Asterix the Gladiator
The Romans kidnap Cacofonix the bard so that he can be fed to the lions as a present to Caesar. Much as everyone in the village is relieved that they don’t have to listen to Cacofonix’s singing, this can’t be let stand so Asterix and Obelix head off to Rome to get Cacofonix back.
The standard template for an Asterix story was already set, with Asterix and Obelix (the latter still without Dogmatix) leaving the village for some foreign adventures and then returning home for a banquet. I think the only recurring note that’s introduced here for the first time are the pirates. Otherwise there isn’t much about this that stands out, though I did remember the gladiators playing the word game. It’s funny what stays with you after all these years.
The art is brilliant as always, and the story strong and easy to follow. Though I did wince a little at the stereotype caricature of the Nubian gladiator, and I raised an eyebrow again at Obelix saying “Cool!” a couple of times (something I flagged previously in my notes on Asterix and the Golden Sickle). I can understand wanting to translate the language into contemporary American English for a new audience, but there should be limits.
Alex Good 
Thought this was a Booky post for a moment. Are you doing the whole series?
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I think Booky did a post on it a few years ago. I’m working my way through the series very slowly. This was the fourth.
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Are you doing all of them or just the Goscinny/Uderzo ones?
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I didn’t know there were others beside the ones Goscinny and Uderzo did!
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Uderzo carried on alone after Goscinny died, then writer Jean – Yves Ferri & illustrator Didier Conrad, then Fabcaro & Didier and they’re still doing them, one every couple of years. There are 41 at the moment, so you’d best speed up if you’re going to do them all before you expire. 😁
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Gadzooks! Don’t know if I’ll have time then. But I’ll just keep plugging away.
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Time flies when you’re having fun!
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Five years ago. That’s a long flight.
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And it was a bumpy ride too 🙂
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Who were the translators? My dad had some old ones from his days growing up in Canada and then he slowly bought the new versions and there was a marked difference. A lot slang made it into the new ones, if I remember correctly.
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These were the new Papercutz translations, so not the ones I grew up with. The druid Getafix is now Panoramix (which was his original French name, so can’t complain). There isn’t a lot of modern American, which just means that when it does occur it’s jarring.
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Sorry. This means nothing to me…..
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You didn’t have Asterix comics when you were a kid? I thought they were big everywhere.
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I’m drawing a complete blank. : -)
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One of the bestselling comics ever. Originally came out in France. They were big in Canada but they never caught on in the U.S. I guess. This guy blames it on PC culture but I doubt that’s it since they were huge back in the ’70s even.
https://bleedingfool.com/comics/why-asterix-has-never-caught-on-with-u-s-comics-readers/
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