Caesar's papyrus

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The Papyrus of Caesar ( French original title: Le Papyrus de César ) is the 36th volume of the Asterix comic series , published in 2015 . It was written by Jean-Yves Ferri and drawn by Didier Conrad . The band is the second without the participation of the series' creators, Goscinny and Uderzo . It was originally supposed to be called Caesar's Secret .

action

Book edition by Caesar's De bello Gallico

The real work De bello Gallico , in which Caesar describes his successful campaigns against the Gauls, forms the framework for the plot . In the comic, however, it contains the fictional chapter " Setbacks in the fight against the indomitable Gauls in Aremorica " , which means the Gaulish village of Asterix and Obelix, the two heroes of the comic series. In agreement with Caesar, his Roman publisher Syndicus has this passage removed.

The Numidian scribe Bigdatha, however, passes a copy of the uncensored version on to the Gallic colporteur Polemix, who carries this scroll, which is the title-setting for the volume, to the village of Asterix and Obelix. Chief Majestix thinks the lie that “all of Gaul” is under Roman rule is not so bad at first, but rather it amuses him and he thinks about writing his own text to correct the matter. But his wife Gutemine urges him to fight the untruth. Asterix, Obelix and the druid Miraculix go to the Carnute Forest and pass the papyrus roll with the uncensored version of De bello Gallico on to Archaeopterix, the guardian of Gallic knowledge in the context of oral tradition .

In the meantime, Syndicus tries to cover up the leak through propaganda and espionage, and he continues to get entangled in a building of lies towards Caesar. When he and his Romans capture Polemix, they threaten the Gallic village with killing Polemix if the papyrus roll is not released. The Gauls seem lost with Asterix, Obelix and Miraculix absent. However, these are alerted in good time by the Gallic news network, which, triggered by the bard Troubadix's tube microphone , u. a. based on busy word of mouth and squirrel squirrels. Asterix, Obelix and Miraculix rush back to the village. It comes to a battle of the Romans against the Gauls, in which u. a. Beat Syndicus and Polemix for the uncensored papyrus roll. Suddenly Caesar appears, the Syndicus from office, because he has almost embarrassed him with his sloppiness in front of the Roman Senate . In exchange for Polemix and the promise that colporteurs will no longer be persecuted , Asterix hands over the uncensored papyrus roll to Caesar, who also receives the personal comments of Chief Majestix on the Gallic War.

The epilogue tells metafictionally the origin of the Asterix comics: The uncensored version of the Bello Gallico survived through the tradition of the Gallic druids into the 20th century. She came to the ears of "two talented authors" who used them for the comic series Asterix , whereby the volumes on Asterix in Corsica , Asterix in the British , Asterix and the Arvernerschild , Asterix in the Olympic Games , Asterix in the Picts and Asterix in the Orient ( partly covered) can be seen.

A subplot describes the effects of the horoscopes used by the superstitious Gauls. Obelix shies away from beating up Romans and eating wild boars, while Methusalix - to the displeasure of his wife - is daring and adventurous. Asterix tries to alleviate Obelix's displeasure with the considerable limitation of his options for action through a mischievous interpretation of the horoscope. But it was only when Methusalix pointed out to Obelix that their horoscopes had been swapped while reading aloud that Obelix was able to fight and feast again as before, and the repentant Methusalix decided to start a diet.

Allusions and pop cultural references

The Caesar papyrus contains many allusions to the Internet , the advancing digitization , the publications of WikiLeaks and whistleblowers . In this album, the Romans have to communicate via a complex network of carrier pigeons used by central servers in the world will be sent: This is a pastiche on the Internet as well as the micro-blogging service Twitter (inter alia p. 12.). In one panel, a Roman exclaims that a pigeon has forgotten its attachment, which alludes to the attachment to an email (p. 35).

The success of De bello Gallico is measured by the high number of positive reviews (as with relevant Internet portals ). The names and title fonts of the Roman newspapers “Imago”, “TEMPUS” and “Roma Generalis” allude to the BILD newspaper , Die Zeit and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , but their content consists only of filler text . The Roman Syndicus at the center is a parody of the French spin doctor Jacques Séguéla , who is known for his close ties with French President François Mitterrand , and Polemix (“Colporteur without borders” as an allusion to Reporters without borders ) is a pastiche of the Australian Whistleblower Julian Assange , whose “leaking” of secret documents alludes to Wikileaks . The name of his helper Bigdatha (alluding to Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning ) refers to the relevant computer term Big Data , and as an onomatopoeic word is used instead of "Peng" or "Bumm" u. a. the term " WLAN " known from wireless communication is used (p. 20). Polemix and Bigdatha outsmart u. a. two Roman security guards with the speaking names Datenflus and Antivirus .

The name of the chief druid Archeopterix refers to the ancient animal Archeopteryx , which is regarded as the link between reptiles and birds. The pirates appearing in each volume serve as a commentary on “ information piracy ” (p. 16).

Finally, the two “talented authors” who publish Archaeopterix's material as a comic are of course the two inventors of Asterix and Obelix , namely René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo .

The fictional De Bello Gallico chapter "Setbacks in the fight against the indomitable Gauls in Aremorica" ​​contains sub-chapters with the self-referential names Tour through Gaul (alludes to the content of Asterix volume 6), The Arvernerschild (11), The Spanish Geisel (14), Agent Destructivus (15), Die Trabantenstadt (17) and Corsica (20).

reception

In Germany, Caesar's Papyrus received favorable reviews:

"The new Asterix volume" The Papyrus of Caesar "is a successful communication comedy full of current allusions - and explains how the entire saga came about. It's about ... political PR, the fight for the truth in the media, investigative research cartels and authoritarian rulers who manipulate history. But don't worry: it'll still be fun. Of course, there are also variations of the usual wild boar, flogging and magic potion jokes, the typical scenes, cleverly inserted into the current allusions. The tried and tested recipe: something for everyone. And drawn very distinctly and at the same time lively ... The real highlight of this new volume is that it explains the origins of the entire Asterix myth anew - a bit like the later "Star Wars" films that go to the beginning of the saga ... This one investigative research has really paid off. "

- Johan Schloemann

“Ferri and Conrad seem to have planned a little more for the new plant, they dare to go further. Her story has a high relevance to the present, but is at the same time absolutely believable anchored in the well-known Gallic-Roman universe. Ferri and Conrad bring swing and esprit back to the series with the new volume. The jokes are less old-fashioned and clichéd, although a lot of pun is retained in Klaus Jöken's translation. Asterix will stay in the year 50 BC forever, but now it seems to have finally arrived in this millennium. "

- Nadine Lange

Others

Caesar's work De Bello Gallico was in Volume 24, Asterix in Belgium , discussed. The Gauls do not want to sit on the fact that Caesar at the beginning of the book describes the Belgians as the bravest tribe of Gaul.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Le prochain Astérix s'intitulera Le Papyrus de César , article in Le Figaro of March 31, 2015
  2. ↑ Change of title to Asterix Volume 36: The Papyrus of Caesar. Press release. Egmont Ehapa Media GmbH, June 24, 2015, archived from the original on October 19, 2017 ; Retrieved October 19, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Sascha Lehnartz: This is the most entertaining Asterix in a long time . In: Welt Online . October 22, 2015 ( welt.de [accessed October 23, 2015]).
  4. ^ A b Johan Schloemann: New Asterix volume "The Papyrus of Caesar" . In: sueddeutsche.de . ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed on October 23, 2015]).
  5. ↑ a b New Asterix: "The Papyrus of Caesar" - The Leak of the Polemix. In: www.tagesspiegel.de. Retrieved October 23, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Comic: At Teutates, now Asterix is ​​also retro! In: DiePresse.com. Retrieved October 23, 2015 .