by 83 Ciao
In France, comics are thought of as an art form in their own right (often called 'the ninth art'). They are called Bande Dessinées (which translates as 'drawn strips'), or BD, a name which doesn't prescribe the content as much as the word comics, which could be looked upon as somewhat derogatory. There are BDs on a wide variety of subjects, and they are not just for kids or nerds to collect. In fact, reading BDs is something most French people do or have done at some point, and Asterix is probably to be found on most families' bookshelves. I think I have read most of them in French in the past, and am currently enjoying reading my son's books in English.
~A few facts and figures~
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If you have never heard of Astérix, then you must be the only one! With 33 books translated into more than 100 languages, Astérix has also been the hero of a few animated movies, of a couple of live action movies (the least said about those the better), of video games and even has his own theme park. More than 5 million copies of the latest book were sold within 3 months of its publication, 1.2 million in 6 days in France alone! It is expected than 300 million copies of the next instalment will be printed and distributed worldwide.
~A little 'history'~
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Let me start at the beginning, in 50 BC. "Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely… One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium…" This is the way every single Asterix book starts, complete with the map of 'Gaul' showing the area of Brittany where Asterix lives through a magnifying glass.
Let's fast-forward now to 1959, when René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo created Asterix to be included in the new magazine 'Pilote'. Born in 1926 and 1927 respectively, the two men had already created 2 comic book characters together, one a pirate and the other an American Indian. Little did they know when they created Asterix on the kitchen table of a council flat, amidst paper, cigarettes, glasses of pastis and much laughter, that this was to be the start of an extraordinary adventure. Goscinny wrote the stories, and Uderzo did the drawings. Asterix was very well received, with 200 000 copies of the first edition of the magazine Pilote sold straight away. In 1961, the first book, 'Astérix le Gaulois' (Asterix the Gaul) was published, with 6 000 copies printed. Each subsequent book was sold in ever bigger numbers.They two men had produced 23 volumes when tragically, Goscinny died during a routine medical check-up in 1977. Uderzo didn't want to finish the book they were working on, but the publishers took him to court to force him to illustrate Goscinny's last script. This volume, 'Astérix chez les Belges', was to be the last signed by both authors.
Subsequently, Uderzo went on to write and illustrate more adventures for the little Gaul, with varying degrees of success. Apart from one or two, the books he signed on his own are not nearly as good. The few I have read have left me feeling very disappointed.~What are the books all about?~
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The books all include running jokes, such as Obelix's touchiness about his weight and the many different ways of denying he is fat: ""There're not two fat guys here, only one...and he's not fat !", or along the lines of "I'm not fat, my chest has slipped a bit!".
Another remarkable feature is the use of Latin phrases put to comical use. Julius Cesar is of course very often quoted as when he says: "Alea jacta est, as I always say…".Most books include caricatures, and although a lot of these might be alien to non-French readers, there are many that will be familiar, such as Sean Connery, the Beatles, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Eddy Merckx, Charles Laughton and a young Jacques Chirac. Apart from the latter, these caricatures are more an homage to the person depicted than a way to make fun of them. Indeed, the authors even included caricatures of themselves, and the most caricatured person in their books is one of their best friends, Pierre Tchernia (a French Barry Norman).
~Asterix's appeal~
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The enormous worldwide success is not easily explained for a comic book that is essentially very French. The cultural references are mostly to French history, the humour is very much pun-based, and as such impossible to translate. Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge have done a great job of creating the English language version, which often meant having to re-invent a joke to fit with a particular picture. Most characters' names are also made up of a pun, all of the Gauls having names that end in -ix to evoke the famous Gaulish chieftain Vercingetorix, and therefore they have different names in the English version, sometimes retaining the original joke. For instance, the village elder who first appears in the book we are looking at today is called Agecanonix, a pun based on canonical age, and this was translated to Geriatrix which was along the same idea. I have to say that despite the wonderful way in which the translators have tackled what must be a most arduous task, much is 'lost in translation' (even if in some cases, something is actually gained).
To me the interest of Asterix has multiple layers. First, Asterix appeals to all age groups. Children enjoy the medium, with pictures supplementing any difficulty with the text. Much of the humour is visual and children will delight in the fight scenes and many love Obelix and his little dog Dogmatix. When I was a child, there were worries about comic books, as people though they would give rise to a generation of children with poor reading and spelling skills (interestingly, the same is said of texting nowadays). In fact, it has been shown that reading (good) comics had quite the opposite effect, and my brothers and I, who were brought up on a heavy diet of this type of literature, have all turned into avid readers in later life. As a child, I often 'knew stuff' from picking it up from my reading of the Asterix books.But these books were written very much with adults in mind. Olivier Todd, an occasional contributor to The Times Literary Supplement, once wrote in an article in L'Exprès, that French parents gave their children the Tintin books and then borrowed them back, while they read Asterix before passing the albums on to their children. The magazine Pilote, in which Asterix was first published was intended very much as an adult publication.
The use of national stereotypes is rife in Asterix, and oddly enough this is one of the books' strength on the international scene, as stereotypes are indeed often shared between nations. It is worth noting that there is a healthy dose of fun poked at the French themselves.The subject matter is also of wider interest than might first appear: after all, the Romans didn't just occupy Gaul, but a good chunk of Europe, and many people have drawn parallels between the Roman empire's dominance as represented in Asterix (which was never intended as a true historical representation) and today's picture where American culture dominates...
Indeed, José Beauvais, a French anti-globalisation hero, has often been likened to the mustachioed Gaul warrior, and not only because of the physical likeness. This, along with the European flavour of the stories, could explain in part why Asterix was never hugely successful in the USA.
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After this rather long introduction (which I felt was necessary to give a sense of what Asterix is about), let me talk a little about 'Asterix at the Olympic Games'. The French edition came out in 1968 and it was translated into English in 1972. This is the twelfth album in the series, and as such bears both Goscinny and Uderzo's signatures.
The Roman athlete Gluteus Maximus (which is the name of the buttock muscles!), is in training for the Olympic Games. He is full of confidence as is his entourage. While practising his sprinting in the forest, he comes across Asterix and Obelix out for a spot of boar hunting. As Asterix has taken magic potion, and Obelix doesn't need to as he fell into the cauldron as a child, they soon undermine our Roman athlete's confidence with their prowess. The 2 Gauls then decide to enter the competition and all the men in the village head to Athens to support them. But can they really beat the Romans, and indeed the Greeks? One thing is certain, they will have a lot of fun trying.This album is full of all the stereotypes you would expect, with the Greeks all sporting the famous 'Greek nose' and the Spartans living on a 
I think the drawings in this volume are particularly beautiful and researched thoroughly, adding to the overall quality.
~Trivia~
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The authors themselves make an apparition on page 29 in a Greek engraving. The engraved words they are saying to each other mean 'Despot' and 'Tyrant'!
Albert Uderzo is colour blind!~General information~
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Publisher: Orion
Price: £6.59 from Amazon
ISBN: 0752866265
Also exists in Paperback ISBN: 0752866273
Some Asterix books are also available in Scottish Gaelic and Welsh
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