Asterix and the Great Crossing was published in 1975 and was written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo.
The story starts off with almost every box being white with only dialogue bubbles. The O’s of the words have slashes across them and the A’s have tiny o’s above them. Who are these people and where are they from? The only hint that we get is that they are on a boat in foggy conditions.
Now let’s go to Asterix’s village. There seems to be a minor crisis because there isn’t any fresh fish at the fishmonger. In order to make the magic potion, the druid Getafix, needs some fresh fish. Asterix and Obelix head out to sea on a small boat to catch whatever they can.
Well, a big storm hits and they are taken across the Pacific ocean in a what feels like three days.
In this new land they meet the First-nation’s people (the Indians... I don’t think this term is too politically correct). At first, A and O are met with resistance but after proving how tough they are, they are accepted as members of the tribe. Obelix teaches them how to say olé and in due time they depart.
Fortunately when they try to escape they encounter the people from the first page of the story. They are vikings. A and O are taken to viking-land as “inhabitants of the new world”. Of course, they are just Gauls... they escape and finally head back to their village.
In this adventure A and O travel to two really far places but it all feels like it happens over a period of less than a week. I don’t expect Asterix books to be 100% realistic but the writer has to try to make it feel like a “grand” journey... not so in this story.
There are some pretty amusing scenes in this one. A and O do a little miming to the Indians and vikings which only bemuses their audiences. The daughter of the chief of the Indian seems to have a crush on Obelix but he claims that he’s too young to get involved. I wonder how old are Obelix and Asterix. This series works well since they’re both bachelors.
This story is a fairly quick read since the Indians don’t rely on dialogue
