Asterix the Gaul adventures - Vol. 5 - Asterix and the Banquet

Written by: Goscinny - Drawings by: Uderzo
Original title: Le Tour de Gaule
Published by: Hachette Livre
First published by: Pilote no. 172 (07/02/1963)
First album edition: 1965

Gaul, now France, has always been famous for its food and drink - so when, for a bet with the Romans, Asterix and Obelix travel round collecting local delicacies they start on the journey home with all sorts of goodies.

First, however, they must outwit the thieves Villanus and Unscrupulous. And who's that little dog who has been following them all the way?

Vol. 2
Asterix and the Golden Sickle

Vol. 3
Asterix and the Goths

Vol. 4
Asterix the Gladiator

Vol. 5
Asterix and the Banquet

Vol. 6
Asterix and Cleopatra

Vol. 7
Asterix and the Big Fight

Vol. 8
Asterix in Britain

What the druids have to say about Asterix and the Banquet

This is the album that will seal the phenomenal fate of Asterix. The comic strip is becoming a kind of sociological work by bringing together just about all that unites Franco-Gauls under the seal of humour, talent and tenderness.

In the original cut-out of the album written by René Goscinny, there was the following instruction: Both go into a shop with the sign: 'pork butcher's shop - grocery'. A little dog is at the door.

Strangely, the last line, which seems innocent enough, is underlined. It may be what drove Albert Uderzo to give a more important role to the little dog in his drawings. Idéfix (the dog's French name) did not yet have a name in Asterix and the Banquet but got one a little later, after a competition in Pilote magazine.

Today, the little dog is called, variously and depending on the translation: Dogmatix, Idefiks, Ideefix, Kuzifix, Ideiafix, and even Snupix!