Customer Reviews

Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book fell apart after one reading. Just a word of caution. The comic itself is good, but all of our Asterix books have fallen apart after 1 or more read-throughs. They need to improve their glue. Now I have to have it spiral bound.

The humorous depiction of the adventures of the inhabitants of one small village in Gaul, (modern day France) which defies Roman occupation in 50 BC with the superhuman power of a magic potion. Its full of beautiful visuals and excellent pun, especially the play of words in conversation and names of characters. Its gentle satire pokes fun on modern life, art and politics with caricatures of Napoleon, Shakespeare, Zorro and even James Bond.

In this adventure, the Gaulish Chief Vitalstatistix is sick-because of eating and drinking too much. He is advised by Druid Getafix to go on a diet at a famous slimming & health spa at Averne. Asterix and Obelix who accompany him, go touring Averne and get into trouble with Romans. After hearing about the trouble, Caesar decides to humiliate the Gauls by being paraded on the shield of Vercingetorix, the leader of the Gauls whom Caesar defeated in the battle of Alesia, which remains till date, the most bitter memory for the gauls.

But the famous shield is missing. Along with the Romans, Asterix and Obelix start hunting for the Shield for their procession with Vitalstatistix. The hunt for the shield ends when a slimmed down chief comes back and its indeed easy to guess who rides on the shield in the end.

Great fun to read. A must have for Asterix fans & collectors.

(...).

As a child, I read all of the "classic" Asterix books in Swedish. As an adult and now living in the U.S., I am reading them again to my children, but this time in English. This is a good classic. As someone pointed out, the pages of some Asterix books, like this one, falls out after only minor wear. It seems like only the old classics do that. However, they are all out of stock by now anyway. Maybe future reprints of the classics will be as good as the new ones (with respect to binding). In general, the old classics have more entertaining stories than the new ones.

Asterix and Obelix live in a village in Gaul that the Romans failed to conquer. The reason for this is that the village druid knows how to make a magic potion that endows the villagers with super human strength. In this book the village chief, becomes sick from eating too much unhealthy food and is sent to recover at a health spa. Asterix and Obelix are accompanying their chief. Obelix the great Gourmet and Gourmand have no plans to diet, however, which makes his presence torturous to the patients. The main storyline is centered on a missing shield, which a defeated Gaulish King threw before (on) the feet of Julius Caesar. Very entertaining, and filled with great puns, as well as skillful wordplay.

I object to the druids name "Getafix". Whoever came up with the English names for the characters did not have kids in mind. The Swedish translation was a lot better concerning this item.

In general I find that, children the age 5-13 really enjoy these books, and so do my children. Adults can enjoy these books as well. The Asterix comic books are a great way to teach children ancient history. Naturally, the adult needs to help with the differentiation between fiction and history. From these books, my kids have learned about the Roman Empire, the ancient Greeks, the Vikings, the Goths, the Phoenicians, ancient Gaul, ancient Egypt, and the ancient Mediterranean world in general.

My ten year old started loving these books at the age of eight and he cannot get enough of them. My six year old started liking them at the age of five. Even though many Asterix puns may be a little bit above his head, my younger son still loves these stories.

In my opinion the best Asterix albums are: Asterix and the Normans; Asterix in Corsica; Obelix and company; Asterix the Gladiator; Asterix the Legionary; Asterix and Cleopatra; Asterix and the Goths; Asterix in Belgium; Asterix and the big fight; and Asterix all around Gaul. The last title is a translation from Swedish and might be wrong.

This is an important adventure as it goes into the background of certain facts that keeps getting mentioned in all other adventures like Alesia, Vercingetorix.

My son loved it (so did I). The story is very creative and filled with the usual myriad plays on everything that typify Asterix.

Julius Caesar is after a bit of a propaganda victory. He wants to be carried like a Gaul, but on Vercingetorix's shield. However, he has no idea where he left it, or that a couple of drunken soldiers in a far outpost lost it in bets and for grog.

It is race for Asterix and Obelix, let alone Dogmatix, to find the shield before the Roman agents.

Goscinny tells us a unique story from 50 B.C., during which time too, people faced the intimidating problem of losing their weight. Vitalstatistix, our beloved Gaulish chief of the little village we know so well, is going through one such crisis and decides to get professional help in the matter. But professional help requires Vitalstatistix to travel away from the village, and of course, our friends and Vitalstatistix's finest men-Asterix and Obelix accompany him on his quest. Coincidently, they also manage to get involved in foiling yet another of Julius Cesar's plans to mock Gaul! One can't help but wholeheartedly appreciate the ingenuity with which Goscinny has wound together a story that connects a mundane weight loss issue with the daunting task of protecting national pride. What an excellent story, complete with a suspenseful and surprising ending!!! As always, Uderzo has excellently kept up with Goscinny's pen! A must read for all comic book fans.

Yet another rollicking Asterix adventure, taking place in the provinces of Gaul . When Chief Vitalstatistix takes ill, Druid Getafix suggests that he go to a health spa at Aqua Calidae in the Arvenian countryside.
While leaving Vitalstatistix at the spa, our friends decide to tour the Arvenian countryside, and in the process, deal a humiliating blow to Julius Caesar's special envoy, Tribune Noxius Vapus.
When Vapus goes to Rome to report his defeat to Caesar, he is ordered to find the famous shield of Gaullish national hero, Vercingetorix.
The result: a race against time with Asterix and Obelix searching for the shield and the Romans searching for the shield, as well as our heroes.
Once more Asterix and Obelix get up to some fantastic escapades and as always, this adventure is filled with wit, puns and double puns, including a reference to Lug the Gd of Business and Industry.

I highly recommend this book. It's classic Asterix, with all the puns and slapstick you'd expect in an adventure with the hot-tempered warrior and his menhir-carrying pal. It's good as an addition to your Asterix collection or even to start one. Enjoy!

Another great story! For those Asterix amateurs, this is one more piece for the collection.