Asterix

AUTHOR: Goscinny, René; Uderzo, Albert

ARTIST: Albert Uderzo (illustrator)

PUBLISHER: Editions Dargaud; Editions Albert-René; Hachette

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION: 1961-1979 (English translation, 1969-1975)

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1961 (English translation, 1969)

Publication History

Asterix was created during an afternoon-long brainstorming session in the summer of 1959 by writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Albert Uderzo as one of the flagship series for the weekly anthology comic Pilote. The character appeared in the magazine’s premiere issue on October 29, 1959. The first volume, Astérix le Gaulois, a 44-page graphic novel, was published in France as a hardback in 1961 as part of a bid by new Pilote owner Georges Dargaud to market several of the weekly’s most popular series in regular bookstores.

After a slow start, the series became a publishing phenomenon within its first four years. Twenty-four volumes co-created by Goscinny and Uderzo were released from 1961 to 1979. Brockhampton Press’s English translations (beginning with Asterix the Gaul in 1969) were subsequently picked up by William Morrow in the United States. After Goscinny’s premature death in 1977, Uderzo single-handedly produced ten more volumes from 1980 to 2009 under his own imprint, Editions Albert-René. Since 2011, Asterix has belonged to the publishing consortium Hachette.

Except for five volumes translated into American English by Robert Caron for Dargaud International in the late 1980’s, all Asterix books available in North America are Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge’s British translations.

Plot

All thirty-four Asterix volumes take place in Roman-occupied Gaul in 50 b.c.e., two years after Julius Caesar’s troops defeated the Gaulish leader Vercingetorix at Alesia. Each volume opens on a map of France with a Roman standard stuck on the approximate spot of the previous battle of Gergovia (in the present-day Auvergne region), the last Gaulish victory against Rome.

In Brittany, one unnamed village of indomitable Gauls holds out against the invaders thanks to druid Getafix’s secret mistletoe-based magic potion that gives the drinker temporary superhuman strength. Under the benevolent leadership of chieftain Vitalstatistix, the villagers, who fear nothing except that the sky might fall on their heads, live a peaceful daily life interrupted by occasional attacks against one of the four Roman camps surrounding the village.

Asterix stories unfold in the perpetual present. There is little continuity from one volume to the next except in the setting (the village, the surrounding forest, and the nearby seashore); consistent characterization of the recurring figures; and repeated jokes about the pirates, whose boat sinks in practically every book, or the bard tied and gagged during the final feast.

Each story focuses on an adventure, most often a quest or rescue, featuring Asterix and Obelix. The action takes place either around the village, elsewhere in Gaul, in Rome, or in foreign lands, such as Great Britain, Spain, Switzerland, and Belgium.

Volumes

•Astérix le Gaulois (1961; Asterix the Gaul, 1969).

•La Serpe d’or (1962; Asterix and the Golden Sickle, 1975).

•Astérix et les Goths (1963; Asterix and the Goths, 1975).

•Astérix Gladiateur (1964; Asterix the Gladiator, 1969).

•Le Tour de Gaule (1965; Asterix and the Banquet, 1979).

•Astérix et Cléopâtre (1965; Asterix and Cleopatra, 1969).

•Le Combat des Chefs (1966; Asterix and the Big Fight, 1971).

•Astérix chez les Bretons (1966; Asterix in Britain, 1970).

•Astérix et les Normands (1967; Asterix and the Normans, 1978).

•Astérix Légionnaire (1967; Asterix the Legionary, 1970).

•Le Bouclier Arverne (1968; Asterix and the Chieftain’s Shield, 1977).

•Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques (1968; Asterix at the Olympic Games, 1972).

•Astérix et le Chaudron (1969; Asterix and the Cauldron, 1976).

•Astérix en Hispanie (1969; Asterix in Spain, 1971).

•La Zizanie (1970; Asterix and the Roman Agent, 1972).

•Astérix chez les Helvètes (1970; Asterix in Switzerland, 1973).

•Le Domaine des Dieux (1971; The Mansions of the Gods, 1973).

•Les Lauriers de César (1972; Asterix and the Laurel Wreath, 1974).

•Le Devin (1972; Asterix and the Soothsayer, 1975).

•Astérix en Corse (1973; Asterix in Corsica, 1975).

•Le Cadeau de César (1974; Asterix and Caesar’s Gift, 1977).

•La Grande Traversée (1975; Asterix and the Great Crossing, 1977).

•Obélix et Compagnie (1976; Obelix and Co., 1978).

•Astérix chez les Belges (1979; Asterix in Belgium, 1980).

•Le Grand Fossé (1980; Asterix and the Great Divide, 1981).

•L’Odyssée d’Astérix (1981; Asterix and the Black Gold, 1982).

•Le Fils d’Astérix (1983; Asterix and Son, 1983).

•Astérix chez Rahazade (1987; Asterix and the Magic Carpet, 1988).

•La Rose et le Glaive (1991; Asterix and the Secret Weapon, 1991).

•La Galère d’Obélix (1996; Asterix and Obelix All at Sea, 1996).

•Astérix et Latraviata (2001; Asterix and the Actress, 2001).

•Astérix et la rentrée gauloise (2003; Asterix and the Class Act, 2003).

•Le Ciel lui tombe sur la tête (2005; Asterix and the Falling Sky, 2005).

•L’Anniversaire d’Astérix et Obélix: Le Livre d’or (2009; Asterix and Obelix’s Birthday: The Golden Book, 2010).

Characters

•Asterix, a.k.a. Astérix, is the series’ unlikely hero. A diminutive mustachioed Gaulish warrior with a huge nose and a winged helmet, he is essentially a no-nonsense fellow that the village leader relies on for secret missions or to solve various problems. He and Getafix are essentially the only levelheaded villagers capable of foresight. He regularly uses the druid’s magic potion.

•Obelix, a.k.a. Obélix, a maker and carrier of monoliths, is Asterix’s devoted and likeable best friend and sidekick. He is redheaded and obese, wears characteristic side braids, and sports white-and-blue breeches. While childish, immature, and occasionally jealous of Asterix, he uses his permanent superhuman strength (the result of a childhood fall into the cauldron of magic potion) to beat up Roman soldiers and to get himself and Asterix out of trouble.

•Getafix, a.k.a. Panoramix, a druid, is the creator and sole maker of the magic potion; he is also the village doctor and schoolteacher. Unlike the other villagers, he rarely loses his temper and proves a reliable advisor in even the most difficult circumstances. He is a key character in the village’s balance and survival.

•Vitalstatistix, a.k.a. Abraracourcix, is the village chieftain. A veteran of the Alesia battle, in which Julius Caesar defeated Gaulish leader Vercingetorix, he is a sometimes grouchy but always courageous middle-aged man, except around his wife, Belladonna (a.k.a. Impedimenta).

•Cacofonix, a.k.a. Assurancetourix, the bard, is a terrible singer and musician with affected body language and a high opinion of himself. He is usually bound and gagged to prevent him from singing during the final feast. He is most often a supporting character but is sometimes a central element, as in the stories Asterix and theMagic Carpet and Asterix and theSecret Weapon.

•Dogmatix, a.k.a. Idéfix, is Obelix’s pet dog and the series’ only recurring animal character. Originally an off-the-radar character present in nearly every panel of Asterix and the Banquet, he was noticed by the protagonists only at the end of the story and became a central character in the next volume. Dogmatix is both a stereotypically mute and faithful dog and a comic foil capable of showing human feelings such as disapproval, grief, and jealousy.

•Julius Caesar, a.k.a. Jules César,is the authoritarian leader of the Roman troops trying to conquer Gaul and the sole recurring Roman character in the series.

Artistic Style

From the start, Asterix was the product of a highly successful collaboration between co-creators and long-time friends Goscinny and Uderzo. Goscinny’s storytelling skills and witty, multilayered dialogue make Asterix an enjoyable comic for readers of all ages. The co-creators complement each other’s strengths: Goscinny crafted ultratight synopses and Uderzo turned them into pictures, inside which he deftly added secondary visual gags such as the changing positions of the wings on Asterix’s helmet and the background antics of Dogmatix. Another key aspect to the series’ success was the exceptional cartooning ability of its largely self-taught illustrator, Uderzo. By the 1950’s, he had become a consummate penciller and brush inker, whose drawing style combined stylized cartoony characters and fairly realistic backgrounds.

While the first volume was still rough on plot and characterization and its artwork was relatively unpolished, the following ones quickly demonstrated the co-creators’ increasing command of their respective crafts. The heyday of the series corresponds to the 1965-1973 period: the fourteen titles published from Asterix andCleopatra to Asterix in Corsica (books 6 to 20) combined Goscinny’s best writing and Uderzo’s best artwork.

Ranging from slapstick comedy to light social satire, each of Goscinny’s stories should be construed more as amused commentary on French society in the 1960’s and 1970’s than as a historically accurate re-creation. Goscinny’s consistent reliance on puns, witticisms, Latin quotations, allusions to French history and contemporary popular culture, and the jokes on regional or national stereotypes—while admittedly difficult for translators to handle and sometimes misunderstood by foreign critics—made Asterix a uniquely literate instance of comic-strip entertainment driven primarily by plot and dialogue.

Uderzo refined the series’ artistic style over the years. He incorporated sophisticated page and panel layouts (as in the Satyricon-like orgy scene in Asterix in Switzerland) as well as detailed architectural compositions (as in the opening pages of The Mansions of the Gods and Asterix and the Laurel Wreath). He also spoofed famous paintings (Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa in Asterix theLegionary and Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lessonof Dr. Tulp in Asterix and theSoothsayer), and occasionally included unusual speech balloon designs, as for foreigners speaking in Greek or Gothic type or for the tax collector’s administrative form-like balloons in Asterix and the Cauldron.

The original synergy between writer and illustrator largely accounts for the creative and critical break that followed Goscinny’s death. Except for The Class Act (a collection of older, mostly Goscinny-scripted short pieces), the books written and drawn by Uderzo after 1980 were consistent with the previous installments as far as the artwork is concerned, and sales remained high. However, the storytelling and humor (particularly when Uderzo heavy-handedly satirizes contemporary issues, such as feminism in Asterix andthe Secret Weapon and cultural globalization in Asterix andthe Falling Sky) have been excoriated by critics for being subpar.

Themes

The creators of Asterix never intended to create a historically accurate series; rather, they sought to mix humor and adventure with light touches of social satire in stories based on the clichés of primary and secondary school ancient history classes and on the still relatively widespread familiarity of French readers with Latin. Whether intentional or not, the series also reflects contemporary political concerns.

Asterix’s historical backdrop is ironically inconsistent with Gaul of 50 b.c.e.: While the battles at Gergovia and Alesia took place within months of each other, the Gauls’ frequent allusions to the then two-year-old Roman conquest actually echo post-World War II French collective representations of their country’s early twentieth-century military rivalry with Germany. For example, Vitalstatistix is depicted as a veteran of a not-so-distant war in Asterix and the Chieftain’s Shield and the village elder, Geriatrix, is implicitly referred to as a World War I veteran. While this longtime military rivalry was addressed directly only in Asterix and the Goths, some have read the resistance to Roman subjugation as a transposition of President Charles de Gaulle’s policy to make France a first-tier world power in the post-World War II context of global U.S. hegemony. However, Goscinny and Uderzo, both born in the mid-1920’s, belonged to an older generation, less liberal by inclination, who did not think of comics as a vehicle for ideological messages; hence, the early assessments of the series as a Gaullist-inspired blend of chauvinism, sexism, and conservatism should be read primarily as reflections of the post-1968 critique of contemporary popular culture. If anything, such accusations seem more justified in relation to the books written by Uderzo after 1979.

Several political themes typical of the Gaullist 1960’s can nevertheless be found in the Goscinny-era Asterix corpus. The worship of resistance as a shared national value is particularly apparent in Asterix and theBanquet, Asterix and theBig Fight, and volumes set in foreign lands under Roman sway. Other volumes have overtones of anti-imperialism—often echoing anti-Americanism and anticolonialism—reflecting De Gaulle’s policy of Algerian decolonization, his praise of national identities, and his reluctance toward long-term European integration. Increasing tensions between local power and Parisian centralization following World War II are embodied in the critique of central government bureaucrats in Asterix and the Cauldron’s tax collector, Asterix in Switzerland’s and Asterix in Corsica’s corrupt Roman governors. Finally, TheMansions of the Gods and Obelix and Co. provide a critique of capitalism, and Asterix and theGolden Sickle, Asterix and theBanquet, and Asterix and theLaurel Wreath critique modern urban life.

Impact

With over 300 million books sold in more than a hundred languages, Asterix is a publishing phenomenon, although not a global success.

The French strip became a national sensation as early as 1965 due both to the books themselves and to a comprehensive marketing strategy based on radio broadcasts, record adaptations, and animated movies. Not only did Asterix and the series cast become household names, but some of its one-liners also entered everyday language. By 1967, the French media interpreted the series’ popularity as the sign of France’s newfound cultural respect for the comic medium.

In the rest of the world, Asterix has enjoyed a mixed reception. If sales figures may be considered reliable cultural indicators, the series struck a responsive chord among Western European countries, especially Germany and Austria, during the post-World War II decades when those countries were simultaneously recovering from the war and initiating European construction against a background of reluctant admiration toward the United States. However, its attempted importation to Japan in the 1970’s was a fiasco for marketing and cultural reasons. In North America, Asterix has never broken into mainstream comics reading but has remained an upscale cultural product most frequently appreciated by upper-middlebrow readers with some proximity to European culture.

Films

Asterix and Cleopatra. Directed by René Goscinny, Lee Payant, and Albert Uderzo. Dargaud Films/Belvision, 1968. This animation was based on the eponymous book.

Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra. Directed by Alain Chabat. Canal Plus et al., 2002. Clavier returns as Asterix and Depardieu as Obelix in this live-action adaptation based on Asterix and Cleopatra.

Asterix and Obelix Take on Caesar. Directed by Claude Zidi. AMLF et al., 1999. This live-action adaptation starring Christian Clavier as Asterix and Gérard Depardieu as Obelix combines plot elements from seven books.

Asterix and the Vikings. Directed by Stefan Fjeldmark and Jesper Møller. M6 Films/Mandarin SAS/2d3D Animations, 2006. This Franco-Danish co-production is based on Asterix and the Normans, with elements from a few other books.

Asterix at the Olympic Games. Directed by Frédéric Forestier and Thomas Langmann. Pathé Renn Productions et al., 2008. This film adaptation starring Clovis Cornillac as Asterix, Depardieu as Obelix, and Alain Delon as Julius Caesar is loosely based on Asterix at the Olympic Games and Asterix and Son.

Asterix Conquers America. Directed by Gerhard Hahn. Extrafilm/Jurgen Wohlrabe/Gerhard Hahn Film, 1994. This film is a German-produced animation loosely based on Asterix and the Great Crossing.

Asterix in Britain. Directed by Pino van Lamsweerde. Gaumont/Dargaud Films, 1986. This animation is based on the eponymous book.

Asterix the Gaul. Directed by Ray Goossens. Dargaud Films/Belvision, 1967. This animation was based on the eponymous book.

Asterix versus Caesar. Directed by Gaëtan Brizzi and Paul Brizzi. Gaumont/Dargaud Films/Productions René Goscinny, 1985. The screenplay of this animation combines elements from Asterix the Legionary and Asterix the Gladiator.

Operation Getafix. Directed by Philippe Grimont. Gaumont/Extrafilm, 1989. The screenplay of this animation combines elements from Asterix and the Big Fight and Asterix and the Soothsayer.

The Twelve Tasks of Asterix. Directed by René Goscinny, Henri Gruel, Albert Uderzo, and Pierre Watrin. Dargaud Films/Productions René Goscinny/Studios Idefix, 1976. This animation follows an original screenplay.

Further Reading

Goscinny, René, and Albert Uderzo. Ompa-pa (1977-1978).

Hergé. The Adventures ofTintin (1930-1976).

Morris, and René Goscinny. Lucky Luke (1949-1967).

Bibliography

Decker, Dwight R. “Asterix: ‘These Frenchmen Are Crazy!’” Comics Journal 38 (February, 1978): 22-33.

Kessler, Peter. The Complete Guide to Asterix.London: Hodder Children’s Books, 1995.

Nye, Russell B. “Asterix Revisited.” Comics Journal 72 (May, 1982): 59-65.