Asterix and the Great Divide: Album #25

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0752847732 ISBN 13: 9780752847733

Publisher: Orion, 2002

The path of true love never did run smoothly—especially when the sweethearts’ fathers have split their town in half. That’s the problem for Histrionix and the beautiful Melodrama, son and daughter of two rival chieftains. So the star-crossed lovers call in Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix to sort everything out. Can the trusty trio persuade the village to reunite? Maybe some magic will help.

About the Author:

Rene Goscinny was born in Paris in 1926, and spent most of his childhood in Argentina, before eventually moving to Paris in 1951. He died in 1977. Albert Uderzo was born in 1927 in a small village in Marne, France. He met Rene Goscinny in 1951 and on 29 October 1959 their most famous creation, Asterix, made his first appearance on page 20 of Pilote. ASTERIX THE GAUL, their first album, was published in 1961 and there have now been 35 Asterix albums.

From Booklist:

Reviewed with Albert Uderzo's Asterix and Son and Asterix and the Black Gold.

Gr. 4-8. The comic-book alternate history adventures of Asterix and his buddy Obelix, begun in France in 1961, has continued through 31 volumes. These books (from 1983, 1981, and 1980, respectively) are new to American publication, though they have been available in Britain. Each story is filled with broad physical humor and puns that work in English as well as in the original French, and virtually no indigenous or ethnic group escapes Uderzo's wit (at one point, the heroes are invited to bed down in a Bethlehem cowshed.). In Asterix and Son, Asterix and Obelix become guardians of a kidnapped baby who takes a potion and develops superhuman strength. In Black Gold, the heroes travel to Mesopotamia in search of more potion. In the Great Divide, competition between two village chieftains gives the Romans an opportunity to conquer. The cartoons are playfully round and brightly colored, and the architectural and martial details go beyond simple stereotypes. Asterix already has lots of fans; here are three new-to-America episodes that will please devotees as well as gather uninitiated readers with their mix of humor, history, and good storytelling. Francisca Goldsmith
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