Editor’s note: Newsarama contributor and Olympics fan Seth Robison joins Blog@ to highlight “tangentially Olympic-related” comics and pop culture moments. You can read more from Seth on the Olympics at his blog Off The Podium.

By Seth Robison

“They” say that us Americans are self-centered. That we, the people, are prone to not care about the culture, or even the pop culture, of other nations. For example, take the French comics phenomena known as Asterix. Wildly popular throughout Europe, Asterix comics have been translated into a hundred languages (even English!) since 1959 and spawned both animated and live action films, video game adaptations and theme parks. What is that, you say? As an avid comic fan, of course you’ve heard of Asterix? Well, I don’t doubt it, but I do doubt that, like me, you’ve never actually read one.

But that’s what the magic of Wikipedia and Amazon is for. Asterix turns out to the name of the Gallic title character, who, with his friends, battles Roman invaders in the first century B.C. Far from Gladiator or 300, Asterix is a comic satire of the conflict, playing up modem European culture clashes and other anachronisms for laughs, but occasionally taking the show on the road for situational humor. Which brings us to the case of 1968’s Asterix at the Olympic Games.

First published serially in the French comics magazine Pilote to coincide with the Mexico City Olympics, Americans had to wait for the trade until the 1972 Munich Games. Asterix at the Olympic Games finds the clever hero victorious in an athletic challenge given to him by a Roman rival, thanks to a “magic potion” and its Popeye-esque effects. Fascinated by the idea of such competitions, Asterix enters the Olympics, confident in his chances. But when the nature of the potion is discovered, it is declared a performance-enhancing substance and is banned. The arrival of a Roman Legion ups the stakes; can Asterix win?

As a story, it’s fun, especially for kids, but a lot of the humor is lost in translation and the 30-year-old references. Although the visual gags still work, with the arrival of the delegation from Rhodes (a single ‘colossal’ man) a good example.

Remaining popular today, the story was adapted into a movie as recently as January of this year.

Yeah, the trailer’s in French, but you do understand more then one language, right? What are you, American?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 7:29 am and is filed under Comic Books, News & Views, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.