All of you European dopers are well aware of the Asterix comic book character. Well, he’s just not very well known here in America. I’m a comics fan, and I started reading Asterix when I was in my 20’s. I have collected every Asterix book in English (with the exception of 2 or 3 of the last published ones), and several in French (so I can practice understanding idioms). The comics are well-drawn and funny, and you might even ingest a little European history if you read them.
Of cource, Asteerix is the coolest. Getafix! Obelix! yeah! Of course, I was always a bigger fan of his large-format comic-book co-conspirator, Tintin. (you could get both at my local bookstore).
One of my former boyfreidns was nutty about Asterix, but then he lived in Germany during his formative years.
“Asterix” ran as a daily strip in the Cleveland Plain Dealer for a year or two during the late 1970s, when I was a teenager. I couldn’t make head nor tail of it.
Then I went off to college in 1978, and roomed with an Iranian who LOVED “Asetrix.” He had a few of the compilations and would laugh heartily at them when he wasn’t studying Latin or seducing barmaids. I peeked at the books occasionally, and still couldn’t grok the Wacky Gaul humor.
Now I’m a big grown-up man. I stopped in a shop in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan with my kids a few months back, a shop which specializes in cool European kid things. Like “Tintin,” and “Asterix.” My wife and kids LOVE “Tintin.” And all four of us stand around scratching our heads at “Asterix.”
Maybe it’s a French thing, and we just don’t get it?
I’m guessing that the Asterix and the Tintin comics are more popular in Canada than in the States, although even up here they’re not huge. I think most people know of them, at least.
Also, I’m much more of a Tintin fan than an Asterix fan, FWIW.
When I was in high school, my french teacher used to make us read an Asterix strip every day in class…i think I would have appreciated it more if I spoke fluently.
FWIW, I’ve found that most French people my age like Tintin better than Asterix.
I grew up on Asterix and Tintin here in the Bay Area. My folks have complete sets of both. Here in San Francisco, there’s even a little store a block off Union Square dedicated to them (and Wallace & Grommit) called Karikter. They have Tintin tapestries! Inflatable moon rockets, Asterix shower curtains, multiple translations of all the books, that sort of thing. What impressed me the most though, was the lifesize Tintin statue.
I and my family followed the Asterix series faithfully until one of the original creators died. It just wasn’t the same after that…
As for the humour, a lot of it relies on elaborate puns that don’t always translate into American english very well. A working knowledge of Latin wouldn’t hurt either, as there’s usually one latin quotation per book. (Or somebody saying something silly like “oculus tauri” for “bullseye”.)
There are two sets of translations out as well, one for the British audience and one for the American market. I find the American translation to be flat and lifeless comparatively speaking. It seems to be hit or miss which one you get here in the States.
“So, Obelix, how did you find Helvetia?”
“Flat.”
–Asterix in Switzerland
Growing up in Canada I read all the Asterix books, even the text-based book where he gets assigned 12 tasks (can’t remember the name). All my friends read them too. One even has an Asterix tattoo.
I remember Asterix because there was a video-game based on the comic. It was a 2D side-scrolling platform game that came out either on SNES or Sega Genesis. (I never forget a video game.)
I actually didn’t know about the -comic- until I came across it while looking up info on my own favorite foreign comic–Marsupilami! (Those Disney bastards aren’t doing horsecrap with the rights they bought for that character…)
Are Marsu and Asterix published by the same company? I ferget.
I read a lot of Asterix books because the local library carried them. (I also read a lot of Elfquest books for the same reason. The librarian let me know that they were the most popular books in the library. Something she wasn’t too happy about. Oh yeah, Tintin in the same library.)
I enjoyed them, but it was usually on a book to book basis. All Asterix were not created equal. However, I did see a cartoon based on Asterix. It was obviously created before “political correctness” became in vogue.
Asterix (and Obelix) were/are wonderful. Have not read them since(mumble)years ago, but they are terrific. What I thought was so good about them was that, although they could be read only as comic books for kids, there was always something that made one (as a child) wonder “Oh, what does this mean?” So, as a child, one asked of parents etc. what does this Latin bit (or jokes referring to Greek proverbs or anything) mean? I think they made a really good bridge between books being “educational” and being fun to read.
I love Obelix, because he is a big unhealthy fat person, but perhaps that is a personal point of view!)
Celyn: Your point about the books being perhaps not totally for kids is good. For instance, in the book “Asterix in Corsica,” there are several panels in which an obviously reeking cheese is unwrapped, and what look like little worms are jumping from it. As a girl, I never understood what the joke was. Then, just a couple of weeks ago, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal and the Dopers posted a thread about it: some Mediterranean countries relish a worm-crawling cheese (sorry, I can’t find the thread). In addition, there are plenty of sly non-politically correct jokes about neighboring European countries that I’m sure go over the heads of most youngsters. Also, Obelix may be fat, but surely you don’t think he’s unhealthy? After all, he regular decks whole Roman platoons.
Zenster: Neener, neener, now I know that you’re old, too!
Ashtar: Don’t know; I believe “Dargaud” publishes Asterix.
I had all the books growing up, actually still do, on the second shelf from the bottom of my bookcase. Great stories, great wordplay (i agree some translations are better that others)
I’ve also read them in Latin and French in school.
There was a french movie out last year, “Asterix et Cesar” i think it was called. With, oh damn, who’s the actor? the big french guy, was in Cyrano, and Green Card?
Also had Laetitia Casta in her acting debut. yummy.
