When I was younger I liked those stories which took the Gauls abroad a bit more than the ones where troubles came heading their way. What can I say? I am a sucker for cheap stereotypes and the sense of wonder seemed more interesting to me. Which is not to say that I disliked the villagers, on the contrary I remember laughing in tears about their shenanigans, especially the fish monger and his arch-enemy the blacksmith.

Nowadays I have to admit, that I prefer the stories where they stay in their village, just because it is so nicely detailed and the stories within are a bit more clever and involving.

I haven't really follow Asterix after the one with the aliens/superheroes. This one I found so awful, after being semi-disappointed with new issues for years, I simply gave up.

Though thinking back, I must say that even in those glory days, yes, there were some really good one, but even then, I didn't like every other album. Those which were about visiting foreign countries never appealed to me. They were always just about the cheapest country clichés.

In the same way, although still a little stronger than Asterix, Lucky Luke nowadays relies much too heavily on just having famous historical figures appearing. Pure namedropping to no good end.

Seven years and three new books later, a new book on the horizon, I have to say: They are playing it too safe. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is not all that great either. By now almost anyone could write a story by just going through the motions of letting each and every one of the gauls have his say about a modern topic in – more or less – disguise, Asterix running along with the plot and throwing in a cheesy one liner now and again. Oh, and Obelix most certainly is not fat.

The main draw remains the series' legacy, that fond memories you might still have about it. It is still nice to visit that small village now and again, the spark keeps shimmering through. I just wish they would try to pull off something more bold and either rekindle the fire or go out with a blaze.

But then again this is the age of rehashing and moral stories, so chances are high that the griffon will be a story about endangered species and humankind destroying nature. There will be some more or less subtle nudges at current pandemic (probably something about the magic potion being the Biontec/Moderna/Astra Zenica of the past). Or maybe the griffon will turn out to be fake news from the Romans.

Well, but somehow it is nice to put on some worn-out slippers and take a walk with them. If only to remember how they were in their prime.

I finished re-reading all 35 books today (for the first time in their proper, non-German order) and I think the newest one really is a lot better than everything else after Goscinny's death (probably with the sole exception of Le fils d'Astérix/Der Sohn des Asterix). My only real gripe is the rather uninteresting villian and the somewhat unsatisfying conclusion.

The worst book was that Golden one, with the birthday party and those stupid min-stories and re-hashes of older comics, closely followed by (surprise, surprise!) Le ciel lui tombe sur la tête/Gallien in Gefahr, which I kind of liked the first time I read it, but this time it took me over a week to finish and I really hated it.

The best ones, which made me laugh out loud, were Le combat des chefs/Kampf der Häuptlinge, Les Lauriers de César/Die Lorbeeren des Cäsar and Le Domaine des Dieux/Die Trabantenstadt.

Flanderization – it's usually a sign of a series going down the drain, because its focus becomes narrower and narrower, until there is nothing left but catchphrases referring back to its own past glory.

Well, Homer underwent quite a change: From slightly dumb but yet shrewd loser to outright stupid, even stupider (almost borderlining genius again)… to downright mean and sinister. And in the end it was this (and the lazy pop culture jokes) which finally put me of the show.

Speaking of stupid: Obelix saw a similar change. While he wasn't all that smart to begin with, he got more and more focused on simply bashing some romans or eating his boars. At times I get the feeling he was less one dimensional in the earlier comics than in the latter ones (even those from Goscinny).

Hm, well, I stopped watching the Simpsons when it became all about Homer being stupid all of a sudden… Indeed, it was a very different show at the beginning.

my little cousin just started to like asterix and obelix he has 7 years and I am really "disapointed" because he is interest came through a computergame with asterix (http://www.spielediamanten.de/mmo-spiele/asterix-and-friends).... now I am trying to convince him that the comic is the original stuff and what you see on screen!!
but in general, we can observe that with many things from our childhood: the simpsons are not how they used to be. they changed the style of comedy a little bit and homer is not as stupid as before.

Oh, I do see the dilemma they are in! Obviously, Asterix is not a series which kids will just pick up by themselves; their main target audience is the traditionalists. The question, however, for me is how long it makes sense to simply maintain a status quo. I mean, maybe it was a good decision to discontinue Tintin when the original creator died. Lucky Luke, on the other hand, is an example where continuing the series works relatively well (that Pinkerton story isn't half bad) – with the usual exceptions (L’artiste-peintre / Der Kunstmaler was absolutely awful).

Well they had to walk the fine line between putting off the longtime fans and still offering something new. It seems like, they tried to play it safe and in my opinion it did pay off. Could they have made some things better? Certainly yes, there is room for improvement, but at least they rekindled my interest in the series again (even considering to re-read it). It isn't the best Asterix ever (don't even let it near Le Domaine des Dieux/Die Trabantenstadt or Astérix légionnaire/Asterix als Legionär), but compared to the earliest books or the last few ones, it almost lives up to the original.

Yet I have to admit, I am one of the handful of people who also likes the last book with the aliens. Yes, it is totally over the top, and the humor is incredibly childish, but I accept it as the persiflage on the comics that it is.

I read a less than enthusiastic review about it this week, which actually critisized the art as showing no unique style at all while missing the eye for detail which had made previous issues so great. The derivative, unoriginal plot was also not received well.

Although honestly, I can't imagine it being worse than the previous issue (the last one made by Uderzo)… I mean the silly one where Asterix fights Mickey Mouse, Superman and Manga heroes

There is a new Asterix book, and it's the first one written and drawn by somebody else than the gaul's original creators. If this was a good idea, or if it would have been better to finally give the famous duo a rest, remains to be seen.

Although I was a bit sceptical, I got it right on it's publishing day, and immediatly started to read it. Actually it was quite OK, nothing to write home about, but it wasn't half as horrible, as I expected it to be. The drawings are really good, Conrad managed to get the style just about right (except for Asterix pupils: looks like years of potion abuse finally left their mark ). The plot however is a bit of a letdown. Somehow it's just a rehash, a best of the previous stories and doesn't show any kind of development, let alone break any new grounds. But at least it does feel like an Asterix story, just not a particulary original one.