English Title: Asterix and the Falling Sky French Title: Le Ciel lui Tombe sur la Tete Asterix Book Number: 33 (Note: There has been some confusion over this. Although not marked on the spine, Asterix and the Class Act is regarded as No. 32) First Published: 2005 Written and Illustrated By: Albert Uderzo Translated By: Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge

Asterix and the Falling Sky is arguably the most controversial Asterix book in the series. Many fans have said it goes against the spirit of the books and have been very vocal in their disappointment of the book. Meanwhile, Falling Sky made headlines with its (supposed) attacks on America and President George Bush.

The reason why so many fans have rejected this book is because it is completely different to other books and veers off into a "fantasy" land. To get an idea of the negativity around the book, take a look at the ratings people have given it at this French Website. Take a look at my Review further down for my thoughts on the issue.

The Media has been most interested about the political aspects of the book, namely the Alien race from "Tadsilweny" (anagram of Walt Disney) and their leader "Hubs" (Anagram of Bush).

Albert Uderzo (who has been writing and illustrating the series after the death of the original writer Goscinny) has said "What the Americans are going through today with Bush got me into it" and adds he "had fun caricaturing certain things which have come from America. Even I am a bit surprised, because Goscinny and I never got Asterix involved in politics. But here there is a slight political side to it"

Albert Uderzo

In France, the traditional Franco-Belgian comics like Asterix have lost popularity for the Japanese form of comics - Mangas, just like American comics proved stiff competition when Asterix was originally published. This was the reason for incorporating both of these comic styles in the form of the competing Aliens, but as the book shows it is the Gauls (or rather the Franco-Belgian comics) that win in the end.

Uderzo took 15 months to come up with the story, hoping it would be "exceptional in every way".

He dedicated the book to Walt Disney, who "allowed some of his colleagues, myself included, to fall into a cauldron of potion which he alone knew the Magic Speaker". He also dedicates it to his older brother Bruno who had died the previous year and had first taken him to a Parisian Publisher.

Despite the backlash from fans, the book has sold remarkably well, and with its initial run of eight million copies, Asterix 33 may well have broken the record for a first printing of any comic book ever published. In France the 3.2 million copies easily surpassed the release of Harry Potter 6's 1.2 million.

Asterix and the Falling Sky's cover is very similar to the first Asterix book - Asterix the Gaul's cover. You both have the grass and the sky, you both have Obelix with his menhir in the corner, and you both have Asterix in the center punching something in almost the exact same body position.

This has led to speculation that Asterix and the Falling Sky is intended to be the "Book end" for the series. Albert Uderzo explained his reasoning for Asterix 33's cover as thus: "This album was the first, the character was not really well built then. I always said that if I could redo the first album, I would, but the answer has always been it wouldn't please the readers, they prefer to keep their first feelings".

Uderzo is adamament it the mirroring covers does not make Falling Sky the last book. In a FT.com interview he says: "“No, no, no, it is not the last. Certain journalists believed this because the cover was the mirror image of the first Asterix album. That is indeed the case but it was not at all my intention to suggest it would be the last album. I can say that for one simple reason: my life is the work that I do.You can find out more about a potential Asterix 34 here.

Interesting to note that Falling's Sky cover has nothing to do with the book. Lightning does not appear in the story, let alone does Asterix punch it away!

"The Gauls have only one fear: that the sky may fall on their heads tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes, says Chief Vitalstatistix. Or does it? It looks as if it's come at last for Asterix, Obelix and the other villagers."

A strange phenomena has taken over the village - everyone except Asterix, Obelix and Getafix have been frozen. The cause is soon found to be a strange Alien called "Toon" from the star "Tadsilweny", who has come to warn the village that their enemies the "Nagmas" have come to take the Magic Potion. Asterix is caught up in the struggle between the two alien races and must ensure the safety of the the Magic Potion and Village.

It was with some trepidation that I read this book. I'd already read fairly scathing comments from people who already had the opportunity (some would say misfortune) of reading the book. Aliens in Asterix was well, an Alien concept. The two just didn't seem to fit together.

I tried to read it with an open mind, and to attempt to not compare it to the other books in the series, instead enjoying it on its own unique merits. This is not helped with unnecessary references in Falling Sky to Asterix and Cleopatra and The Mansions of the Gods, which just remind me how great those books were. There are some nice moments here, but I’m disappointed.

Aliens I don't think I'd have a problem with if done right. Aliens are an initial shock to the system yes, but the main flaw of the book is the plot and structure. The book gave me a distinct impression that there wasn't enough of a story to fill 48 pages - there many "huge" panels (one taking up a whole page) and after the Nagmas had been defeated there were still 10 pages to fill that really added nothing to the story. It just seemed a lot of it was fluff an unnecessary.

Uderzo obviously had something he wanted to stay in this book. He didn’t give a traditional story he thought the fans would like, but instead presented a message. He apparently took 15 months coming up with the idea of the story , hoping it would be “exceptional in every way”.

If there is one thing I do appreciate in the book (apart from the excellent illustrations as usual) is the Satire, and I think Uderzo can be congratulated in his cleverness for this. The Tadsilwenyans have come to the "much more primitive" Gaul in search for the Secret Weapon of Magic Potion. They must confiscate it "for safety's sake". Sound familiar to any contemporary events?

The appearance of the Nagmas is not pretty, and looks very much like a coachroach and has yellow skin and horns like a Devil. He immediately resorts to violence, in attempting to attack Obelix and his greed is obvious. The impression is clear - this is the bad guy. Since the Nagmas represent the Manga Comics, is Uderzo saying they should be completely removed from France, that they have no place there? The Nagmas is certainly given no redeeming features.

The Good Guys the Tadsilwenyans don't get let off go. There are some interesting moments in the book are Uderzo's commentary on America, and deserve a look in.

These are just my interpretations, and may have been intended by Uderzo or not.

My feelings really are mixed about the book. It looks good, the satire is interesting but the plot sucks and its not really all that funny or entertaining. I think fans should give it another go, and examine the Satire of the book, which does add interest.

If anything comes out with I hope all the publicity about the album will get new people reading the other books. I think kids really will enjoy this, and they’ll love all the illustrations and the aliens. The Asterix books always used to appeal to the young and the old equally. This one, not so much unfortunately.

Still, it is very nice to have another Asterix book, and I hope the backlash does not stop Uderzo from producing more.

/5

I welcome YOUR comments and Anaylsis about the book. Please send thoughts to wenleyix3@yahoo.co.nz

Andy B from London has sent this review of the book:

"For die hard fans it does feel that Uderzo has done a George Lucas on us with this one.

I feel so lost and un-fulfilled after reading the Falling Sky but I bought it to complete the set and because I've grown up with Asterix as my friend and I can't turn my back on him now.

This is not really an Asterix adventure but a collection of good pictures loosely connected by some dialogue. There is no sophistication in the plot and the satire is good enough for about half an album's worth but no more.

He has mostly wasted his time here and seemingly based an entire album on things he wanted to draw rather than a story he wanted to tell. It will stick out in the collection like a sore thumb and an embarrassment.

As interesting as our heroes the Gauls are, they mostly get their place in history because of their proximity to the Roman Empire - there is still so much of that to explore -in this album the Romans are an awkward afterthought put in out of necessity.

The statements on America could have still worked in the context of the time using the Roman Empire as an analogy, and I'm sure a rival tribe could have been invented for the Manga reference. I realise it's mixing eras (although it wouldn't be the first time) but I'd have preferred to see Huns in there rather than robots.

I appreciate Asterix wasn't created to give history lessons but they've done a reasonable job up to now.

When all is said and done, Uderzo can produce an album about whatever he likes (however misguided in our opinions as humble fans), fate has left him as sole custodian of their creation and at least we have another one to talk about.

But, he is running the risk of losing not only the love of Asterix fans who's anticipation and excitement has led to disappointment and outrage, he's also likely to lose credibility.

Most fans will have met Asterix when they were children and then stayed with the books as adults finding different levels to enjoy it on, mainly because they love the world in which it's set.

I go to an Asterix album for a particular show - I want to immerse myself in his imaginary world because I love it there, in a different mood on a different day I'll read a manga comic, another day a superhero or sci fi comic, to me though bringing them all together is not something I want to see or experience. They all work differently.

It doesn't work for a dolphin to climb a tree with a chimpanzee, or a dog to fetch a stick thrown by a lion.

So hopefully Uderzo's ego will withstand this storm, and come back fighting with another adventure..

I can't bear to think of leaving it like this."

Sunnan raises a good point: "I've got nothing against aliens or weird/surreal elements in Asterix, nothing at all, and I've enjoyed many of Uderzo's solo comics, but this was awful. There are many things I didn't like, but the main problem was that the gauls simply and swiftly took a side without questioning. "Nagma" were immediately designated as "bad" and the Disney-style comics as "good". On my first read through, I didn't catch the "nagma/manga"-reference but the comic still struck me as, frankly, a bit racist.

Add to that unfunny jokes and plot pacing problems and we end up with garbage.

Satirizing Superman is nice, but I was surprised since I heard that the creators of Asterix were quite upset with Action Comics #579, and that the comic has been denied reprinting."

Bobbin expresses her view: "I have to say, the fact that this book has been bought and read by so many people surprises me. I got the book, not knowing what it was about, all hyped up about "FINALLY! A NEW ASTERIX BOOK! YAAY!!" But when I read it... Oh, I just feel so sorry for all those fans expecting something good, and for poor Uderzo himself. He wanted the book to be "exceptional in every way", but the only thing likeable about the book is the art. The art is simply fantastic, but the plot and lack of real humour lets it down, a bit like with Magic Carpet. Uderzo can include as many references and anagrams of names as he wants, but I simply did not like this book at all. Uderzo should've done better... He has the ability to write some pretty good stories; Secret Weapon was quite a good one, but I thought people were supposed to get BETTER with practise!!

I really do hope Uderzo's next book is better... I'd hate to think the brilliant Asterix series ends with this disappointment."

Maciek sent in this thoughtful retrospective. I especially like his last point: "Over two years have passed since the “Falling sky” was published. I still remember the day this album came out. Before the book came out, for about a year there where rumors and speculation about it so I was very exited about how will it turn out. I really like “Asterix and the Actress” (even though it wasn’t as great as Goœcinny’s books) and since the rumor was that Uderzo spent many months on the script for the new story I was hoping for something realy good.

I loved the cover. A nice reference to the very first story and the title. It didn’t bother me when I heard Asterix wasn't going to travel any where in this one. The important thing was Uderzo is still making New Stories, and that the life in Asterix village still goes on.

After I bought it, I didn’t even view the book. I went back home and spent whole evening reading the book…

Unfortunately the story itself was a very BIG disappointment.

It didn’t bother me that the book didn’t have the usual introduction pages, but the first page felt like it was seriously missing something. It didn't have a proper beginning, with narration or some gag to start the story. It just threw us in to a scene of Asterix and Obelix finding a weird boar. I honestly didn't find it intriguing or interesting.

The next few pages set things a little better and I even found some of Obelix's reactions funny. The explanation about why Dogmatix wasn’t affected felt poor… If Obelix is still desperate to drink magic potion in this story, [ignoring the whole “All at sea” when he learns how potion affects him] why didn’t he drink it himself but give it do Dogmatix? Why would he do it any way? It’s just feels like a poor explanation, just to kept Dogamtix un-frozen, even though he doesn’t do much in this story. Speaking of Dogmatix, where are his puppies from the previous story?

I finally got to the whole alien plot, and I got realy mixed feelings. At one point I was like “What the…” but I was assuring my self Uderzo had a point of bringing up something this un-historical to Asterix.

I actually liked this part of the story. I love the idea of a Mickey Mouse and Superheroes tribute in Asterix. Actually as a Disney and DC comics fan, I did wonder if it would make a Disney reference one day.

Sure, “the whole Universe knows you have the potion” was just a lame excuse to bring the aliens, but despite all the wirdnes I found a couple jokes enjoyable (the part with the two Romans, Geriatrix's wife being attracted to Superclone, the scene at the Roman camp). I like Uderzo finally made something of the Gaul’s fear of the sky falling on their heads.. It’s just funny to see Vitalstatisix use his catchphrase from the first stories (“and we only fear one thing…”) in a aggressive way. I don’t find the Hot-dog thing funny [OK, Mr. Uderzo, we get it! The aliens represent U.S.A! It’s just too obvious of a reference...] and Nagmas was also a good idea for a small homage to Japan ’s comic books.

Unfortunately the story got poor very soon.

Not just the humor got much weaker but the plot got boring and predicable. Some un-funny re-used gags and various pointless ideas witch lead nowhere [Romans attack, Toon's side effects after drinking the potion]. There is no explanation for this and overly big panels other then Uderzo ran out of ideas and started doing every thing to get to the end, as soon is possible. Heck! What was the point of doing sudden references to “Asterix and Cleopatra” or “Mansions of the Gods”? To remind fans how better Asterix used to be?

The ending felt Ok, with Toon making the Gauls forget what just happened [too bad it didn’t affect the reader!] and I like the gag on the last panel with Cacofonix singing (his rain-making skills are ignored… of course)and the blacksmith and Unhigenix getting tied-up in his place (even though the whole joke felt forced).

Maybe if Uderzo had stopped writing the script somewhere after the big battle between Superclones and Cyberats and published this as some sort of short(er) un-official story, or try to make it a “self parody” it would be fine… But sadly it’s not and it’s simply a big disappointment for all fans in the world who spent some time waiting for it to come out.

Should an Asterix fan buy this? Why, not. It still has some great drawings, few good jokes, quick satire on the Iraq war, a couple references to American and Japanes comic books, and it nice to see Asterix drawn by Uderzo in action… That’s all. Treat this comic more as a un-official Adventure ala “Twelve task” and maybe it wont be so hard to chew.

Over all it's still the poorest Asterix book, to date..

In the months leading up to the release of the book, I'd be maintaing a page collecting all the known information and clues we'd be given, and providing speculation about what I (and others) thought the book would be about.

The archived page is worth taking a look at, just to see how completely off the mark we were!