Obelix and Co. was published in 1976. This is the second to last book that René Goscinny wrote.
The story starts off in the nearby camp of Totorum and there’s a lot of slovenliness with the soldiers. All of them are messing or fooling around, just killing time. Even the centurion in charge is wearing his undershirt and hasn’t shaven in many days. The reason for this is that there really isn’t much to do around that area and probably because it’s safer in the camp than to meet the local invincible Gauls.
A whole bunch of soldiers come in to relieve the old and, being oblivious to what will happen to them, decide to attack that nearby village full of invincible Gauls. This day happens to be Obelix’s birthday and he gets to take on the entire army all by himself, with his comrades in the background singing that every so famous birthday song.
Caesar hears about the news and is humiliated as always. He wants to figure out how he can get rid of these Gauls. That’s where Caius Preposterus comes in. He’s a recent graduate of the Latin School of Economics and has some ideas. Money tends to corrupt people so if the Romans can get the Gauls to become greedy, the village will come to an end.
Obelix has a menhir service and Caius Preposterus (who has traveled all the way to Gaul) starts to buy menhirs. He doubles the price of them every time he buys more and eventually Obelix is rich. With all his money Obelix hires someone to hunt boars for him. He hires extra workers in the village to construct more and more menhirs. While Obelix isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed with basic economics, Caius Preposterus coaches him in dumbed down English. Will money corrupt the village and turn the villagers against each other? You’ll just have to read the book.
René Goscinny did a very good job of researching ideas for this story and Obelix is taught how to make his business “boom”. But like most businesses, the market tends to get saturated when too many people do the same thing...
I’m not too keen on some of the art work in this story. The looks of some of the characters has changed a bit (Obelix seems a bit taller and Caesar’s looks are “sharper”) and things don’t feel quite as “warm” especially the colors.
The ending is a bit of a let down as we realize that the antagonist really isn’t that smart after all. But maybe there are lessons to be learnt from this story...
Children who read this story can get an idea about how too much money can sometimes rot your soul. Let’s all be careful not to get too rich...
