Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5)

In Book 4 of the Asterix series, Asterix and Obelix go to Rome! A Roman Prefect has a crazy idea — why not capture one of the indomitable Gaulish villagers and present them to Julius Caesar for use in the circus. So Cacofonix the bard is captured and taken to Rome. But Asterix and Obelix find out what happened and take a trip to rescue the bard. Along the way, we also get to see some Phoenicians, pirates and even an Egyptian who likes drawing on Roman pillars.

Once again, it is an adventure and we don’t get to see much of the Gaul village. Even though he is the reason for the story, Cacofonix has a surprisingly small role mostly centered around his horrible singing, and in the end, is tied and gagged up when the heroes return back after rescuing him. Also, we seem to have a repeat of “Asterix the Gaul” with an intervention by Julius Caesar at the end, although he does get a lot of screen time in the second half of the book.

But in general, it is a good read. Hilarious at critical points in the story. The drawing and the side jokes continue to get better.

Rating: **** (4 stars out of 5)

The Romans in the Asterix series are the villains, but they are usually portrayed as bumbling villains. In this book, we get to see another bunch of antagonists, the Goths, who are a little more evil than they are idiots, though towards the end, they also turn out to be easily manipulated fools.

If you recall, “Asterix and the Golden Sickle” was about getting a new sickle for Druid Getafix so that he could go to the Druid conference in time. So this volume starts off with the conference where the Goths in hiding to find a resource to deploy against the Romans see Getafix win the conference, and decide to kidnap him. Asterix and Obelix go into Goth territory to rescue the Druid and upon finding him, decide to teach the Goths a lesson.

By this volume, we can see the drawing in the series become very mature and detailed. There is a lot of wicked humor, especially with the Goth interpreter trying to save his hide with liberal translations of what Getafix says. The only criticism I have is that the ending feels a little rushed, something that manifests itself in the second last page where the panel design gets changed to accommodate the hurried rush of the plot. But overall, a great read.

Rating: ***** (5 stars out of 5)

This is one of my favorite Asterix stories. The second in the Asterix series, the creators, Goscinny and Uderzo, have overcome most of the formative problems they had with “Asterix the Gaul”. The volume has a solid plot and strongly establishes the bond between Asterix and Obelix by sending them into an adventure together. The village and its characters still don’t feature very prominently (that will come later on), but we do get other Gauls and Romans.

The story starts when Getafix breaks his sickle and Asterix and Obelix volunteer to go to Lutetia to buy a new one for him. On reaching Lutetia (modern-day Paris), they find sickles are in short supply and the famed sicklesmith Metallurgix (Obelix’s cousin) is missing. After some investigation, they uncover a sickle-trafficking gang. How they bust them up and rescue Metallurgix is the rest of the story.

The greatness of the Asterix books comes in the drawings, where you can find amazing gems in the corner of each picture, not to mention references to the present day. With this book, the Asterix series establish that tradition. Every page is a marvel to read and discover. There is a lot of humor, most prompted by Obelix’s idiosyncrasies. Asterix, of course, is the Everyman, forever playing it serious and straight. I do have a minor quibble with the economics of the story — the new price of the sickles by the gang will ensure no sales, but that doesn’t affect the story too much.

Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5)

This is going to be the first of a series. Let me start with saying why I love Asterix. During my middle school days, we used to have exams just before Christmas. Although these did not determine whether you went to the next grade (those were the March exams), they were used to dish out certificates for good performance. I used to get a few for math and science subjects — for some reason, I was not so good at social studies and language, the former of which is kind of weird as I got really deep into history and economics in the last several years. My father, as a celebration, would take me to the city, buy me a great lunch and then take me to a bookstore where I would buy an Asterix book.

This means I am very fond of some of the Asterix books because I used to own them, such as “Asterix at the Olympic Games” and “Asterix and the Golden Sickle”. For a long time, I used to dream of eating Swiss cheese (which I do) and eating boar (which I never did as I stopped most kinds of non-vegetarian food). I wanted to read them all, and our school library had many Asterix books, but I could never get my hands on several as they were all in great demand. And as time went by, I moved to Hardy Boys, and Agatha Christie. The saga ends there for a while until recent times.

There are 2 categories of Asterix books, one with René Goscinny and the other without him. Although Goscinny died in 1977 before I started reading Asterix, I was mostly familiar with only the first category because there were only 3 books by Uderzo at that time. There literally is no comparison between the two categories. With a few exceptions, the Asterix books created with Goscinny as the writer and Uderzo as illustrator are far superior in the plot, writing and even the illustrations! Think about it, the Uderzo-only “Asterix and the Falling Sky” has aliens! Aliens! What an utter disaster!

So let us talk about “Asterix the Gaul”. As the first book in the series, it introduces us to the village where Asterix lives and the secret of the magic potion that helps them stave off the Romans. When the story starts, the Romans are still unaware of the secret and keep getting beaten up without knowing why. A spy is dispatched and he manages to find the secret and get back to the Roman camp. The Romans capture Druid Getafix, but soon Asterix reaches the camp and they make a mockery of the Romans’ attempts to get Getafix make the magic potion for them.

The fact that it is the first Asterix book definitely shows. Apart from Asterix and Getafix, the Gauls do not have very prominent roles and they completely disappear from the story halfway through. Obelix also has a very low profile, with Asterix only taking him along once to the forest in three episodes. The drawing of Obelix, Getafix (initially) and other characters differ a bit in contrast to their appearances in other Asterix books. The Romans take up a lot of “screen time”.

The subplot of the Roman spy is very funny, but the story overall is not that great. Asterix and Getafix are at the Roman camp for several days, but there is no mention of what is happening back at the village. Was anyone worrying about them? Also, why didn’t the Romans try to attack the village when they realized that the magic potion’s effect did not last for ever? The ending was also contrived with the appearance of Julius Caesar which only served the purpose of introducing him into the story.

I still recommend it, if nothing else, as an introduction to the series.