Asterix the Gladiator

Rene Goscinny

Ah, Asterix. I had originally decided to start tracking these down during my Tintin-collecting days, then somewhere along the way I got sidetracked. It's taken me till now to remember, so I've started making up for lost time.

Asterix and his everpresent sidekick Obelix have to go to Rome and masquerade as gladiators in order to save (for some reason we haven't yet figured out, given his voice) the bard Cacofonix. This leads to forty-eight pages of relatively constant conflict, along with a slew of jokes about awful voices and parsley.

Goscinny and Uderzo are not subtle. (I remember thinking this even back in the Tintin-collecting days, when I was seeing a panel or two at a time, as opposed to a whole book.) Those picking up Asterix for the first time are going to be quite disappointed if they're expecting all the nuance and subtlety of today's better graphic-novel efforts. But for those who are just looking for a good time, Asterix and Obelix are rather like the comic-book version of a Schwarzenegger flick; turn your brain off and have a good time.