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Astérix #31-33
Asterix Omnibus, vol. 11
Three fun Asterix stories in one for fans to enjoy!
Asterix and Obelix celebrate their joint birthday party with some surprising guests in Asterix and the Actress. Asterix and the Class Act goes back to the day of Asterix’s birth, and follows him through school and the bid for the very first Gaulish Olympics. In Asterix and the Falling Sky, it looks as if the Gauls’ big fear that the sky will fall on their heads just might come true. But it turns out to be something very different: a space race!
Asterix and Obelix celebrate their joint birthday party with some surprising guests in Asterix and the Actress. Asterix and the Class Act goes back to the day of Asterix’s birth, and follows him through school and the bid for the very first Gaulish Olympics. In Asterix and the Falling Sky, it looks as if the Gauls’ big fear that the sky will fall on their heads just might come true. But it turns out to be something very different: a space race!
176 pages, Paperback
First published March 4, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 10, 2022
Mainly just silly.
June 22, 2012
Few people draw this well anymore.
April 4, 2026
Of the Asterix omnibuses that I have read so far, this would have to be the most interesting. The stories collected in this volume are:
- Asterix and the Actress: This story sees Asterix and Obelix celebrating their birthday, with two surprise guests coming to the village for the celebrations. In addition, familiar faces from previous Asterix stories also return in this story.
- Asterix and the Class Act: This album stands out from the other Asterix stories in the way that it is an anthology of 14 short stories. While Asterix creators Goscinny and Uderzo were taking a break from writing the books, they wrote short stories, some of which were published in magazines such as Pilote (the magazine which introduced Asterix to the world), Elle (a French lifestyle magazine), and even National Geographic while others were never published or newly written by Uderzo alone.
My favourite story in Class Act would be ‘Asterix s you have never seen him Before….’, which sees the creators drawing Asterix in different artistic styles in response to reader’s suggestions. One such panel sees Getafix the Druid inventing gadgets like the telephone & firearms, the former which is used by Asterix (named “Getafone”) while the latter is used by Obelix to fight the Romans, while the word ‘like’ is thrown around; this was drawn in response to a reader’s criticism. Other picks see Asterix and Obelix journeying into outer space in response to a Flash Gordon fan, and another sees Asterix and Obelix drawn in a psychedelic style (even wearing gold chains and bell-bottoms!) fighting female legionaries with magic flowers in response to a reader’s complaints that the Asterix stories were too male.
Another favourite story is ‘The Lutetia Olympics’. In this story, Asterix and Obelix help the city of Lutetia (the ancient incarnation of Paris) in their bid to host the first Gaulish Olympics while facing sabotage from the Romans, who are also competing to host the Games. Drawn in 1986, this story was apart of Paris’ bid to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, which were eventually hosted in Barcelona.
Asterix and the Class Act is my favourite story in this omnibus as one of my favourites in the Asterix series, as it shows that Asterix can work in a short story format other than full-length stories.
- Asterix and the Falling Sky: In my opinion, this story was an unusual entry to the Asterix series as it marks a venture into the science-fiction genre, reminding me of the Tintin book Flight 714 to Sydney, which also ventures into science-fiction. Asterix and the Falling Sky sees two aliens visiting the village- Toon from the planet Tadsilweny, and the evil Nagma. In the story, Uderzo pays tribute to Walt Disney- Toon’s home planet Tadsilweny is an anagram of Walt Disney and his appearance resembles Disney’s most famous creation, Mickey Mouse- while poking fun at manga, a style which Uderzo disliked: Nagma is an anagram of manga and his appearance is based on the style.
In conclusion, I found this omnibus an enjoyable read.
- Asterix and the Actress: This story sees Asterix and Obelix celebrating their birthday, with two surprise guests coming to the village for the celebrations. In addition, familiar faces from previous Asterix stories also return in this story.
- Asterix and the Class Act: This album stands out from the other Asterix stories in the way that it is an anthology of 14 short stories. While Asterix creators Goscinny and Uderzo were taking a break from writing the books, they wrote short stories, some of which were published in magazines such as Pilote (the magazine which introduced Asterix to the world), Elle (a French lifestyle magazine), and even National Geographic while others were never published or newly written by Uderzo alone.
My favourite story in Class Act would be ‘Asterix s you have never seen him Before….’, which sees the creators drawing Asterix in different artistic styles in response to reader’s suggestions. One such panel sees Getafix the Druid inventing gadgets like the telephone & firearms, the former which is used by Asterix (named “Getafone”) while the latter is used by Obelix to fight the Romans, while the word ‘like’ is thrown around; this was drawn in response to a reader’s criticism. Other picks see Asterix and Obelix journeying into outer space in response to a Flash Gordon fan, and another sees Asterix and Obelix drawn in a psychedelic style (even wearing gold chains and bell-bottoms!) fighting female legionaries with magic flowers in response to a reader’s complaints that the Asterix stories were too male.
Another favourite story is ‘The Lutetia Olympics’. In this story, Asterix and Obelix help the city of Lutetia (the ancient incarnation of Paris) in their bid to host the first Gaulish Olympics while facing sabotage from the Romans, who are also competing to host the Games. Drawn in 1986, this story was apart of Paris’ bid to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, which were eventually hosted in Barcelona.
Asterix and the Class Act is my favourite story in this omnibus as one of my favourites in the Asterix series, as it shows that Asterix can work in a short story format other than full-length stories.
- Asterix and the Falling Sky: In my opinion, this story was an unusual entry to the Asterix series as it marks a venture into the science-fiction genre, reminding me of the Tintin book Flight 714 to Sydney, which also ventures into science-fiction. Asterix and the Falling Sky sees two aliens visiting the village- Toon from the planet Tadsilweny, and the evil Nagma. In the story, Uderzo pays tribute to Walt Disney- Toon’s home planet Tadsilweny is an anagram of Walt Disney and his appearance resembles Disney’s most famous creation, Mickey Mouse- while poking fun at manga, a style which Uderzo disliked: Nagma is an anagram of manga and his appearance is based on the style.
In conclusion, I found this omnibus an enjoyable read.
February 16, 2025
Week omnibus. The last story was weird. Maybe more futuristic than I would like it. I liked the first one, but the other 2 were weak ones. Not the best one.
September 10, 2016
It is volume 11 of 11 and taken as a whole it doesn't live up to earlier stories: the Falling Sky is the nadir of Asterix (Aliens!) and the Actress is pretty weak too. The Class aAct is a compendium of short stories published at different times and some are pretty good - I like Getafix's rant on Latinate terms as a parody on Franglais and the children being dragged to school- others are not of a similar quality.
August 12, 2019
I came across this edition while browsing the local book-store.
I read Asterix from mid-1980's and truly enjoy the adventures of the intrepid Gaul, his friend Obelix and others.
What I liked about this issue is that all three stories are not re-telling of old stories but are original standalone stories.
Art as always is great [and I dare you not to find resemblance to the famous people of the time].
I especially liked the return of Roman veteran (from "Asterix and Caesar's Gift") and encounter with the aliens (yup, aliens :) ) although story of Obelish is one to remember (I assume this is pun on the Averne accent as in the story about Vercingetorix's shield) :)
Highly recommended to comic fans.
I read Asterix from mid-1980's and truly enjoy the adventures of the intrepid Gaul, his friend Obelix and others.
What I liked about this issue is that all three stories are not re-telling of old stories but are original standalone stories.
Art as always is great [and I dare you not to find resemblance to the famous people of the time].
I especially liked the return of Roman veteran (from "Asterix and Caesar's Gift") and encounter with the aliens (yup, aliens :) ) although story of Obelish is one to remember (I assume this is pun on the Averne accent as in the story about Vercingetorix's shield) :)
Highly recommended to comic fans.
September 21, 2017
You can look a long, long ways before finding comic strip writing as rambunctiously charming as the never-a-dull-moment tales of little Asterix and his bulbous pal Obelix. It's only in the past ten years that I've really discovered them as the gems of comicdom they are, but I am now a confirmed addict and have to ask, "Who says the French never gave us anything?" Also, as an aspiring cartoonist I must say that even the brilliant creations of the Looney Tunes crew have some competition in Albert Uderzo's enchanting artwork.
October 15, 2008
The worst of the Asterix stories. Well, I suppose they aren't bad on their own but compared to the eary ones the three books collected in Omnibus 11 are pale shadows of the earlier and much better stories. An alien visits the Gauls. Aliens? In an Asterix book? Seriously? I own it only to complete the set.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews