Asterix at the Olympic Games

Hodder - Dargaud

Written by - Rene Goscinny
Drawn by - Albert Uderzo

I read my first Asterix book at the age of eight or nine. The mists of time have made me forget exactly. I bought it through a book club at school and the story instantly had me enthralled.

In this volume Asterix gets invited to compete in the Olympic Games via the Romans. The druid and Obelix offer to tag along but in the end the whole Gaulish village attends.

Once in Greece Asterix and Obelix are shocked to find that they can't compete with any magic potion. Luckily Asterix works his sly wily ways and tricks the Romans into using the potion thus winning a laurel on a technicality.

There are some holes in the story and it spends a long time getting the hero to Greece. Still the art is sumptuous and it's one of these stories where the art matches the text and blends together into something gorgeous. Some of the humour is deeply pun based, which happens to be good for me as I love a good pun.

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