Asterix and Cleopatra (1965)

When Julius makes a passing comment to Queen Cleopatra that the Egyptians are a spent force in the modern world a wager is made that she can have the most fabulous palace built..and so the tale (the sixth on the series) begins...

Asterix and Obelix escort Getafix to Egypt to assist an old friend (Edifis) who has won the contract to build tha palace, only he is pretty shit at such things and he has his main rival (Artifis) as well as Julius himself trying to sabotage the construction.

Needless to say all things, as they always do, work out but I find this book harder to read than most as I have also seen the movie, and its funny when you grow up with a perception of how someone acts or talks only to be hugely disappointed when faced with the reality.

It is interesting to note that this book is the only time (other than when he fell into the potion as a child etc etc etc) Obelix has sampled the magic potion.

This book became a movie in cartoon form in 1968 (yet the book itself hadn't been translated into English until 1969) and then a live action movie in 2002. For those movie buffs the cover of the book is a parody of the Elizabeth Taylor movie Cleopatra's promotional poster. ( )

Five out of ten. CBR format. Cleopatra promises Caesar that she can build the Romans a paace within three months. She'll need Asterix and Obelix's help if she is to keep that promise. ( )

Cleopatra and Caesar have a shouting match about the merits of Egyptian culture. This ends in a bit, and requiring an architectural feat.

Her architect decides to get help from Getafix, and the druid, the lads, and the dog go for a little cruise to lend a hand.

Obelix gets stuck in a tomb, but does get some magic potion, and does a bit of damage to the Sphinx's schnozz.

http://graphicsf.blogspot.com/2007/02/asterix-asterix-and-cleopatra.html ( )

A typical Asterix and Obelix adventure in which they journey to Egypt with the wizard Getafix, to help an architect friend complete the Great Pyramid for Cleopatra. Fairly entertaining; I just don't care too much for the premise or the characters. Too much reliance on magic potion. ( )

I'm actually giving the 4 stars to the English edition - I bought this one because I was curious how the puns were handled in the original. My french isn't good enough to appreciate it. (But this edition has translations and explanations, which I hadn't expected.)

The Asterix stories are great fun! ( )