The sixth book in the 'Asterix' series, 'Asterix and Cleopatra', is a fun and effective one but it feels lighter than its predecessors, especially 'Asterix the Gladiator' and 'Asterix and the Banquet', the two previous volumes which are faster-paced and more madcap in nature. There's some of that in this one but, for the most part, René Goscinny exercises more patience and Albert Uderzo paints more epic frames. Also, there are fewer puns, which is a big deal, even though this book includes a gem that I'm already thinking might be the best of the entire series. I'd like to see it outdone!

It was published in book form in 1965 but serialised first in 'Pilote' magazine in 1963, the year when the world went mad for this sort of thing because of the much heralded release of 'Cleopatra', the three-hour epic Twentieth Century Fox production with Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra and Richard Burton as Mark Antony. This absolutely riffs on that, while the front cover includes a nod to 1965's 'The Greatest Story Ever Told', another Hollywood epic from the same era, noting that this is 'The Greatest Story Ever Drawn'.

Surprisingly, Mark Antony doesn't make an appearance but Julius Caesar does and he's in the very first frame, winding up a tempestuous Cleopatra by pointing out that Egyptians are decadent and deserve to be subservient to the conquering Romans. To prove that the Egyptians aren't living on past glories and are still capable of brilliance, she bets him that she can have a magnificent palace constructed in Alexandria, then capital of Egypt, in a mere three months. And she summons Edifis the architect to make it so. If he succeeds, she'll cover him in gold. If he fails, she'll have him tossed to the sacred crocodiles.

There are a bunch of catches. One is that Edifis, his name notwithstanding, isn't particularly good at architecture, as we soon discover. Another is that they're no longer using slaves, so there are a host of issues with the labour force. A third is that the Romans absolutely don't want them to win the bet, and a fourth is that neither does Artifis, a rival architect who's as slimy as they come and more than willing to scupper everything just to piss off Edifis. The minuscule timeframe can't help either. So, what's Edifis to do? Who can he call?

Why, he can call on his old travel buddy, Getafix, the druid in our favourite village of indomitable Gauls. It's a long winter voyage to Brittany on the Nastiupset and a long voyage back again, with Getafix on board, along with Asterix and Obelix and the newly named Dogmatix joining him. How much time is left after that, I have no idea, but we're not watching the calendar. We're watching the expected Mediterranean pirates, eager to tackle an Egyptian vessel only to scupper their own ship when they spy familiar Gaulish faces on board. It "comes to the same thing in the end", says the captain, and "saves us a few knocks". "Offside! Foul! Unsporting!" cries Obelix.

Of course, they soon arrive in Alexandria and, after a few run-of-the-mill pages to introduce us to Artifis and tell some whipping jokes, they soon get to work, with Getafix dishing out magic potion to the workforce and everyone hurling vast slabs of rock around as if there was no tomorrow. And, of course, there won't be for some of them if they fail! This is all exposition that arguably needed to be there, but much of this is relatively pedestrian for an 'Asterix' book, the hieroglyphics gags not landing well at all.

What does land well is Artifis', well, artifice, as he realises that he can't stop construction on the palace but he can stop the supply of stone to the site. And so we start to move around a bit, which worked so well in 'Asterix and the Banquet' and livens things up again here. Of course, we learn a long-forgotten historical secret in Cairo, namely that Obelix inadvertently knocks the nose off the sphinx after unwisely climbing up its rockface. They're also trapped inside one of the pyramids, an opportunity for Dogmatix to save the day on his first outing with a name, and they take a break at Luxor on the way back to Alexandria.

In the end, it's Julius Caesar himself, fearing the loss of his bet and deciding that sabotage may be the best way to win, who sets us on the way to the somewhat inevitable finalé. What's special fun here is that he met Asterix and Obelix a couple of books earlier in 'Asterix the Gladiator', so when certain news comes his way, he knows exactly who's responsible for it. And, of course, once we get Gauls and Romans in the same place, we're in for some memorable conflict and the authors don't fail to deliver on that. As much as the core story is fun, if always a little slow for this series, it picks up magnificently when the fighting starts.

After all, nobody drew cartoon fights like Uderzo and, yes, there are some of his patented panels here where someone with some of Getafix's magic potion inside them punches someone else so hard that all that's left to see is their sandals. And here's where that gem of a name comes in, as one particular someone is an Egyptian spy called Mintjulep (pretty good on its own) and he finds himself in need of proving his invulnerability to Julius Caesar. "Here, Superfluous, come and put this fellow in his place" cries Caesar and the hulking brute again is gone a panel later.

That name's a level above. Other than Superfluous and the historical figures, there's only Edifis; his scribe Exlibris, who can speak many languages; the villainous Artifis; his lackey, Krukhut, one name I didn't get at all; and Mintjulep, Caesar's Egyptian spy. That's not a lot of punny names to fill an 'Asterix' adventure, even if there are some odd other puns too. For instance, a centurion is hesitant to attack the Gauls because they'll just be driven into the Nile and his colleague has the temerity to point out that they'll "be annilated". Ha. Anyway, there were more punny names than that in each town that Asterix and Obelix stopped in in 'Asterix and the Banquet'. And they visited a lot of towns.

And so this is an underwhelming episode in the series, even though it does spark into agreeable top gear a few times, especially towards the end. And hey, Superfluous. I'm still laughing at that one. Next up, as if to compensate for less action this time out, 'Asterix and the Big Fight', which I recall is absolutely not short on it.

PS: Cleopatra does have a really nice nose. ~~ Hal C F Astell

For more titles by René Goscinny click here
For more titles by Albert Uderzo click here