Asterix Gallus

[Explorer]

The other day I found out (thanks to @MoniqueMaRie ) that Asterix is actually available in Latin. Yes, Latin! I had no idea this existed and it totally made my day. If you’ve never read Asterix before, it’s an amazing French comic series that’s been around since the late 1950s. It follows the story of a small Gaulish tribe that manages to hold off the Roman Empire, thanks to their cleverness and a magic potion that gives them super strength. I’ve loved Asterix since I was a kid. It’s funny, chaotic, and full of hilarious historical references. If Julius Caesar were alive today, he’d probably drop his toga laughing, or maybe not...

What do you think? I believe this is a fantastic way to get younger people interested in learning Latin. It makes it feel so much more approachable and fun, rather than just some dusty old subject.

[Davey944676]

Asterix was a bit too clever for me as a kid. I didn't understand most of the humour, apart from some of the more obvious cartoony stuff.

A Latin translation of "The Dandy" or "The Beano" could work here, though - Dennis the Menace in Latin...

[MoniqueMaRie]

We weren't small kids when we were reading Asterix apud Gothos in school.
I really enjoyed reading it with the help of one of my best teachers.

[Basler Biker]

[...] it’s an amazing French comic series that’s been around since the late 1950s. [...]

Then check the wiki in Latin as well
https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix

What makes things funny - in general, is repetition, because repeating things make them recognizable before they actually happen. If a standup comedian refers to some family situation, the audience can almost guess what's going to happen next, and then when it happens, they laugh

When you see Obelix and the little dog Idefix sniffing at a tree, you can guess what's gonna happen on the next scene.

You see both heroes walking in a forest, you know that there will be a battle with the romans, and that it will end with a "sanglier" (and more than one) on the BBQ (la braise in nice French)

You see a party and you know that the "bard" will come and ruin it.
You see Walhalla (NL) or "Valballa (FR), and Obelix will become unmighty

Also you can spend minutes on a single drawing searching for hidden funny things.
There is a high level of detail in each.

Of course, quite inventive, is that all character names end on -ix. And the first part is always something funny too, almost like phonetic writing of something french word. But guess which one does not end on -ix ...

Idefix: idée fixe (an opinion that seemingly can't be changed, a cliché)
Abraracourcix : abra cadabra raccourci (short for the magicians words)

Sometimes, for editorial reasons, and to avoid "conflicts", names may have changed for the translation:
Assuranceturix (the bard, singing in a not so harmonic way) is named Kakofonix in Dutch.

Goscini did the writing, and Uderzo the illustration.
Goscinni also wrote "Lucky Luke" (banned from import to Canada, because of the cigarette in his mouth. This got then replaced by a piece of straw)

Since we talk "strips" - or stripes - the first apparition of these things were single "lines" of 2, 3 or 4 drawings. They would appear in "Gazette"-like magazines, and newspapers.

Stripes would later we assembled to full pages, to form a book.
Some of these plates, the original ones, are quite expensive at auctions.

The very early Hergé - known from Tintin (NL:Kuifje) had a series, and later also books, with two characters "Kwik en Flupke", appeared first in 1930...

On many blind walls - scattered all over Brussels - you can see painted reproductions of scenes from books by many artists, artists that made the Franco-Belge "comic strips" scene famous worldwide. There's also the strip-museum of course.