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Background
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- English Title: Asterix
the Gaul
- French Title: Asterix
Le Gaulois
- Asterix Book Number:
1
- First Published: 1961
- First Published in English:
1969
- Written by:
Rene Goscinny
- Illustrated by: Albert
Uderzo
- Translated By:
Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge
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Asterix the Gaul was the first of many Asterix
Adventures by Goscinny and Uderzo . This book first appeared
in weekly installments in the French "Pilote"
Magazine.
Goscinny and Uderzo had originally been working on
another comic strip - "Reynard the Fox"
- for the magazine but found out with two months to
spare that their idea had already been taken.
Uderzo explains "The only constraint we had
producing this magazine, which later became the "Pilote"
magazine, was that it had to revolve around French
culture. We had an idea that seemed excellent: use
the Roman de Renart as a theme. This story is an old
French tradition, and uses animals as its characters
(Isangrin the wolf, the fox, etc.), and it showed
that Walt Disney had not invented humorous animals.
We also thought it would be fun to take a traditional
story from the Middle Ages and convert into a humorous
comic. So when I was setting up the first page, a
friend, Raymond POLIVET, came and said, "You
want to be original, but let me point out that Jean
Trubert, another comic artist, has already used this
idea." This was a catastrophe for us, because
we were only a few months away from publishing the
first issue. We quickly needed to find a new idea!
And that was the Gauls.
The idea of the Gauls wasn't as original as Goscinny
and Uderzo thought... there already existed a character
named Totorix created by a television presenter among
others. Luckilly the authors weren't made aware of
this until after Pilote and Asterix had come out -
"If we had known this before, Asterix and
his Gaulish friends would never have existed. That
would have been a shame. At least it would have been
a shame for me!"
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Pilote Magazine
and first page of "Asterix Le Gaulois"
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Albert Uderzo
drew a new cover for Asterix the Gaul in 2006
for the "Grand Collection"
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The story of how Asterix was created has been
much documented. The authors went through all the periods
of French history, before stopping at the time of the Gauls.
was born in the rush to find something else for the magazine
For this reason, the illustrations were hurried
and not as up to scratch as good as it could have been.
The characters in this book are very different
to how they look today. They even looked different during
the book! (for instance, Julius Caesar's appearance):
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Julius Caesar at the beginning
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Julius Caesar at the end
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Getafix at the beginning
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Getafix at the end
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Cacofonix
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Vitalstatistix
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Asterix
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Obelix
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Despite the time constraints, what was produced
was an excellent start to the series, paving the way for the
later success of the series.
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Plot
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Centurion Crismus Bonus, keen to discover
the secret of the Gaul's Superhuman strength, sends a spy
into the village. The Roman's identity is revealed when he
loses his false moustache, but he now knows about the magic
potion brewed by the Druid Getafix. With that potion, thinks
Crismus Bonus, he could overthrow Caesar and become Emperor
himself, so he kidnaps Getafix to get the recipe. When Asterix
joins the druid in captivity, they demand a list of hard-to-find
ingredients for the magic potion - only this turns out to
be a very different brew, and its effects are hair-raising...
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Take
a look Inside
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You can view Images
from Asterix the Gaul here.
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Notable
Characters
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Crismus Bonus
- What it means: Christmas Bonus
- About : Crismus Bonus is the first of
a long line of Asterixian Villains. After hearing about
the secret of the Gaul's superhuman strength, he captures
the Druid Getafix and sets about learning the secrets
of the Magic Potion, hoping that with the knowledge
he will overthrow Caesar. He goes from one humiliation
to the other, from Getafix not cooperating, to being
given the wrong potion and finally Julius Caesar arriving
to send him to Mongolia. You can only feel sorry for
him!
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Caligula Minus
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What it means: Caligula
refers to the the Roman Emperor of the same name, also
means "little boot". Minus is a diminutive.
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About : Caligula Minus was
the first Roman to find out about the Magic Potion, when
he lost a game of Musical Chairs and was made to dress
up as a Gaul and go to the village. It was not likely
that Caligula would be able to succeed, he, as is names
suggests, was quite diminutive but Asterix and Obelix
quickly took him into their confidence all the same. He
was even being allowed to have some of the Magic Potion.
It seemed like nothing could go wrong until a Gaulish
Folkdance required Asterix to pull Caligula's moustache,
revealing his disguise...
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Look
out for...
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- Obelix wearing an axe
- Obelix eating his wild boar with good manners!
- Obelix carrying two menhirs
- Getafix with a Walking Stick
- Cacofonix being invited to the banquet
- Asterix the Gaul
Mistakes
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Review
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This book suffers from it expository nature. Being the
first book in series, it needs to set up the background
to the books and some of the main characters. For this reason,
it takes time to get going. When it does, we find that all
of the wit and puns that we find in the later books are
here, and the hair plot is especially funny.
 
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