. He also worked on other comics such as the series "Luc Junior", also scripted by Goscinny, "Tom et Nelly" for Risque-Tout, and "Belloy" and "Clairette", which were scripted by the influential French comics author Jean-Michel Charlier. In 1958 he and Goscinny contributed stories to the famous comic "Tintin Magazine".

In 1959, with Goscinny and Charlier, he launched the comic magazine "Pilote". He introduced two comic strips in the first issue: "Astérix the Gaul " with Goscinny and "Michel Tanguy" with Charlier. In 1980, he founded "Les Editions Albert-René" (a publishing company), where he continued the adventures of Astérix after the 1977 death of René Goscinny. Legal problems with the Dargaud publishing company stopped the series with the album "Asterix and the Secret Weapon ", however the strip's continuing popularity has recently inspired Uderzo to challenge the court's decision.

written by Andy Etris 2000