By Jean-Yves Ferri & Didier Conrad, translated by Anthea Bell (Sphere/Orion Books)
ISBN: 978-1-51010-045-9 (album HB/Digital edition) 978-1-51010-046-6 (album PB)
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: A Classical Way to Celebrate the Season… 9/10
Asterix the Gaul is probably France’s greatest literary export and part of the fabric of French life. The feisty, wily little warrior who fought the iniquities and viewed the myriad wonders of Julius Caesar’s Roman Empire with brains, bravery and – whenever required – a magical potion imbuing the imbiber with incredible strength, speed and vitality, is the go-to reference for all us non-Gallic gallants when we think of France.
The diminutive, doughty darling was created at the close of the 1950s by two of our artform’s greatest masters, with his first official appearance being October 29th in Pilote #1, even though he had actually debuted in a pre-release teaser – or “pilot” – some weeks earlier. Bon Anniversaire mon petit brave!
His adventures touched billions of people all around the world for five and a half decades as the sole preserve of originators Rene Goscinny and/or Albert Uderzo. After close on 15 years as a weekly comic serial subsequently collected into book-length compilations, in 1974 the 21st saga – Asterix and Caesar’s Gift – was the first released as a complete original album prior to serialisation. Thereafter each new album was an eagerly anticipated, impatiently awaited treat for legions of devotees, but none more so than this one which was created by Uderzo’s handpicked replacements – scripter Jean-Yves Ferri (Fables Autonomes, La Retour à la terre, De Gaulle à la plage) and illustrator Didier Conrad (Les Innomables, Le Piège Malais, Tatum, Spirou) – who had taken up a somewhat poisoned chalice on his retirement in 2009. And so began the further adventures of truly immortal French heroes. Happily the legacy was in safe hands, especially after this first book was meticulously overseen by Uderzo every step of the way…
Whether as an action-packed comedic romp with sneaky, bullying baddies getting their just deserts or as a punfully sly and witty satire for older, wiser heads, the new work is just as engrossing as the previously established canon, and English-speakers are still happily graced with the brilliantly light touch of translator Anthea Bell who, with former collaborator Derek Hockridge, played no small part in making the indomitable little Gaul so palatable to English-speakers around the globe.
As you surely already know, half of these intoxicating epics are set in various exotic locales throughout the Ancient World, whilst the rest take place in and around Uderzo’s adored Brittany where, circa 50 B.C., a little hamlet of cantankerous, proudly defiant warriors and their families resisted every effort of the mighty Roman Empire to complete the conquest of Gaul.
Although the country is divided by the notional conquerors into provinces Celtica, Aquitania and Amorica, the very tip of the last named regions stubbornly refuses to be pacified. The Romans, utterly unable to overrun this last bastion of Gallic insouciance, are reduced to a pointless policy of absolute containment – and yet these Gauls come and go as they please. Thus a tiny seaside hamlet is permanently cut off (in the broadest, not-true-at-all sense) by heavily fortified garrisons Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium: filled with veteran fighters who would rather be anywhere else on earth than there…
Their “confined detainees” couldn’t care less: casually frustrating and daily defying the world’s greatest military machine by simply going about their everyday affairs, untouchable thanks to a miraculous magic potion brewed by resident druid Getafix and the shrewd wits of diminutive dynamo Asterix in merry conjunction with his simplistic, supercharged best pal Obelix…
Le Papyrus de César was released on October 22nd 2015, simultaneously hurtling off the shelves of many nations as Asterix and the Missing Scroll (or whatever the local language equivalent of the many nations addicted to these epics might be). Even though, as with many previous tales, it takes its momentum from satirising current affairs, the resemblances to certain unscrupulous publishing magnates and founders of information-leaking internet sites are both remarkable and – I’m sure – utterly coincidental. After all, who doesn’t like fake news and genuine censorship?
This home fixture begins away in glorious Rome where Caesar anticipates the release of his memoirs Commentaries on the War with the Gauls (or Commentarii de Bello Gallico as your granddad probably knew it). Unimaginative, forthright Caesar ended the ruminations with a final scroll detailing how he has been unable to completely end the conflict because of repeated incidents with a small village of indomitable Gauls who simply won’t accept that they’ve been conquered. He is shocked – but not averse – to the suggestion of his advisor and publisher Libellus Blockbustus who recommends that they just leave it out of the released edition…
The expurgated publication is a sensation throughout the empire, and far away in that still-unconquered enclave, life goes on as usual after publication. In fact, when the latest “newspaper” arrives the villagers are only concerned with the latest horoscopes. As myopic Wifix reads them out, aged Geriatrix takes his prediction to heart and sees “new conquests” in his future, whilst Obelix is mortally crushed by a rather specific prognostication to “avoid conflict, take stock and go easy on the roast boar”…
Asterix, who shares the same birthday as his ponderous pal, doesn’t believe in all that astrology rubbish, but cannot shake the big buffoon out of a debilitating dudgeon. Although that means things grow quiet in Gaul, back in Rome a clandestine crisis has erupted. Mute Numidian Scribe Bigdatha has taken umbrage with the massaging of the truth and, believing the public has a right to know everything, has turned whistleblower. Swiping Caesar’s 24th scroll – “Defeats at the Hands of the Indomitable Gauls of Armorica” – he has passed it on to Confoundtheirpolitix, a Gaulish “newsmonger without borders”. Fearing the scandal will affect profits and dreading what Caesar will do if he’s made to appear foolish or dishonest, Blockbustus instigates emergency measures: sending Roman secret police to arrest the scribe and newsmonger. Confoundtheirpolitix, however, has already rushed to Armorica seeking sanctuary in a certain village Romans cannot enter…
When details of the scroll’s omissions are revealed (particularly Asterix’ many exploits such as The Chieftain’s Shield, Mansions of the Gods and so on) the Gaulish villagers react in different ways – those that aren’t still fighting over the horoscope predictions at least…
The excitable Lutetian newsmonger is adamant that the contents of the scroll could topple Caesar and something must be done to preserve it, prompting Chief Vitalstatistix to affably write his own history of the war to set things right. More sensibly, Getafix suggests that since Gauls don’t appreciate writing but memorialise facts and history in their oral tradition, he should transport the potentially devastating data to the Forest of the Carnutes where Grand Druid Archaeopterix can commit the information to his mighty and phenomenal cogitative cranial chronicles…
Meanwhile word has reached Centurion Verigregarius in Totorum to get that scroll back at all costs and he surrounds the village with a cordon of his best warriors. That means nothing to the villagers, of course. In the dead of night Asterix, Getafix and faithful petite wonder-hound Dogmatix sneak out of a secret door and set out on their mission, dragging with them dolorous, downcast and decidedly pacifistic Obelix. They are unaware that they are being stalked by a crack squad of elite Roman army surveillance specialists, equipped with the latest advancement in the empire’s covert communications technology…
Back in Rome, every fresh evidence of Caesar’s delight in his new-found authorial celebrity terrifies Blockbustus more and more. With the humiliating last chapter still out there, a ruler’s reputation (and thus publisher’s life) remains balanced on a knife-edge. Succumbing to panic, the wily advisor heads for Armorica to take personal charge of the search, even as our heroes reach the fabled forest. As their stalkers fall victim to the unique and fabulous security measures of the Carnutes druids, Getafix renews old acquaintances and begins the torturous process of committing the scroll to Archaeopterix’s capacious memory…
In Totorum, deprived of all the ongoing fresh facts and breaking news, Blockbustus and Verigregarius plan a major assault on the village to retrieve the scroll they think is still there. Their cause is greatly advanced when they catch Confoundtheirpolitix outside the stockade and take him hostage. Thankfully, the embattled Gauls have a messaging system which can reach all the way to the great forest, and Archaeopterix has a power-potion of his own which will allow his guests to get back home in time to save the day…
Even Obelix gets to play, once he learns that he was read the wrong horoscope and can have as many boars and hit as many Romans as he wants. But then, Julius Caesar angrily arrives and all Tartarus breaks loose…
Fast-paced, furiously funny, stuffed with action and hilarious, contemporary swipes and timeless jibes plus a marvellously enchanting double twist ending, this is a splendid continuation of the series by creators who clearly know what they’re doing and enjoy doing it. Asterix and the Missing Scroll is an unmissable joy for lovers of laughs and devotees of comics alike and a welcome addition to the mythic canon.
© 2015 Les Éditions Albert René. English translation: © 2015 Les Éditions Albert René. All rights reserved.