From Gaul to Lusitania Trivia Quiz

The very first Asterix album of course mentions the Gauls - the Roman-conquered nation that, in the year 50 BC, gave rise to the unlikely hero. Created by René Goscinny (writing) and Albert Uderzo (drawing), the franchise became a worldwide phenomenon with over 40 comic albums and a dozen cinematic releases, although it is still more well-known in Europe than in the Americas.

After the first album just focused on the small indomitable Gaul village, the second, "Asterix and the Golden Sickle" introduced travel - which became a staple of most adventures. The third Asterix album was the first to travel beyond the frontier of Gaul and established the tone with which the comics treated other nations: They were based on stereotypical caricatures of more or less modern nations.

In this case, the Goths - Germans - were depicted as wearing Bismarck style helmets and generally modeled after 19th century stereotypes of France's eastern neighbors.

While Asterix traveled to Rome in 1964's "Asterix the Gladiator" and to Egypt in 1965's "Asterix and Cleopatra", the next album to mention a nation was "Asterix in Britain". The plot of this album revolves around a British village, that, similar to Asterix's own, resists Roman occupation, but needs some of Getafix's magic potion to survive.

The Brits were shown as cliché tea-drinking gentlemen, although at the time of Asterix's arrival, tea was just water with a bit of milk: It was the Gauls' fault they actually started to add tea leaves to it!

Unusually for a tribe-named Asterix album, most of the plot of "Asterix and the Normans" actually happens in the Gaulish village after the Normans came to them to learn about fear. The album introduced a side character named Justforkix who, in the 1980s, became the protagonist of a series of "choose your own adventure" game books.

By the way, most "Asterix" characters' names are different in each translation, but regardless of nationality, the endings remain constant, so while you might not immediately recognize Miraculix (the German name of Getafix the druid) or Idefix (Obelix's dog in French), the -ix tells you they're Gauls!

Once again, it took a few albums for another national name to appear in the "Asterix" chronicles. While Asterix did travel to Greece in "Asterix at the Olympic Games" and to North Africa in "Asterix the Legionary", neither of those two album titles mentioned the place name.

As in the British episode, Asterix is once more being shown as the origin of a national tradition in this story: his interference led to the adoption of bullfighting by the Iberians. "Asterix in Spain" was slated to have a live-action movie adaptation in the early 2000s, but the prospective director failed to get his script approved by Albert Uderzo, so it never materialized.

Just like with the "Spain" album, it was only the English and the German translation that used the modern name of the country, the French original and all other translations using either the proper "Helvetians" or a reference to the Alps.

In this story, Getafix wants to save a poisoned Roman but needs an Edelweiss flower to brew the antidote, so Asterix and Obelix have to travel to the Alps to get one. They get to encounter bankers, cheese fondue and other satirical references to the Swiss. The idea of having an "Asterix" album set in Switzerland was suggested by none other than then-future French president George Pompidou.

"Asterix in Corsica" was one of the best-selling of the Goscinny / Uderdo albums, because it did extremely well in its native France, although, internationally, it rather underperformed in terms of sales. Its humor includes a large amount of Napoleon references as the former French emperor hailed from the island of Corsica.

The Corsican leader has one of the longest - if not the longest - names of any "Asterix" character. In the English version, he is known as Boneywasawarriorwayayix, which is even longer than the French original name of Ocatarinetabellachitchix. Both versions (as well as those of most other translations) are plays on song titles; the French version referencing Tino Rossi, a Corsican singer.

"Asterix in Belgium" was the last of the full-story albums to have been texted by René Goscinny, who died during the creation of the story. Albert Uderzo finished the album on his own, commemorating his long-time collaborator by changing the weather in the visuals at the point during the work Goscinny died - from that point on, the entire story shows overcast skies and rain instead of the mostly friendly weather in the series.

Two later albums included work by Goscinny, but both were compilations of shorter stories that had appeared separately, not the typical continuous adventure. Albert Uderzo would go on to produce eight albums alone (issues 25 to 31 and 33) before also retiring from drawing the strip, partly over criticism of the "Asterix and the Falling Sky" album which included some science fiction elements in the form of an alien visit. His solo work includes several traveling adventures, but none named for a country or tribe.

"Asterix and the Picts" is the first of the "Asterix" albums to have been created by Jean-Yves Ferri (writing) and Didier Conrad (drawing). In spite of the new creators, the cover of this album (as well as all later ones until at least 2025) still kept the tradition of prominently listing Goscinny and Uderzo, with the new artists' credits appearing in much smaller writing.

The Picts are the historical inhabitants of Scotland and their names in the story were chosen to stereotypically start with "Mac". The story revolves around a MacAroon, a Pict who lost control of his voice and only gradually regains it due to the help of the druid Getafix. During the healing process, he often recites lyrics from songs that make little sense in the context. Of course, an encounter with Nessie's ancestor also features in the plot.

Jean-Yves Ferri would only write five albums before being replaced by Fabcaro in the role after criticism about the 39th album, "Asterix and the Griffin" being bland and lacking the typical humor. "Asterix in Lusitania" is the second cooperation of Fabcaro and Didier Conrad, taking place in Portugal. It is one of surprisingly many stories where the Gauls end up helping their archenemy Julius Caesar, in this case by foiling a poisoning plot against the Roman Emperor.

One should think that after Asterix and Obelix have saved Caesar's life or rule several times, he would finally give up on trying to conquer their village (and having his legionnaires beaten up all the time) and grant them autonomy over their small region on the coast of Britanny, but it seems the sky would fall on everyone's heads before that will ever happen. And so, the story continues.