Asterix And Cleopatra – René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo, 1965 ★★★★

One for the Ages

Many classic serials have early peak moments, single entries that make their claim for greatness and set a bar for all future installments.

Consider that hallmark of American culture, the sitcom. There is always that one episode people point to, like Seinfeld’s “The Contest,” Community’s “Modern Warfare,” or for us older folk, M*A*S*H’s “Sometimes You Hear The Bullet.” Fans know them well. Some argue their primacy, but not their place in the pantheon.

The same goes for bandes dessinées, or Franco-Belgian comic books. With Asterix, the first great book to call out is fairly clear. It’s this one, six books into the series, which not only made its mark as a favorite back when it came out, but set the tone for all that followed.

After all these years, it must be said, Asterix And Cleopatra is still fun.

We open in ancient Alexandria, Egypt’s capital, where a figure familiar to Asterix fans, Julius Caesar, addresses a dusky beauty we soon learn is the one and only Cleopatra, Egypt’s queen. While he enjoys wine in her palace, Caesar riles her by telling her that hers is a “decadent nation.”

CLEOPATRA: My people built the Pyramids! The Tower of Pharos! The temples – The obelisks!

CAESAR: That’s old hat! All they can do now is wait for the annual flooding of the Nile.

This angers Cleopatra so much she vows to have a magnificent palace built in Alexandria in just three months. Caesar laughs, admitting such a feat would be impressive, if well beyond Egypt’s power. As she reacts with another outburst, Caesar tells us in an aside: “She’s a nice girl, only her nose is so easily put out of joint…pretty nose, too!”

Cleopatra's version of "Undercover Boss" lacks subtlety, but is impressively grand.
Image from https://www.pipelinecomics.com/asterix-v6-asterix-and-cleopatra/

Cleopatra commands her royal architect, Edifis, to validate her bet. If he doesn’t, he will be thrown to the sacred crocodiles. Edifis, who has enough problems just making straight lines, needs help. Fortunately, he has a druid friend up in Gaul, name of Getafix. He takes a quick trip by felucca to Asterix’s village.

All this covers just the first two pages of Asterix And Cleopatra, and the pace never flags. In a short while, Asterix, Obelix, and their new canine companion Dogmatix are familiarizing themselves the wonders of Egypt and admitting along with Caesar that nothing compares to its fair queen’s nose. A charming, whimsical travelogue ensues.

The basis for the book was clearly the furor around a then-recent Hollywood movie, Antony And Cleopatra. This drew global attention both for its out-of-control budget and the off-screen affair of its two stars, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

The excesses of Hollywood roadshows and gossip columnists alike were on display during the 1963 run-up to Cleopatra. A box-office bomb, the film still made enough of a splash to figure in a classic comic book two years on.
Image from http://costumevault.blogspot.com/2016/02/cleopatra-or-most-undeserved-oscar-win.html

The cover of Asterix And Cleopatra humorously plays on the first part: “14 litres of india ink, 30 brushes, 62 soft pencils, 1 hard pencil, 27 rubbers, 1984 sheets of paper, 16 typewriter ribbons, 2 typewriters, 366 pints of beer went into its creation!”

Like Elizabeth Taylor in the movie, Asterix’s Cleopatra is also prone to big entrances, borne on a giant rolling throne surrounded by trumpeters and dancing girls. But there is little further callout to the film. No romance occurs between Asterix and Cleopatra; their dealings are fairly limited. The story focuses on hapless Edifix and his dilemma.

EDIFIX: All these worries are positively blood-curdling! By the time the crocodiles get me I’ll be quite uneatable.

ASTERIX: All the better! Are you so keen to make them a good meal?

EDIFIX: But those are sacred crocodiles! You can’t just feed them any old thing!

Edifix’s rival, Artifis, doesn’t want to disappoint the crocs either and plots against Edifix at every turn. This takes up much of the story and provides both comedy and tension.

The home of Edifix is a model of his drafting prowess. Only the unnatural strength of Obelix is enough to force open his jammed front door.
Image from https://rhakotis.com/2020/03/31/asterix-and-cleopatra/

Suspense is difficult when it comes to Asterix. As series creators René Goscinny & Albert Uderzo long ago established our heroes’ indomitability, scaring up a challenge since then would often prove difficult. I would say it is a significant drawback of the comic series to this point.

Here the danger is on Edifix, who judging by his building design is quite helpless. The assistance of Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix is thus something one anticipates with eager pleasure.

And Goscinny and Uderzo do manage to put Asterix and his mates in some real peril, involving a moody underlit tomb and merry banter just slightly undercutting a faint air of doom.

The inclusion of Dogmatix proves helpful here, for the book and the series. While he made his debut as a running background character in the last adventure, Asterix And The Banquet, it is here Dogmatix steps more to the fore, sniffing around the base of the Great Sphinx, digging up the desert for bones, and snarling at cat sculptures. Having him around gives the series a dollop of real heart.

Even Cleopatra's regal reserve is no match for the crafty charm of Dogmatix, who gets a bone for delivering her a critical message. He gets his name (actually Idefix in the original French) in this book.
Image from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/pets-dogmatix-and-more--656751558131389402/

I think the travel aspect is more problematic. Asterix had done a lot of this already and the globetrotting would get even more pronounced over time. Once again, the unnamed village where Asterix and Obelix reside is only glimpsed near the beginning and at the end, despite its wealth of unrealized (so far) story opportunities.

The other running story, the running battle with the Romans, does get brought into play here, very successfully. Caesar at once recognizes the Gauls from their past dealings. He longs to crush them and win his bet with Cleopatra at the same time.

The Egyptian setting itself offers many diversions, which Goscinny and Uderzo cash in on. Uderzo’s sprawling vistas are more pleasant and detailed than ever, while Goscinny has fun with the travails of Cleopatra’s taster, who complains of too many pearls in the vinegar; and the labor used to build the Pyramids, where crew members alternate between heavy lifting and whipping.

EDIFIX: This way everyone’s happy! Nothing like a little nip to get you going in the morning!

Asterix books were good before Asterix And Cleopatra. I would call out Asterix The Gladiator from the prior year for being almost as good. And not everything about Asterix And Cleopatra holds up with the same freshness and inspiration it had in 1965. But even treasures lose luster over time. Consider what happened to the poor Sphinx!

An ever-antsy Obelix makes his mark on Egyptian culture. "Perhaps we could stick it on again?" he asks Asterix.
Image from https://www.fantrippers.com/en/fanspots/the-sphinx/

It is not just a funny story, but an immersive one which sets a tone and whets the appetite for more Asterix stories. Thankfully, many more Asterixes would follow, with several of them just as fine and a handful perhaps even better.

Little details help to lift Asterix And Cleopatra, like the return of a hapless band of roving pirates (who scuttle their ship at first sight of Obelix, to save themselves a beating), a legionnaire getting catapulted into space during a siege, and the use of magic potions both to beat the construction deadline and save the taster from poisoning. Even the handling of the Edifix-Artifis squabble is unexpectedly amusing.

This is a book that delivers a fun tale and hits a lot of upbeat notes on the way. And it did usher in an era of engaging visuals mixed with knockabout humor and fairly subtle satire which keeps many of us coming back for more Asterix.