Goscinny Books In Order

Publication Order of Astérix Books

Publication Order of Dogmatix Books

Publication Order of Nicholas Books

Publication Order of Iznogoud Books

Publication Order of Twelve Tasks of Asterix Books

Publication Order of Asterix Adventure Games Books

Publication Order of Lucky Luke Books

Rene Goscinny was a French comics writer and editor best known for the Asterix comic series that he produced together with Albert Uderzo. Goscinny was born in Paris to Polish Jewish immigrants in 1926, the second born child of Stanislaw Goscinny, and Bereśniak-Gościnna. His parents moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina when Goscinny was aged two, as his father a chemical engineer, had been called up to take a lucrative post there. His childhood in Argentina can be said to have been a happy one, given that despite his shyness he was much beloved as a class clown. Attending some of the best French schools in Buenos Aires, he started drawing at a very early age, drawing inspiration from the illustrated stories he found in the library. The tranquil lifestyle was not to last long as his father died from a cerebral hemorrhage when Goscinny was 17, forcing him to look for a job to support himself. He was soon hired as an accountant assistant in 1944 before he was laid off and ended up as an illustrator for an advertising agency. He did not stay long at the agency as the next year he moved to New York with his mother before moving on to France where he was recruited into the French army. He would serve as the appointed artist of the 141st Alpine Infantry battalion for a year, before he quit to pursue personal interests.

In 1948, Goscinny found work in a small studio in New York where he would meet a range of influential personalities and artists in the New York Magazine and comic strip landscape. Some of the people that he became fast friends with during this time include; Harvey Kurtzman who introduced him to the founders of MAD Magazine John Severin, Jack Davis, and Willy Elder. Working at the studio, he also met Maurice de Bevere with whom he wrote the Lucky Luke comic strip for over 20 years. Soon after, his work attracted the attention of World Press Agency in Belgium, Georges Troisfontaines who invited him to become the director of the agency’s Paris office. During this time, he was also working on his own projects most notably the Lucky Luke strip. He soon left the World Press Agency and together with Jean Hebrard, Uderzo and Charlier launched Edifrance, Edipress, and the highly successful magazine Pilote. But it was the creation of the comic strip series Asterix which catapulted him into the limelight. First published in 1968, the strip was so popular that in 1974, he collaborated with Uderzo to found Idefix Studios as the production house for Asterix. The studio went on to adapt Lucky Luke into a film while the Asterix series was also made into highly successful films Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar in 1999, Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra in 2002, and The Twelve Tasks of Asterix in 1976.

Most of the setting of the Asteri series is in Armorica in 50 BC, in present day Brittany, France. Julius Caesar is the overlord of Gaul, which he has captured for Rome. However, the inhabitants or Armorica are holding out as they have superhuman strength, which they can replenish by drinking a magic potion prepared by Getafix a local village druid. The chief protagonist in the series is Asterix, a shrewd and calculating man who handles the village’s most important affairs, with the help of his sidekick the slower thinking and morbidly fat Obelix. Together with Obelix’s little dog Dogmatix, Asterix and Obelix go on a series of adventures in foreign lands such as Corsica, Lutetia , Germany, Britain Spain, Belgium and even as far away as India, the Middle East and North America. The series employs several fantastic and science fiction elements such as adventures to the fabled city of Atlantis, and extraterrestrials in several of the books. The series also employs humor, which is in the main caricatures, puns, and tongue in cheek stereotypes of modern French regions and European nations. All of the character names are puns on their personalities or roles, which are often specific to their nationality. For instance, Thermos the restaurateur, or Gluteus Maximus, which can literally be translated into butt of the joke. Ethnic stereotypes are also prominent with the English deemed phlegmatic, the Germans disciplined militarists, while the Corsicans are irritable, lazy patriots.

In Asterix the Gaul, all of France is under Roman rule except for the village of Armorica. The village has Getafix the Druid to thank for a magic potion that gives them superhuman strength. Crismus Bonus a Centurion sets out to establish the secret of the villager’s strength disguised as a Gaul. He soon discovers the magic potion and hoping to use it for his own purposes – specifically to overthrow Caesar, he arrests the Druid and has him interrogated for the secret recipe. Asterix soon learns that Getafix has been captured and infiltrates the Roman garrison where he learns of the Centurion’s treason. Revealing himself to Getafix, he tells him to pretend to give in to Cronus demands but ask for strawberries as a key ingredient for the recipe. Given that the srawberries are out of season, the soldiers take a long time to find them, which gives the two time to strategize. When all the ingredients are finally collected, Getafix and his friend make a portion that makes the soldiers grow long beards and hair but no superhuman strength. Julius Caesar soon learns of the treason after his army captures Getafix and Asterix who had escaped from Crismus Bonus. Bonus and his garrison are exiled to Mongolia, while Getafix and Asterix are released and rewarded for their role in revealing the Centurion’s treachery.

In Asterix and the Golden Sickle, disaster strikes when the Druid Getafix is no longer able to make the magic potion that keeps the Roman armies at bay, after breaking his golden sickle. Asterix and Obelix head out to Lutetia to get the golden sickle, but on the road there, hear that the sickles have suddenly become rare to find, because Metallurgix the smith is missing. Upon arriving in Lutetia, they learn that his competitors, who are now selling the sickles at exorbitant rates, may have kidnapped Metallurgix. Imprisoned with a knowledgeable drunkard, they learn that the competitors have an underground storeroom full of Golden Sickles. But it will not be easy getting to the storeroom, as the competitors have rich friends and several minions who will protect the horde at all costs. Asterix and Obelix find a just centurion who helps find and release Metallurgix and imprison his greedy competitors. Upon his release, Matallurgix offers Obelix and Asterix the best of his golden sickles in gratitude for getting him released from prison.