New Delhi: Launched in 1959, the French comic classic 'Asterix' boasts having sold an unmatched 370 million copies in more than 100 languages. After capturing the global comics market, the series is now available for Hindi readers - after five years of painstaking translation.

The Hindi translation of the first four albums of the 'Asterix' series was released here on Thursday by French Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler, who called the comics' total of 33 albums "a monument of French pop culture" and "opportunity to learn not French, but about the French (people)."