Asterix the Gladiator
by Goscinny & Uderzo (Pilote, 1961-1962); trans. Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Hodder & Stoughton, 1969)
A glorious plethora of puns and running gags, built around the conceit of Cacofonix the bard being kidnapped as a gift for Caesar. The physical humour is delightful (as always), and all the characters brim with personality, the historical setting exquisitely realised.
Asterix and the Magic Carpet
by Albert Uderzo; trans. Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Hodder, 1988)
A breezy if inconsequential adventure. Uderzo sends his heroes on a tour of the ancient world and depicts India for the first time, his illustrations proving less cluttered and less exotically Eastern than those of Jean Tabary’s Iznogoud (which gets a shout-out).
Asterix and the Chariot Race
by Jean-Yves Ferri; ill. Didier Conrad; trans. Adriana Hunter (Orion, 2017)
Having survived the transition to new writer and illustrator, Asterix now leaps the last hurdle (in English at least) by finding someone to succeed translator par excellence Anthea Bell. The Chariot Race is the usual good fun—visually expressive, witty and layered.
Asterix and the Laurel Wreath
by Goscinny & Uderzo; trans. Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Orion, 1974); from Les Lauriers de César (Pilote, 1971)
One of Goscinny’s more droll stories (a critique of Imperial Rome as witnessed when Asterix and Obelix sell themselves as slaves) done full justice by Uderzo’s distinctive illustration—exquisite attention to background detail coupled with colourful, caricatured portrayals of action and emotions.
Asterix and the Missing Scroll
by Jean-Yves Ferri; Ill. Didier Conrad; trans. Anthea Bell (Orion, 2015)
Apart from somehow not packing quite as much into each story, the new Asterix adventures of Ferri and Conrad are superb in capturing the spirit of Goscinny and Uderzo. Our heroes must reinstate to posterity a chapter excised from Caesar’s Gallic memoirs.
Asterix and the Picts
by Jean-Yves Ferri & Didier Conrad; trans. Anthea Bell (Orion, 2013)
With Albert Uderzo’s retirement after fifty-four years of drawing Asterix, the illustration of this new adventure (to a rather endearing Scotland) is… perfect; nigh on indistinguishable, by Toutatis! The writing, however, continues to lag behind that of co-creator René Goscinny (died 1977).