Snooping inside my house I happened to find a whole bunch of comics in my closet. Most of them were Tintin comics and one of them was an Asterix comic.
It had been a few years since I last read an Asterix comic so I figured why not. I sat on my soft chair and focused on Asterix and Caesar’s Gift.
I was surprised at how much easier Asterix is compared to Tintin. The text isn’t as dense so you can flip through the pages fairly easily.
This story is about a roman soldier who’s about retire after twenty years of service. He’s an alcoholic and is a waste case and the night before retirement, he is thrown into jail for being too inebriated and cursing Caesar. The next day, Caesar decides to give this drunkard a plot of land in Gaul... where Asterix and Obelix live.
Shortly afterwards, the drunkard carelessly gives the deed of land to an inn keeper for lots and lots of wine.
The inn keeper moves to Asterix and Obelix’s village and they are treated as “foreigners”...
Well, that’s how the story begins. The story takes place mostly in the village and there’s lot of fighting amongst the villagers... later there’s the obligatory fight against roman legionnaires.
The story is 48 pages long and a pretty easy read. The story is pretty average. It all takes place in the village so it relies on tension amongst the villagers especially between the chief’s wife and the newcomer’s wife.
I can’t say this is one of the best Asterix comics since there really isn’t any adventure in it.
Some things that I found amusing were the boars that always have stupid grins on their faces after they’re dead (I haven’t read this stuff for such a long time... I don’t think I ever noticed this). Also, Obelix falling in love and not being able to do a thing to impress the girl was funny. It reminded me of certain people.
I’m sure children who read this book can get a sense of what an election is like (one of the events in the story) and that very often people are not comfortable with the presence of new people in their community.
