Take a look Inside : Asterix and the Banquet

He then follows Asterix and Obelix around unnoticed for the entire adventure! Indeed, Obelix only notices him on the last page! According to The Complete Guide to Asterix, In the text that Goscinny gave Uderzo to illustrate, it said "Both go into a shop with the sign: 'pork butcher's shop - grocery'. A little dog is at the door." "A little dog" was underlined, giving inspiration for the Dog's role in the story. After proving popular amongst readers, he became a regular part of the Asterix series.

Dogmatix is another example of a character that was created a bit accidentally, even though we were aware of it! When I worked with Goscinny, we would read the story in two stages: first I read the original script, the synopsis, which I always laughed at because it was so funny and well written, down to the tiniest detail, then he broke the story down, explaining the scene on one side, and writing the dialogue on the other.

When I was reading the synopsis I said to him, "It would be a good idea to have a little dog follow the characters, but since you didn't put it in the story, you'll have to start everything over again." It was a big job to change the story in that time, because we didn't have word processors, and did it all on typewriters. We had to rewrite everything just for one tiny change. Since I didn't want to make him do that, he said, "Sure, if you want, you can add a little dog that follows the characters. And make the dog so little that the characters never know that they are being followed." It was only in the last drawing that we see Obelix scratch the little dog's head, and then the dog walks away with a bone in his mouth.

..Our readers kept telling us, "Oh, that little dog is so cute. He is so funny. What's his name? We want to see him again."... Once again, we were "trapped", because we didn't want to have an animal character, the way they were done at the time - Spirou had a squirrel, Tintin a dog, etc. We wanted to be different, but we had to accept it because of the pressure from our readers.

This is how a character who never should have existed was born, just starting from one tiny joke in the drawings that had no significance in the actual story.

Asterix and Obelix get the following delacicies:

You can view Images from Asterix and the Banquet here.

What it means: Unpatriotic

About: Unpatriotix is unlike the majority of Gauls who support Asterix and Obelix's cause. When the Gauls turn up at his doorstep after smelling the roast boar he had been cooking, he sees a chance to make some money by turning them into the authorities. When the Romans arrive they only find Asterix, leaving Unpatriotix to start packing up before Obelix returns. But he is not fast enough. His excuse to Obelix for handing Asterix in? "I'm a misfit, you see, its all because of my underprivileged environmental situation".

What it means: Drink like a fish. It is said of heavy drinkers.
About: Cesar is the landlord of an inn in Massila. He can get angry when he offers drinks on the house and someone refuses, as one unfortunate customer found out. He helps Asterix and Obelix by giving them the Massila specialty of Fish Stew, and playing a game of Bowls and refusing to move until they had finished, thus delaying the Romans.

Its unfortunate that this book relies so much on the traits and perculeralities of the different Regional French people that English readers cannot appreciate the humour behind. This book is funny, but could be so much funnier. The translators have done a commendible job in translating this book, but only someone from France can truly appreciate this book, which is a shame.

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