When I was asked to contribute to the Multiversity Summer Comics Binge I decided to share my thoughts on a comic book series that I grew up reading and also happens to be one of the most popular comic book characters to ever come out of France in the 20th century: Asterix the Gaul.
And since we’re going to be reading all of the Asterix books, what better place to start with than the beginning with “Asterix the Gaul” and “Asterix and the Golden Sickle”.
Written by Rene GoscinnyArt by Albert Uderzo
Illustrated by Albert Uderzo
Come on a journey back in time to Ancient Rome and a small village of indomitable Gauls holding off the relentless advance of Caesar and his legions. That’s right, we’re taking a look at one of the most popular European comics ever created: Asterix and Obelix!
A little bit of background on the book’s history before we begin. The story was written by Argentinian-French writer Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo and made its first serialized appearance in the French magazine Pilote in 1959. The series would go on to become a massive hit and the stories were spun off into their own book in 1961. With that out of the way, let’s get straight into looking at the first two books.
Asterix the Gaul
Since this is the first book in the entire series, this is the book that establishes a lot of the characters, tropes, and tones that will go on to define the rest of the series, so some explanation and exposition is in order.
The entire comic book series is set in and around what is now Northern France in 50 B.C, right around the time Julius Caesar had almost finished conquering the land for the great and powerful Roman Republic. The thing is, while all Gaul is divided into four parts, only three of them are currently under complete Roman control. There exists a single village in the Roman province of Amorica (modern day Brittany) that has managed to hold out against the Roman invaders due to the shrewd cunning of their greatest warrior Asterix. He is aided by his dim witted yet incredibly strong friend Obelix, and the village druid Getafix who has a recipe for a magic potion that gives anyone who drinks it incredible strength and durability for a short period of time.
Since “Asterix the Gaul” is the first story ever published, it’s the simplest one out of the lot and designed to explain who everyone is and what’s going on. A group of opportunistic Romans are determined to uncover the secrets of the little Gaulish village that has been resisting them for so long and they send a spy into the village to learn what is going on. The spy learns of the Gaul’s magic potion that gives them super human strength and Romans work to kidnap the village druid and torture the recepie out of him for their own personal gain.
Needless to say, the plan doesn’t work. Thanks to the brains and wits of Asterix, the potion skills of Getafix, and the timely arrival of Julius Caesar himself, the Romans are thwarted and the village is saved.
There are three things that immediately draw your attention when reading an Asterix book: the format, the humor, and the art style. The book is sold in 48 page volumes that are complete stories with extra wide tabloid sized pages. This allows the books to do a couple of interesting things. First, each page usually has a massive panel count between 8-10 panels that allows the creators to cram a lot of story on each page and second, the length of each volume allows for some very long and intricate storytelling, which is certainly a different approach to comic book storytelling than what non European audiences might be used to.
The second point is the humor of the book, which combines a lot of slapstick humor with some pretty clever use of language and groan inducing puns. Despite the fact that this is a French book, it’s been popular enough to translate into several dozen languages, including English. One of the key bits of humor in the book comes from the character’s names. Aside from the three main characters of Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix, alongside well known historical figures such as Julius Caesar, the rest of the characters have puns for names. For example: there is the terrible village bard known as Cacofonix and the village blacksmith named Fulliautomatix. But the Gauls aren’t the only ones with punny names, the Romans have characters such as centurion Chrismus Bonus and Caligula Minus, which literally translates to “little little boot”. This brings up another interesting point in that while the comic is translated fully into English, there are some moments where the Romans actually use Latin. It’s only in bits and pieces, and you don’t have to know the language to enjoy the book, but it helps when it comes to fully appreciating some of the jokes.
Continued belowThe final thing to draw your attention to the Asterix books is the art. The book is drawn in a style known as “comic-dynamic style”, which is a highly exaggerated style of art that blends high energy motion and exaggerated features and proportions with some realistic elements sprinkled throughout the artwork. It’s a very good style of art for younger readers and it is one of the most instantly defining features of the Asterix books.
Asterix and the Golden Sickle
Now that the format and art notes are out of the way, we can focus on the actual storytelling with the adventure of “Asterix and the Golden Sickle”. The druid Getafix needs a golden sickle in order to cut mistletoe to brew into his potions. Unfortunately, his sickle has broken just days before a major meeting of the druids at the Forest of the Carnutes! Luckily for Getafix, Asterix volunteers to travel to the city of Lutetia to pick up another sickle for Getafix before the big meeting. Asterix is joined by his friend Obelix, who fell into a cauldron of super strength potion as a baby and is now permanently strong, because Obelix is a distant cousin to the smith that makes golden sickles: a blacksmith named Metallurgix. It’s a good thing Obelix came along as well, because there is a secret cabal of thieves, con men, and greedy Romans who wish to corner the golden sickle market and are determined to stop our brave heroes from reaching their goal.
Aside from the usual art and formatting notes, “Asterix and the Golden Sickle” sees the first instances of two other tropes that the books would become famous for. For starters, the two main characters always seem to come across groups of bandits on their travels which they deal with in rather comically easy fashion. Second, there’s some very modern satire and social commentary present in the book with things like the Gauls not appreciating the pollution and architectural eyesores the Romans are constantly putting up, and the sluggish pace and indifference with which the conquering Romans govern Gaul.
And that’s all there is for this week. Next time we get to journey to Rome itself where Asterix and Obelix will get to turn the Roman entertainment scene on its head and learn what happens when a band of Goths attempt to cross a band of Gauls.
