Goscinny and Uderzo
| Volume Number | Year Published | English Title | French Title | Setting | Plot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1961 | Asterix the Gaul | Astérix le Gaulois | Asterix's village (no travel) | The Romans discover that the secret of the Gauls' strength is the magic potion brewed by the druid Getafix, so they decide to capture the druid and get the recipe out of him. It is up to Asterix and his wits to save Getafix. |
| 2 | 1962 | Asterix and the Golden Sickle | La Serpe d'or | Travel to Lutetia (Paris) | Getafix's sickle breaks, so Asterix and Obelix volunteer to go to Lutetia to buy a new one. But there is a mysterious sickle shortage our heroes must get to the bottom of. |
| 3 | 1963 | Asterix and the Goths | Astérix et les Goths | Germany | The druid Getafix is captured by a tribe of Goths, and Asterix and Obelix must rescue him. |
| 4 | 1964 | Asterix the Gladiator | Astérix gladiateur | Rome | Odius Asparagus, the prefect of Gaul, captures Cacofonix and sends him as a present to Caesar. Unimpressed by Cacofonix, Caesar orders him to be thrown to the Lions at the Circus Maximus. Asterix and Obelix hitchhike all the way to Rome where they must become gladiators to rescue him. |
| 5 | 1965 | Asterix and the Banquet | Le Tour de Gaule d'Astérix | Various French cities | Unsuccessful at conquering the village, the Romans decide to isolate it by building a stockade. To remove it, Asterix strikes a bet with the Romans that he and Obelix can travel throughout Gaul and back to the village with various Gaulish delicacies without the Romans being able to stop them. The route is a parallel to the modern Tour de France cycling event. It's in this adventure that Obelix gets his dog, Dogmatix. |
| 6 | 1965 | Asterix and Cleopatra | Astérix et Cléopâtre | Egypt | Caesar calls the Egyptians inferior to the Romans. Outraged, Cleopatra wagers with him that her people can build a grand monument in record time. Edifis, a bumbling, timid architect is asked to perform the miracle, and asks his old friend Getafix for help. Meanwhile, his rival and Caesar's agents attempt to sabotage the effort. |
| 7 | 1966 | Asterix and the Big Fight | Le combat des chefs | Asterix's village (no travel) | The Romans conspire with a Roman-friendly Gaulish village to declare a ritual winner-takes-all fight between the village chiefs. One of Obelix's menhirs causes Getafix to lose his memory, leaving the Gauls without magic potion. The fight parodies professional boxing. |
| 8 | 1966 | Asterix in Britain | Astérix chez les Bretons | Britain | One small village in Britain still holds out against the Roman invaders. But with no Magic Potion, they need help, so Asterix's cousin Anticlimax comes to Gaul seeking aid. |
| 9 | 1966 | Asterix and the Normans | Astérix et les Normands | Asterix's village (no travel) | The Normans are fearless to the point of not even understanding the concept, so they travel to Gaul where they kidnap chief Vitalstatistix's cowardly visiting nephew Justforkix to teach them fear. |
| 10 | 1967 | Asterix the Legionary | Astérix légionnaire | Africa | Asterix and Obelix join the Roman Legion (in a parody of the French Foreign Legion) in an attempt to find the conscripted fiancé of Panacea, a villager on whom Obelix has a big crush. With an eclectic group of foreigners, they are sent to North Africa to fight the traitor Scipio. |
| 11 | 1968 | Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield | Le bouclier Arverne | Cities in southern France: Acqua Calidae (Vichy), Gergovia, Nemessos (Clermont-Ferrand) | After too many banquets, chief Vitalstatistix is forced to visit a spa in the Arvernian countryside to nurse his sore liver. Meanwhile, Caesar orders his men to search the area for the shield of Vercingetorix, regarded as a patriotic symbol by the Gauls. |
| 12 | 1968 | Asterix at the Olympic Games | Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques | Greece | To participate in the Olympic Games in Greece, the Gauls register themselves as Romans. When the officials declare the magic potion to be a form of illegal doping, Asterix turns to his native abilities to compete. |
| 13 | 1969 | Asterix and the Cauldron | Astérix et le chaudron | Asterix's village (no travel) | Whosemoralsarelastix, chief of a nearby village, asks Vitalstatistix to hide his village's money to prevent the Romans from taking it. When the money is stolen under his watch, Asterix is banished until he can repay the money and recover his honour. |
| 14 | 1969 | Asterix in Spain | Astérix en Hispanie | Spain | Pepe, a young and spoiled child, is taken from the Romans. He turns out to be Spanish, and held hostage in an attempt to get them to surrender. Asterix and Obelix escort the child back to Spain. |
| 15 | 1970 | Asterix and the Roman Agent | La Zizanie | Asterix's village (no travel) | A troublemaker is brought to Caesar in Rome; he was to be executed in the Colosseum, but is so conniving that he got the lions to eat each other instead. Caesar sends him to the Gaulish village in an attempt to destroy unity. |
| 16 | 1970 | Asterix in Switzerland | Astérix chez les Helvètes | Switzerland | A poisoned Roman tax inspector seeks sanctuary in the village. Asterix and Obelix are sent to Switzerland to recover a Silver Star, or Edelweiss, which is needed to cure him. |
| 17 | 1971 | The Mansions of the Gods | Le Domaine des dieux | Asterix's village (no travel) | Caesar tries to dilute solidarity and weaken local customs in Gaul by creating a vacation resort near the Village. The villagers sabotage the efforts, first by magically replanting the forest as soon as it's cut, and by creating a slaves' union; later by being obnoxious neighbors to the resident Romans. |
| 18 | 1972 | Asterix and the Laurel Wreath | Les Lauriers de César | Rome | Thoroughly chagrined by his obnoxious brother-in-law, Vitalstatistix gets drunk and boasts that he will create a dish seasoned with Caesar's laurel wreath. He orders Asterix and Obelix travel to Rome to retrieve it. |
| 19 | 1972 | Asterix and the Soothsayer | Le Devin | Asterix's village (no travel) | In the absence of Getafix, a fraudulent seer seeks shelter against rain in the Village, then ingratiates himself to everyone by predicting the futures they want to hear, asking no food or money, merely items to "read" the future in (mainly as food and money). Unbeknown to the Gauls, he is hired by the Romans to convince the Gauls to abandon the village by that disaster would befall the village were he to be chased off. |
| 20 | 1973 | Asterix in Corsica | Astérix en Corse | Corsica | As part of the celebrations of the anniversary of Vercingetorix's victory at the Battle of Gergovia, the Gauls and their friends raid one of the nearby Roman camps. A very stoic and composed prisoner is discovered, who reveals himself as Boneywasawarriorwayayix, a tribal leader from Corsica. Asterix and Obelix accompany him back to Corsica, to unite the quarrelling tribes against the Romans. |
| 21 | 1974 | Asterix and Caesar's Gift | Le Cadeau de César | Rome | At the end of their career, legionaries are granted estate in the Empire to settle down. A perpetually inebriated soldier is given the Village, by Caesar's hand, which he promptly sells to an innkeeper for wine. Pushed by his dominant wife, the innkeeper sells his property and attempts to claim the village as his own. Upon discovering that his ownership is void, he campaigns to be elected chief, causing rivalries to ensue throughout the village. To complicate matter, the soldier returns and asks the local legions' aid in reclaiming his village, since he didn't get enough wine for it. |
| 22 | 1975 | Asterix and the Great Crossing | La Grande traversée | North America | Brewing the magical potion requires fresh fish, and Unhygienix has none since he imports it from Lutetia (Paris) (in spite of living near the sea). Asterix and Obelix sail out to catch fish, but become lost and end up on the other side of the ocean, discovering a New World, where they eventually become a legend to the Native American populace. Soon afterwards, a Viking explorer discovers America, and captures the first natives he finds (i.e. them) and brings them home. A running joke in this comic is that none of the races are able to understand one another, the Vikings speaking with Scandinavian vowels that the Gauls are unable to duplicate, but that their dogs are able to communicate perfectly. |
| 23* | 1976 | Asterix Conquers Rome | Les 12 Travaux D'Asterix | various locations | To prove to his critics that the Gauls are mere mortals, Julius Caeser challenges the village to perform twelve tasks that only gods could perform, similar to the twelve tasks of Hercules. If they succeed, he will admit defeat and let them become the rulers of Rome, but if they fail, they will become his slaves. The challenge is accepted and Asterix and Obelix are chosen to represent the village, eventually succeeding in all tasks. (This comic book, published in 1976, is an adaptation of the original story animated film The Twelve Tasks of Asterix. The artwork is thought to be the work of Uderzo's brother Marcel. It has very rarely been printed and usually excluded from the canonical list of Asterix volumes.) |
| 23 | 1976 | Obelix and Co. | Obélix et Compagnie | Asterix's village (no travel) | Caesar sends one of his advisors to the Gaulish village, in an effort to make them rich, decadent and utterly dependent on Rome. He starts by buying menhirs at ever-increasing prices, thus persuading most of the village to make useless menhirs, and in turn employing other villagers to hunt for their food. The plan goes awry when Caesar's treasury turns out insufficient to fund the menhirs, and a commercial campaign to sell them in Rome fails because of competition from Egyptian menhirs and slave-made Roman menhirs. |
| 24 | 1979 | Asterix in Belgium | Astérix chez les Belges | Belgium | When Vitalstatistix hears that Caesar has said that the Belgians are the bravest of all the Gaulish peoples he heads to Belgium in a huff to show the world that his Armoricans are really the best. |
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