The series first appeared in the Franco-Belgian comic magazine Pilote on 29 October 1959.

English: Anthea Bell, Derek Hockridge (1969–2013) Anthea Bell (2013–2016) Adriana Hunter (2017–present)Īsterix or The Adventures of Asterix ( French: Astérix or Astérix le Gaulois, 'Asterix the Gaul') is a bande dessinée comic book series about a village of indomitable Gaulish warriors who adventure around the world and fight the Roman Republic, with the aid of a magic potion, during the era of Julius Caesar, in an ahistorical telling of the time after the Gallic Wars.

Original material for the series has been published as a strip in the comics anthology(s) Pilote.

Asterix and Obelix's Birthday: The Golden Book.

Van Royen and Van der Vegt demonstrate convincingly that the creators of Asterix are thoroughly steeped in the work of historians, and that even some of their most far-fetched cartoons convey a treasure of historical facts. Thus they mention the fall of the Berlin Wall, have Laurel and Hardy serving as foreign legionnaires, and transpose contemporary customs and cultural oddities to ancient times. The appeal of Goscinny and Uderzo’ strips is that they portray all sorts of contemporary events against the background of the ancient world. In Asterix en de wijde wereld the two heroes travel through the Roman Empire, where they learn of the customs of the various inhabitants and gain some idea of their interrelationships. The modern reader stepping into the era of Asterix is playfully introduced to the age of Julius Caesar, but is bound to wonder sooner or later whether the Gauls really ate wild boar all the time, whether the Roman legions really dressed as is claimed, whether the Gauls really drank magic potions, and whether their bards really sang as badly as they do in the strips.

Using archaeology material and accounts by ancient geographers, they show amusingly and instructively what kind of world the village inhabited by Asterix, Obelix, Panoramix, Assurancetourix and Abracourcix really belonged to. Just as in their earlier Asterix en de waarheid, Van Royen and Van der Vegt examine how accurately the world-famous Asterix strip cartoons mirror the historical truth.

Asterix the Gaul by René Goscinny