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21 January 2005 (!!)

I don't think that website gets it quite right. (Yes I know that website invented the term, so it can define it however it likes, thanks very much, but I still don't think it's quite got it.) That website is Jump the Shark, and it defines the term "Jumping the Shark" as "a defining moment when you know your favorite [sic] television program [even sicer] has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on ... it's all downhill." The point, surely, isn't that a show "jumps the shark" when it reaches its peak. It's when it hits its trough that the hammerhead is traversed: when the show hits a defining low point from which there is no recovery. The show is already well into decline; the peak was reached ages before.

Whatever. The term comes from a sequence in Happy Days in which the writers were so uninspired of 50s-teen-angst-jokes-involving-roller-skating-waitresses that they just thought "sod it" and had The Fonz jump over a shark on water skis instead. (I mean, to paraphrase Jerome K Jerome, that The Fonz was on water skis, not the shark).

I guess that you've guessed where I'm going with this.

When, In your opinion, did Asterix jump the shark? When stories started repeating themselves? When Uderzo went solo? Has Asterix never jumped?

For me it's Asterix and the Magic Carpet, and specifically the retro-continuty in which Cacofonix's terrible singing causes it to rain. It's unfunny in itself, and it also pushes the Cacofonix character just too far the wrong side of unsubtlety. For sure jokes in subsequent books were even worse but that, for me, was the defining low-point.

Though if a future book portrays our winged-helmeted hero jumping over any sea-carnivore whilst wearing hastily improvised skis and propelled by Unhygienix's fishing boat rigged up with a Flintstones-esque heron-cum-outboard-motor, I'll get back to you.

14 August 2003 (!)

Two years without an update! What sort of a Mickey Mouse website maintainer are you, Thomas? (Something that Tom and Jerry's maid never said, to my knowledge.)

Guilty as charged, with two mitigating circumstances:

  1. I've been scratching around for something to update the site with. See below for what I've eventually clawed up.
  2. I've been writing a book about Ecstasy, which has now been published by Sanctuary. Feel free to buy it, either here or elsewhere.

Thanks to Michael Mackenzie for signing the guest book and implicitly suggesting that I should give the films a chance. Here’s the end of his comment: I do, however, disagree with your assertion that the films are an insult to the intelligence. "Asterix in Britain", for example, while not up there in terms of the sophistication of the book, works quite well as a piece of satire. (It's no surprise that the films suffer greatly in translation, far more so than the books. The French originals are, on the whole, much more intelligent.)

With this in mind, and remembering that the Hampstead Everyman Cinema (which always had good taste in films coupled with poor success in obtaining decent prints of them) used to regularly show Asterix in Britain as part of its no-adults-admitted-without-a-child Saturday matinees, I’ve picked up some videos of the films with a view to posting reviews of them to this site. Having watched most of them: like Yosemite Sam (of whom more later) I’m sticking to my guns. Compared with the books, these animations are indeed an insult to the intelligence. It’s a part of the intelligence that is essential to comedy: that part which works out what’s funny for itself without having it flagged up as ‘a joke’.

A review of the mis-titled Asterix and the Big Fight is now up. Check the new page to see my criteria for judging the films, and be sure to pass on your comments via the guestbook.

I'll ask the good people at Ramikdesign to streamline these into the site, but for the time being I'll use my can-just-about-handle-html proficiency to put the criteria here and the first review here. Incidently: if you want any more of these you'll have to give me copies of the films. See the criteria page for more about my latest tight-fisted 'offer'.

18 July 2001

Four months on and my forum has attracted the grand total of ... wait for it ... no posts at all. Not even from me. In the nick of time a fellow called Marco Muetz, webmaster of Comedix.de, invited me to link the forum to his hive of activity in the guise of a bulletin board, and I gratefully took up the invitation. The downside is that all the posts are presently in German - a language in which I know how to order a hotel room with a shower, but not how to discuss the finer subtleties of Asterix. Marco assures that posts in English (and I presume any other language) are more than welcome. So please take advantage of it.

I have added a short review of a short book with an ironically long title that came my way. My thoughts on How Obelix Fell Into The Magic Potion When He Was A Little Boy can be accessed by the usual menu.

A couple of chaps asked me to add their pages to my links section - and I was happy to oblige. If anyone wants me to add a link - or to swap links - just let me know. Also let me know if you know how to get onto the links pages on the official Asterix site at www.asterix.tm.fr (I submitted this site via their web-form around about December - and it still hasn't shown up). Short of bribing them, that is.

13 April 2001

Thanks to Hans Selles and others I am happy to correct my censure of Hodder below. Asterix and the Actress is indeed published by Orion books and not Hodder as as I assumed before I actually received it. The principle holds, though. Asterix titles have always tended to be bastardised in their English translations - by whatever publisher - to keep the series overall homogenised. This works in two ways: a) Always putting Asterix's name in the title even where the French title just named the main icon of the story, e.g. Les Lauriers de Cesar, much more effective in my view; b) Replacing a symbolic title - e.g. La Zizanie with something more conventional. This has removed a layer of subtlety from the books overall and reinforced the impression that they are children's books. Here's a list of affected titles:

The Mansions of the Gods and Obelix and Co. seem to have slipped through the net.

Thanks too to John Anderson for correcting my rather lax statement about the Gauls' language. I've added his correction the the Asterix and the Goths review.

Thanks also to 'George' for sending me some information about the shared birthday of Asterix and Obelix. I've taken the liberty of quoting his (could be 'her', but I suspect it's 'his') e-mail in the Actress review.

10 April 2001

Review of Asterix and the Actress is now up.

Hmmm...

Lovely artwork.

Yep

That's about the sum of it I'm afraid.

I've posited a question at the end of that revue. Any feedback would be welcome.

26 March 2001

Like Tantalus's apples the new Asterix book is here, but out of my reach. This is because the English version is not published in the UK until April 6th. Fortunately it now has an English title - until recently Amazon.co.uk listed it as 'The new Asterix'. Unfortunately the title is the rubbish Asterix and the Actress, clearly part of Hodder's policy to market the English-language books for children. Once again Uderzo's clever French title has been replaced with something simplistic that fits the 'Asterix and ...' format. Witness L'Odyssée d'Astérix becoming Asterix and the Black Gold, Astérix chez Rahàzade becoming Asterix and the Magic Carpet and La rose et le glaive becoming Asterix and the Secret Weapon.

I've attempted not to read reviews or posts about the new book, so as not to spoil it for myself, though not very successfully. The tone of the posts seems to indicate that, in most opinions, Asterix and the Actress is another well drawn but poorly written book. I will not let that cloud my judgement - once I get the book I'll read it with an open mind then put the review up on the site. In the meantime I'm half tempted to order the original version from Amazon.fr and see how well my O-level French has held up.

1 March 2001

I have tentatively added a forum to the site, just in case any people fancy discussing Asterix in a more intimate and immediate setting than, say, the Asterix mailing list. I'm well aware that this type of forum tends only to attract about one post in every calendar year - so if it doesn't take off I'll probably scrap it.

I have given the site a bit of an out-of-season spring clean consisting of the proof-reading I should have done the first time round and some updates. Updates include feedback I received through e-mail from visitors to the site, and also much information gleened from a book recently drawn to my attention: Peter Kessler's Complete Guide to Asterix (Hodder 1995). I recommend this book wholeheartedly because, on top of insightful annotations of all the Asterix books up until Secret Weapon it also details the history and background to the series - including many examples of Goscinny's and Uderzo's work prior to Asterix.

An extra section includes examples of my published writing outside of Asterix. These are collected from TV Zone, Collections and Accent magazines. In each instance these are the versions taken that resided on my C drive before submission - therefore they are the first draft prior to any re-writes or editorial jiggery-pokery.

26 February 2001

The latest Asterix book is to be released in March 2001. The nature of this 31st book is shrouded in secrecy, though the title would appear to be Astérix et Latraviata, which in itself does not give many clues. La Traviata, aka Death by Consumption: the Musical! is an opera from Verdi's middle period that details the last days of a high-class prostitute as she wastes away from everyone's favourite Victorian malaise. I can't quite see how Asterix can fit that particular narrative, though, so I await the book with interest and some trepidation. Trepidation because the last Asterix book, Asterix and Obelix All at Sea, was no good at all and I would hate to think that Uderzo had lost his touch.