Asterix and the Black Gold

Infobox Asterix
Title=Asterix and the Black Gold


Frenchtitle=L'Odyssee d'Asterix
Story=Albert Uderzo
Illustrations=Albert Uderzo
FrenchDate=1981
EnglishDate=1982
Preceded="Asterix and the Great Divide"
Followed="Asterix and Son"|

"Asterix and the Black Gold" (original name: "L'Odyssée d'Astérix") is the twenty-sixth volume of Asterix comic book series, originally published in 1981. It is the second book to be published after the death of René Goscinny and is thus both written and drawn by Albert Uderzo.

The book describes Asterix's and Obelix's voyage to the Middle East. It is mainly inspired by two completely different things: James Bond movies and biblical tales.

Plot summary

The book begins with Asterix and Obelix hunting wild boar. The boars, however, are crafty and lead them straight into a Roman patrol. The Gauls beat up the patrol, and in the midst of the battle, the boars escape with their lives.

Back in Rome, Emperor Julius Caesar hears of this, and orders M. Devius Surreptitius, the head of the Roman Secret Service, to send an agent to infiltrate the Gauls. This agent is a Gaulish-Roman druid known as Dubbelosix, who travels in a folding chariot full of secret devices. Dubbelosix and Surreptitius communicate via a carrier fly.

In the Gaulish village, Getafix is extremely frustrated and depressed, because he has run out of rock oil. Without rock oil, he can't make any more magic potion and the village will soon fall against the Romans.

The next day, Ekonomikrisis the Phoenician merchant arrives in Gaul. This cheers Getafix up, but he soon finds out that Ekonomikrisis forgot to bring any rock oil. This causes him to have a stroke, and chief Vitalstatistix tells Asterix and Obelix to fetch another druid to treat him. This druid turns out to be Dubbelosix.

Mesopotamia is where Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix want to go, so they and Dubbelosix come on board Ekonomikrisis's ship, which sets sail towards Mesopotamia. Along the way, they fight pirates and Roman warships, obviously winning each battle. But there's one thing that they don't know - Dubbelosix is sending covert messages to the Romans, so they can prevent the Gauls from completing their quest.

The Phoenician ship is finally able to land at Judea, where Asterix, Obelix, Dogmatix and Dubbelosix disembark and head for the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a very big and busy city, with Roman patrols everywhere. Ekonomikrisis's friend, Samson Alius, offers them refuge from the Romans and passage towards Babylon, where they'll find rock oil. While attempting to sneak into the city, Dubbelosix attracts the Romans and is left behind when Asterix and Obelix escape.

The way to Babylon is across a huge desert, but in the middle of the desert, Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix find a source of rock oil in the ground, so they fill a waterskin with it and head back home. Since Caesar had all ports sealed off to prevent their escape, the two Gauls simply capture Caesar's personal galley - along with Surreptitius and Dubbleosix, who have been awaiting the developments on board.

Unfortunately, just before landing back in Gaul, the rock oil is lost overboard (Obelix squashes Dubbelosix who was holding the waterskin and trying to spill the oil, causing the oil to squirt over the side). Asterix has lost all hope, but when they come back to the village, they find the Gauls fighting Romans as merrily as ever. It turns out that Getafix has been able to substitute beetroot juice for rock oil, and has managed to produce more magic potion. Asterix has a stroke when he realises all the journey has been for naught.

All ends well for the Gauls, and they send Dubbelosix and Surreptitius back to Caesar in a gift-wrapped box. Caesar sends them to the Circus Maximus as punishment for failure - with a new show added for a twist...

Notes

* The character Dubbelosix is an obvious homage to Sean Connery, star of the early James Bond movies. In one scene, his chariot falls off a cliff into the sea, and he has a sudden idea to press a button. In Bond's time, this would have converted the chariot into a submarine, but submarines obviously haven't been invented yet, so nothing happens. In addition to that, his name is a pun on "007". Uderzo named the Sean Connery-esque character Dubblelosix ("006"), because -ix is a common suffix for Gaulish character names, and hence was more appropriate than "Dubbeloseven" or equivalent.
*The secret service run by Surreptius is based on MI6, since it's called M.I.VI, VI is 6 in Roman numerals.
* * Surreptius is a caricature of actor Bernard Blier and bears some resemblance to James Bond's early bosses M (played in the films by Bernard Lee and Robert Brown)
* The scene where the papyrus bearing instructions self-destructs after being read is a reference to "" where messages destroyed themselves after being received.
* Saul Ben Ephishul, the Jew who escorts Asterix and Obelix from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea is based on Asterix creator and writer René Goscinny, who had died four years earlier.
* Asterix's and Obelix's visit to Jerusalem is full of references to the Bible. For example, Economicrisis mentions on page 29 that they have arrived in "the promised land". Asterix and Obelix spend the night in a stable in Bethlehem , and the Roman procurator - known as "Pontius Pirate" (a reference to Pontius Pilate) - is constantly washing his hands.
* Pontius Pirate resembles French actor Jean Gabin.
* In the desert, Asterix and Obelix run into several warrior groups from historical Mesopotamian cultures - Sumerians, Assyrians, Medes etc. - who each greet them with a hail of arrows because they mistake them for their enemies. Incidentally, the cultures have conquered each other in the reversed order in which they appear in the comic; i.e. the Medes conquered the Assyrians, the Akkadians conquered the Sumerians etc. Their presence is, however, anachronistic as these cultures no longer existed in Roman times nor had they all been contemporaneous.
* The Herodian Kingdom of Israel is anachronistically referred to as the Kingdom of Judaea and once as Palestine - these names came into use only in the first and second centuries CE respectively, whereas Asterix is set c. 50 BCE.
* The bird who gets oil over him and angrily shouts: "Oh no, don't tell me you are starting already!" is a reference to the oil spills, most notably the Amoco Cadiz in Bretagne in 1978.
* The scene of Jerusalem is taken one on one from the fantastic Holyland hotel 2nd temple model as can be seen [http://www.babaganewz.com/Virtual/index.cfm?cat=5&sub=JerusalemModel here] in its original location (in a 3d view). This model has been moved to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
* The Jews are all depicted as Yemenite-Jews, with dark skin and black eyes and beards, a tribute to Marc Chagall the famous painter whose painting of King David is hanging at the Knesset (Israeli Parliament).
* Uderzo brings various small mentions of Jewish traditions.
* The Gauls leave Jerusalem through the Lions' Gate, which, while drawn very accurately, was in fact built more than 1500 years after the timeline of the Asterix comic. The gate is part of King Suleiman's outer wall, which still stands today.
* Several characters in the story comment on the uselessness and nastiness of rock oil, wondering why anybody would want it. This is in stark contrast to the dependency on petroleum that marks our own time.

In other languages

*Dutch: "De odyssee van Asterix"
*Finnish: "Asterixin harharetket"
*German: "Die Odysee"
*Greek: "Η οδύσσεια του Αστερίξ"
*Hebrew: "אסטריקס וירושלים של זהב שחור "
*Italian: "L'Odissea di Asterix"
*Norwegian: "Asterix' Odysse"
*Portuguese: "A odisseia de Astérix"
*Polish: "Odyseja Asteriksa"
*Serbian: "Пустињска одисеја"
*Spanish: "La odisea de Astérix"
*Turkish: "Asteriks ve Kara Altın"
*Swedish: "Asterix på irrvägar"

More information

* http://www.mage.fst.uha.fr/asterix/odyssee/etude.html (in French)