Asterix the Gaul
The most
popular comic book. Born in 1959, their adventures have been translated into
over 100 languages.
From Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix
Asterix (French: Astérix) is a fictional character, created in 1959 as the hero of a series of French comic books (with the same title) by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations). Uderzo has continued the series since the death of Goscinny in 1977.
The 33 main
books (one of which is a compendium of short stories) have been translated into more than 100 languages and dialects. Besides
the original French, most albums are available in English, Dutch, German, the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish), Finnish, languages of Spain (Castilian, Catalan, Galician and Basque), Portuguese (and Brazilian Portuguese), Italian, Polish, modern Greek, Turkish, Serbo-Croatian and Indonesian. Beyond modern Europe, some albums have also been translated into languages as diverse as Esperanto, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Hebrew, Latin and Ancient Greek.
The Asterix
series is one of the most popular French comics in the world, and familiar to people of all ages in most European countries, Canada, Australia & New Zealand and parts of South America and Asia, particularly Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, [[India] and Indonesia. Asterix is less well known in the United States and Japan.
The key to
the success of the series is that it contains comic elements for all ages: young children like the fist-fights and other visual
gags, while adults appreciate the cleverness of the allusions and puns that sparkle throughout the texts.
The names of
the characters contain puns, and vary with translation into other languages. This article uses the names from the English-language
translations by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge. For the French names see below.
Apart from
the 33 main comics, other Asterix books and film books have been made. See List of Asterix volumes.
Several books
have been made into films, eight animated, and three with live actors. There has also been a number of games.
Main character and background
Asterix is
a small but fearless and cunning warrior, ever eager for any new adventure. He lives around 50 BC in a fictional village in
northwest Armorica (a region of ancient Gaul mostly identical to modern Brittany). This village is celebrated as the only part of Gaul not yet conquered by Julius Caesar and his Roman legions. The inhabitants of the village gain superhuman strength by drinking a magic potion prepared by the druid Getafix (French: Panoramix). The village is surrounded by the ocean on one side,
and four unlucky Roman garrisons on the other, intended to keep a watchful eye and ensure that the Gauls do not get up to
mischief.
Asterix
is a bachelor, and one of the smartest (and sanest) members of the village (sometimes referred to as a 'village of madmen')
and because of this, he is usually chosen for any dangerous, important or exotic mission. Unlike most of the other villagers,
he does not start or join brawls for the fun of it, although he does enjoy a good fight when there's cause. He rarely resorts
to weapons, preferring to rely on his wits, and when necessary, his (magic potion enhanced) fists — he is only an average
swordsman.
Asterix' parents
are former villagers who now live in the city of Condatum (Rennes), and he has cousins in Britannia [Britain]. He shares his birthday with his clumsy,
oversized, but extremely strong and good-hearted best friend, Obelix. An occasional running gag is that his age is 'indeterminate'.
One of
his most visually engaging features is his helmet, the wings of which mirror his expressions.
Three
is much more on these comics at the wikipedia site.
The official Asterix website: http://www.asterix.tm.fr/english/
For annotations of the stories: http://asterix.openscroll.org/
