Fun fact: the Asterix books have proven to be so popular with French audiences that they opened up an Asterix themed amusement park named “Parc Asterix” in 1989. It’s around 30 miles north of Paris and from what I’ve heard, it’s pretty fun.
If you ever find yourself visiting France (as one does) it might be a good idea to check it out.
Written by Rene GoscinnyArt by Albert Uderzo
Illustrated by Albert Uderzo
This week we learn a bit more about the village chief in “Asterix and the Chieftain’s Shield” and witness some international drama in “Asterix at the Olympic Games”.
A fun little nerdy side note about the art style of French comic books before we begin. While the lines of artistic expression are often blurred, you can often group French comics into three broad schools of art.
The first is the “realistic” style where the artist creates highly detailed and almost photorealistic pages. You can find this in books like Blueberry by Moebius and Thorgal by Grzegorz Rosinski. The second is the famous “linge claire” or “clean line” style which is characterized by highly realistic backgrounds but simple easy to read line work. This was made most famous by the Tintin books. The final one is the “comic dynamic” style. Out of all three of the styles, it’s the most cartoonish with the most unrealistic caricatures and the most exaggerated action. This is the style where Asterix and Obelix thrive, and interestingly…the Smurfs as well.
Asterix and the Chieftain’s Shield
“Asterix and the Chieftain’s Shield” takes a step back from the two main characters of the story and allows the reader to get to know a few of the side characters a little bit better. This time, it’s the chieftain of the village, the wise and powerful warrior Vitalstatistix, who we get to learn more about.
In this case, the reader gets to learn that the chief has quite the appetite, which means that he winds up suffering from a rather substantial amount of stomach and liver pain from eating and drinking too much rich food. Getafix the druid prescribes a trip to a health spa and a diet for the chief, so Asterix and Obelix decide to accompany the chief to a bathhouse at Aquae Calidae. Meanwhile, the great Julius Caesar has decided to show the Gauls who has conquered whom and demands a massive triumph parade all over Gaul where he will be paraded around on the shield of Vercingetorix, the Gaulish chieftain who was the last rebel against Roman rule.
Unfortunately, the shield is missing and the Roman investigation puts them on a crash course with our Gaulish heroes. It’s a race against the Romans to find the symbol of Roman victory and Gaulish pride.
“Asterix and the Chieftain’s Shield” is a solid little detective story that ties itself very well to the actual history of what happened in Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. There are some fun little callbacks to Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, which is our primary source for most of the history taking place here, and a fun little running joke about the Gaul’s refusal to acknowledge their loss at the Battle of Alesia by claiming they have no idea where it is. Fun fact: the joke is funny because we actually don’t know where the battle took place.
Asterix at the Olympic Games
“Asterix at the Olympic Games” is certainly one of the more topical books this series has ever produced. Even though it was written in 1968, it was translated into English in 1978 to coincide with the Munich Olympic games. The reason? The comic has a rather humorous take on doping scandals, which just goes to prove just how timeless stories like this can be.
Yes, Asterix is off to compete in the Olympic games in Olympia Greece, and this time he’s taking the entire male population of the village with him. They’re doing it for the honor and glory of the village, and to rub their athletic superiority in the Roman’s faces. Sadly, it looks like the Greeks are the real victors here since they win almost every event and they expressly forbid the Gauls to use their famous magical potion in order to preserve the purity of the games, but that doesn’t mean the Gauls and the Romans can’t have their fun.
Continued belowAs mentioned above “Asterix at the Olympic Games” is one of the more topical books in this series, because showing national pride through the use of athletic dominance is something that people still take very seriously to this day. But what is probably the most interesting thing this book has to offer is its take on the ancient Greeks. Granted, we’ve seen Greeks in previous books, but this is the first one that really showcases the famed culture and traditions of one of ancient history’s greatest cultures. Everything from their family ties, to their food, even to their attitude towards non Greeks (this is the culture that coined the term “barbarian” because to a Greek at the time, any non Greek was so beneath them they just thought they were saying “ba ba ba”) is on full display.
It’s worth mentioning that the book is also pretty historically accurate as well. The Olympic games were started by the Greeks as a religious festival and as a day of peace, but blossomed into a whole event complete with prizes, endorsements, and yes…even cheating scandals. The games continued for a fairly long time and even the Romans decided to participate in order to curry the favor of the gods and show off a bit. The games kept going until the 3rd century, where there were other nastier things to worry about and didn’t start up again until 1896. It’s nice to see the original Olympic spirit is well remembered these days.
Next week, it’s another mystery story with “Asterix and the Cauldron” and we’re off to the Iberian Peninsula in “Asterix in Spain”.
