Asterix is a global superstar. Since it first appeared in 1959, this juggernaut of a comic strip has been translated into more than 100 languages and dialects, spawned films and games – not to mention a theme park – and made its co-creators, René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, France’s bestselling authors overseas.
For decades, this tale of a diminutive Gaulish warrior – with the help of his best friend, Obelix, and the magic potion prepared by the village druid – has won over readers courtesy of its heroes’ refusal to bend to a vastly superior foe: the Romans. As a staggering tally of almost 400 million global sales shows, the comic strip has proven an equally formidable foe to its rivals on the newsstands.
Yet there’s more to Asterix than sales figures. So universal has been this comic strip’s impact, so embedded is it in a whole host of nations’ cultures, that it has changed the way we look at ancient history, too.
Asterix is, of course, indisputably, distinctively French. The story is) and Romans named them Gauls (). Yet their descriptions were rarely flattering: to the Greeks and Romans, the Gauls were an uncivilised rabble who could and should be vanquished.
