Asterix And The Golden Sickle – René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo, 1962 ★★½

Partnering up in Paris

Something is different very early in the second volume in the Asterix The Gaul comic-book series: Asterix is joined for the first time on an adventure by a roly-poly boar-devouring buddy named Obelix.

Even before that, in the very first panel, something else about Asterix And The Golden Sickle stands out: The art. Simply put, it’s amazing, exhilarating in perspective and detail, and consistently amusing. Another partnership came together here, that of writer René Goscinny and illustrator Albert Uderzo, who emerges as the real star of this affair.

The action moves this time from the unnamed Gaulish village where Asterix and his companions hold out against Caesar’s legions to the bustling city of Lutetia, where the village druid gets his special gold sickles for preparing magic potions. Asterix and Obelix must deal with bandits and traffic jams before discovering soon after arriving that the sickle-maker, Obelix’s cousin Metallurgix, has vanished.

From the first panel above, Asterix And The Golden Sickle has that classic Uderzo polish. Even the dirt is fun. Image from https://www.waterstones.com/book/asterix-asterix-and-the-golden-sickle/rene-goscinny/albert-uderzo/9780752866130. 

Asterix: If our druid is to attend the conference in the forest of the Carnutes, we must get hold of a sickle for him. It’s urgent!

Obelix: And we must get hold of a boar for me. That’s urgent too…

Asterix: You make me sick going on about boars all the time!

Obelix: And you bore me going on about sickles!

The rapport between these two may get choppy, but they are in sync when it comes to solving the mystery of the missing craftsman and achieving their objective.

The challenge of reviewing individual Asterix books like this for me is the pleasure of the overall experience dampens my critical faculties. When you get happy humor, splendid art, and a chance to reacquaint yourself with these lovable characters, why carp?

Obelix and Asterix arrive at their destination in Asterix And The Golden Sickle. Obelix is hauling a menhir, which becomes a visual motif for him in later works but is explained here by Obelix as being "a token of friendship" to his cousin, Metallurgix. Image from https://www.pipelinecomics.com/asterix-v2-asterix-and-the-golden-sickle/.

But Golden Sickle as a book doesn’t quite have that sparkle of classic Asterix. As a story, at least, it’s rather ropy, meanders through a series of repetitive set-pieces, and ends in an abrupt if pleasant way. There’s nothing to dislike, but nothing that grabs me, either.

At least not in the writing. The art, as mentioned, is fabulous throughout. Uderzo illustrated the first Asterix book, Asterix The Gaul, and his art was certainly serviceable, even vibrant in places. But this time the visuals are splashier and relentlessly dynamic. The faces of the secondary characters are much more distinctive and amusing; the settings have depth and dimension, with split-level and aerial views keeping the story immersive yet always in motion for the reader.

As usual, the blend of ancient and modern culture accounts for much of the humor, in the dialogue and in the art. Goscinny not only knew history, he blended them with the advertising and film sensibilities of his own time. At a tavern, a request is made for “A table for three…not too near the bards.”

Asterix has a quibble with a Roman centurion who wants to lock him away. Romans always spice up an Asterix adventure, though here they stay more in the background. Image from https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/302463/pax-romana-broken.

A lot of the humor is very French, which makes sense not only because it’s a French comic but because of this story’s location. Lutetia is better-known today as Paris, the City of Light, and its high prices and rude merchants are often lampooned.

Asterix: What a lot of traffic!

Obelix: There must often be amphora-necks on fine days!

Once the pair learn about a substantial mark-up in sickle prices that accompanied Metallurgix’s disappearance, they do a bit of looking around, bringing themselves to the attention of Lutetia’s Roman occupiers. The Romans are aware of an illegal sickle trade, too, but want to keep the peace in Gaul’s largest city.

Asterix meets a fellow prisoner in a Roman dungeon after breaking up a tavern in Asterix And The Golden Sickle. The guy proves a bit of a boozehound, but a very loud and loyal Gaul, too. Image from https://whiggles.landofwhimsy.com/archives/2006/12/asterix_gets_a_paintjob.html.

For a pair of famous rebels who beat up an entire legion in the prior book, Asterix and Obelix are fairly cooperative with the Romans this time out, and vice versa. The bad guys this time appear to be Gauls: enforcer Clovogarlix and sleazy sickle-dealer Navishtrix. Beating them up is easy given the magic strength potion Asterix carries and Obelix was doused in as a baby. The trick is finding out who pulls their strings.

As a mystery, it’s not very interesting. As a comedy, it misses nearly as much as it connects. Asterix and Obelix keep getting locked up in a Roman prison for disturbing the peace, and then sprung by Lutetia’s prefect, Surplus Dairiprodus, who says he can’t be bothered with such petty affairs when he can be gorging himself instead.

Roman Captain: They’ve demolished a house, the prison door, and seven legionaires!

Dairiprodus: I find that almost amusing…As a reward I shall set these two Gauls free.

Dairiprodus as seen in a cel from a scrapped 1967 film of Golden Sickle, which Goscinny and Uderzo put to a halt because they didn't like the design. Learn more at https://lostmediawiki.com/, from which the above image is taken.

Dairiprodus bears a distinct resemblance to the English actor Charles Laughton, perhaps inspired by Laughton’s appearance as a Roman senator in the movie Spartacus a couple of years before. The snooty Romans are typically a high point in Goscinny’s Asterix send-ups, as he uses them to caricature the ruling class of 1960s France; here they come across as lazy afterthoughts in a Gaul-focused adventure.

Except the Gaul part doesn’t come into focus that well. They look in on taverns, a travel agency, and a 24-hour ox-cart race in Suidinum (present-day Le Mans). From a drunk fellow prisoner Asterix and Obelix learn about a woodland dolmen where the sickle bandits gather, and journey along a scary tree-lined road (the future Bois de Boulogne, we are told) to encounter more bandits and some wolves.

Asterix: Huh! We Gauls don’t know the meaning of fear!

Woodman: Speak for yourselves! I’m a Gaul, and I’m afraid!

Asterix and Obelix are closer to their objective than they realize in this panel from late in Asterix And The Golden Sickle. Image from https://www.linguetic.co.uk/res1books10.html.

The challenge with “Asterix” is how to make the adventures interesting when the heroes are invincible. Pummeling one’s way through wolves and outlaw bands gets stale. Obelix is more attack-happy while Asterix is more careful and strategic. A comic synergy was still forming.

Asterix: Get them, Obelix!

Obelix: You bet I will, Asterix!

And they do, in a protracted rumble sequence that goes a page longer than it needs to.

Again, the forest interlude provides another showcase for Uderzo, who delivers some masterful pastoral canvases where squirrels play and birds chitter away happily. Not ha-ha funny, just very pleasant.

Some classic Asterix elements are still coming into place. No Dogmatix yet, though a pup seen wagging its tail and looking up at Obelix on page 28 bears a distinct resemblance. The joke that nobody in Asterix’s village can stand the singing of Cacofonix the bard is finally established; for the first time we see him gagged at the end while the others party.

Cacofonix performs another village function in Golden Sickle: Schoolteacher. Asterix fans will notice a couple of differences in this model vs. the more familiar Cacofonix of later works: A thicker mustache and a flatter hairstyle. Image from https://www.everythingasterix.com/news-and-views-content/2015/6/26/asterix-world-cup-golden-sickle-vs-falling-sky.

Mostly, though, Golden Sickle stands out to me for one thing: Uderzo’s art. There was nobody quite like him. The more I look at these pages, the more I marvel at how someone could make blank sheets into such portals of verve and delight, and how he was able to keep doing it long enough to fill one of these books, let alone over 30 others. Could he have been sipping from that magic potion, too?