Plenty of Gaul

On a trip back home, my mother (for whose 60th birthday I was there) presented me with a box. It's part of a gradual moving of my stuff from my old bedroom and the attic into my current abode. This is taking the best part of ten years, so far. Should be finished by 2025, I reckon.

Anyways, in this box was a load of old football programmes from my youthful habit of buying football programmes. They didn't have to be related to the team I liked - I had a load of early 80s Watford, West Ham and Sheffield United ones for some reason.

But more importantly, all my Asterix comics were in there. Happy, happy, joy, joy! I can't remember exactly how I got into these wonderful books, though I guess that my parents may have had something to do with it, probably my dad, who has always been a history buff. To the uninitiated, they centre around the eponymous hero, a Gaul living in 50 BC. Julies Caesar has invaded all of Gaul bar one small village, holding out with the aid of a magic potion brewed by the druid Getafix - something I could have done with a few doses of the last few days, let me tell you.

Naturally, various adventures occur that see our hero and his best friend, Obelix, travel across Europe, the Middle East and even America, often trying to foil the plans of the Romans to finally see off the troublesome Gauls.

Two things struck me reading them over again. One is the superb quality of the art by Uderzo - the level of detail in some frames is amazing. Secondly is how that now I'm older, I get so many more of the jokes. The six year old me probably wasn't aware of the humour of Caesar telling Brutus to put away a knife he's idly playing with or "You'll do yourself an injury" or references to someone being "sent to Coventrium".

Though Goscinny wrote the original French texts, huge credit must go to Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, who did the English translations. This involved renaming a lot of characters to give them English related puns, like the fishmonger being called Unhygienix and the elder being Geriatrix. Some of the best jokes involve the stereotypes of various countries: the British, for example, all have stiff upper lips, will end a battle to take high tea and say things like "Jolly good game, what?". The Swiss are portrayed as efficient and obsessed with keeping things clean while Corsicans are laid back but also prone to violent vendettas. All in good humour, of course, as the various parts of France are sent up too.

It was also only recently that I learned that the reason it begins raining in Asterix in Belgium is because Goscinny died while Uderzo was working on the art. The latter has spent the last 30+ years working on new strips alone.

There has also been various animated and real-action films, of mixed quality. The best (The Twelve Tasks of Asterix and Asterix in Britain) were excellent and I really must see if I can pick them up on DVD. And, of course, there's a related theme park near Paris that I always wanted to go to as a kid - denied, alas.