Asterix in Belgium (1979)
Asterix in Belgium Review
Asterix in Belgium is the 24th volume of the Asterix comic strip series that was written by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. It was published in 1979 and it was unfortunately the last volume written by Goscinny before his untimely death.
In this story, Asterix and the rest of the gang travel to Belgium to find out why the Romans are so scared of them. There, after having a huge feast, they decide to compete who is the bravest by beating as many Romans as possible. Eventually, the two peoples unite to fight off Caesar’s army. First off, this isn’t one of the more eventful, sophisticated or dramatic stories as the tension and stakes are mostly absent.
Instead, this is more a comedic travelogue that is particularly adept at making the readers acquainted with the nation of Belgium through a staggering amount of references. The highlights included all the food references with the French fries getting a particularly good shoot-out. They also included a cameo appearance of Thompson and Thompson, two iconic Tintin characters. That was quite lovely.
Beefix and Brawnix are instantly memorable one-off characters and the fact that the Belgians are portrayed as even louder and rougher versions of the Gauls lent the story a lot of great humor. Asterix and Obelix take a bit of a backseat in this installment, though the latter did get to have a great time with the tribe’s lavish cuisine. Vitalstatistix is at his most proactive as he gets to defend the reputation of his people. Caesar is also very well utilized here as his anger outbursts were hilarious. This is the best usage of him in quite some time.
Asterix in Belgium also benefits from an inclusion of the pirates, who were here so angry that their ship was attacked that they sought out justice for the first time ever. This resulted in a lot of mayhem, which was hilarious. This is almost like a party story where not a lot happens, but you are still bound to have a terrific time. The illustrations are overall strong, but the false running gag that Belgium has no trees did lead to too many empty panels that were too rough in their look. Still, the dialogue boxes were quite inventive in a couple of panels and said dialogue is witty and memorable as always.
