Aug 04, 2003 05:42 PM
6532 Views
(Updated Aug 04, 2003 05:56 PM)
For a south Indian like me, to identify with Asterix Comics, is pretty easy, Know why....just look at their moustaches...makes me feel very much at home..:-D
Jokes apart, I think with Harry Potter weaving his magic all around the world and JK Rowling striking a chord with all of us, It is time to rewind ourselves back to the original magic potion heroes, Asterix & Obelix.
About the Asterix & Obelix Series :
The story is set in 50 B.C , Phew! That's almost 2000 B.H (Before
Harry!!) ago in a little gaulish village in france which is holding on to the onslaught of the great roman army. The stories revolve around, how the tiny village holds the huge army (Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium...these were the nearest garrisons) at bay with it's druid's (magic man) magic potion. The protagonist in all the comics is Asterix. To South Indians he looks very similar to Kamal Hassan in the movie ''Thevar Magan''(Hindi Remake : Viraasat) and to North Indians he looks very similar to any ''UP ka Paanwala''. To give him company is his dog,
Dogmatix and his pardner Obelix. It's almost like a modern day ''Bad Boys''/ ''Tango and Cash''/ Beverly Hills Cops...kind of teamwork that is on display where there's a lot of Bif! Bang! Thud! Booom! happening across the comic book screen.
The first Asterix album Asterix le Gaulois, was published in 1961, and only 6000 editions where printed. The story was first published in a French magazine Pilote in October 29th 1959.
The Main Characters Explained:
Asterix: The Hero, Bachelor, Standing all of 3 feet (This size has been arrived at a backward calculation from the observations of Asterix standing in front of Julius Caeser, who in turn is recorded in history to be 6 feet tall!!).With Golden hair braided into two parts, Walrus Moustache, hard hat with feathers on both sides, bulb nose and a loveable smile, he was the master strategist. To compensate his little brawn , and make him superman at times, he carried magic potion in his belt. (I must remind viewers that in my childhood, influenced by Asterix, I would also do the same thing by filling up water in a baloon and hanging it in my belt, until a few days later, the baloon filled with water which was hanging on my belt, burst!!! I am sure you must
have figured out by now where all the water splashed. The embarrassment of walking back home with a large water mark in my shorts...must have been the longest walk in my little existance, then)
Obelix :Best pal of Asterix and business man in the village. He manufactured menhirs and if he were in India , he would have been the ideal match to our very own tun-tun aunty. Obelix, had immense powers since as a baby he slipped from Getafix, s hands and fell into the magic potion. Obelix loves only one thing more than bashing romans up..eating food (especially fried Singularis Porcus(wild boar))
Dogmatix : Asterix's faithful dog. Naughty and a great hound dog, He too loves fighting the romans and manages to bite at strategic points of those Roman legionairies making lives all the more miserable.
Getafix :The Village Druid. With a Turban on his head he would look like any other Paajiyou meet on the street. But this guy is responsible for all the magic potion that holds the fort together.
Cacofonix : The village bard...someone whose talents can be comparable if not a little better than our Indian BappiLahri..but everyone likes him...
Vitalstatistix:The Village Chief...and then there are Fulliautomatix, Unhygienix, Agecanonix ... are many more ix's in the village...
My Views on the Comic series :
Connecting a chord: Why do you think Amitabh's 70s movies were such big hits? Why do you think the Lagaan was such a big hit? Be it movies or comics, The most successful stories have one unique common thing in them, and that is - connecting with the audience. Amitabh's angry young man image connected with the audience because in the 70s that was the mood of the poeple and they related with his persona on screen. Cricket was the mood of the nation, and Lagaan captured it well and walked away a winner. Asterix and Obelix too connects very well with all age groups because, it portrays the fight between David and Golaith. In every David Vs Golath fight, the audience roots for David, here too it is the underdog, Gaulish village that is putting up a fight against the great roman army.
Graphics The entire 31 book series of Asterix & Obelix have been drawn by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo and they are defenitely the most beautiful cartoons drawn. In every page there were so many details, you could stay riveted on to a page for hours on....
All in all...I must admit...today's generation, of children , born and hooked to the direct feed of Cartoon Network are missing a lot by losing out on reading these comics.O tempora, o mores... (Latin for O! The times! Oh! The habits!) These might come as cartoon series, but the magic of reading those comics and transporting yourself to those times ...ahhhhh!!!! ''those wonder years''....how I miss them
As Asterix says in one book ''Quousque tandem''? ''Quousque tandem'' means ''How Long'' in Latin
...So I ask you ''Quousque tandem back did you read the adventures of Asterix''...Try and grab one..Today!
Happy Reading....
Moonraker
P.S: My review title might sound a bit controversial , It is not intended to hurt the feelings of HP fans by comparing it with other comic heroes, If any HP fan feels that the title needs to be changed, pl vioce u r concern on the comment board.
