Goscinny and A. Uderzo: Asterix The Gaul

Reviewed by MARGIE THOMSON

On one glorious recent Saturday my 10-year-old lay on the sofa and chortled through all six of these re-released comic classics.

It reminded me of my young self, throwing a sicky so I could stay home and finish Asterix the Gaul. I couldn't believe anything could be so hilarious — and the face-

stretching thing is, re-reading it after all those years, it still is! So silly, so funny — and, of course, with even richer pickings for adults than for children, over whose heads such timeless gags as the Centurion Crismus Bonus fly as if hurled by Obelix himself.

Asterix the Gaul was first published in 1965 and first appeared in English in 1969, thanks to the inspired translations of Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, who somehow managed to render Goscinny's punning into English hilarity. The titles poured out, 24 altogether, until Goscinny's early death in 1977. Uderzo then produced seven books on his own.

The series has been out of print in English for several years, so it's wonderful that Orion has rectified matters. The first six are newly available now — Asterix the Gaul, Asterix and Cleopatra ("such a pretty nose!"), Asterix and the Banquet, Asterix and the Gladiator, Asterix and the Golden Sickle, Asterix and the Goths — and the next 18 later this year.

Re-inked, re-coloured, redesigned, they're as witty as ever, by Toutatis, all ready for the next generation.

* Orion, $21.95