Asterix in Spain was published in 1969.
Ol’ Julius Caesar and the Romans have conquered Spain... well, not quite. There’s one village that’s holding out against the foreign invaders. To keep these Spaniards at bay Julius Caesar kidnaps the village’s chief’s son and sends him to Gaul.
Coincidently the son is sent to a Roman camp close to where Asterix and Obelix live. He’s rescued by A and O and is taken back to Spain.
The boy, Pepe, is a little brat. He’s picky about everything that he eats. He’ll bite your hand if he doesn’t like you. He constantly holds his breath in order to get what he wants.
The story is the usual fare and includes quite a few stereotypes of Spaniards. They all say olé after something spectacular. They all sing and dance. Most of the men have five o’clock shadows. I’m surprised the author didn’t include siestas in the story.
One thing I didn’t like too much is the length of the story. It seems like a waste not to get to know the leader of the Spanish village. While Pepe gets home safely how do we know whether the village will survive against the Romans in the near future?
A new character in Asterix’s village is introduced to us and that’s the fishmonger Unhygienix. His fish is already being used to beat people...
There’s a brief appearance by Don Quixote and there are lots of German tourists in this story... I wonder whether there are many now in the present day...
Looking over this story quickly once more, there doesn’t seem to be any morals or messages in the story.
