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Title: Asterix in Switzerland
Series: Asterix #16
Authors: Goscinny & Uderzo
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Comics
Pages: 53
Words: 3K
The governor of Gaul is short changing the books and so Caesar sends an accountant to find out what’s what. The governor poisons the accountant who then asks Getafix for help. The only cure is a small flower found in the mountains of Helvetia (Switzerland), so of course off Asterix and Obelix go.
Goscinny and Uderzo (the artists) have a great time skewering the Swiss for being neat freaks who eat nothing but cheese fondues. It was quite amusing. While the pirates aren’t given any actual panel time, they are mentioned by the romans and appear to have ended up sinking their own ship, haahahahaa.
I might have pointed this out before, but several times there are a mix of panel sizes and it’s not obvious which direction you are supposed to read them in, so the authors kindly inserted big black arrows to show where you were supposed to go next. Why can’t American comics do that? It was super helpful and done in such a way that the arrows didn’t detract from the panels at all. It was done with skill. Today’s artists could take a lesson, and should.
I am giving this 3stars instead of 3.5 though, because at the beginning of the story the Chief fires his shield bearers and uses Asterix and Obelix and it’s strictly used to make a lot of bad puns and word plays. If that’s your kind of thing, then you’ll probably laugh your head off. I just groaned.
★★★☆☆
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
All I remember is the fondue.
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Honestly, that’s all you really NEED to remember., as it gets used so much. I mean, even the roman orgy is all about the fondue, hahahahaa.
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Do you like fondue? I always thought it looked so disgusting I could never join in.
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I’ve only had a chocolate fondue. I don’t like swiss cheese but I do like melted cheese on stuff. Not sure how I’d feel about sharing a pot of the stuff though.
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Yeah, I like cheese but when I see that fondue pot at a dinner party it just looks gross.
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I’ve been to a fondue party 🙄 it was all the rage back in the ’70’s and everyone got a fondue set given at Christmas It was OK, melted cheese and wine together, strange but do-able, but I’ve never felt the need to do one myself. I like my wine unadlterated haha!
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how many typo’s 🙄? No wonder I need emoticons. 🤷♀️
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Drinking that wine now?
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Haha nope, not yet, got 20 minutes to go. 😊
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What kind of cheeses did you use?
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I didn’t, it was someone else doing the hosting, Aunty Judith I think. I looked up the classic recipe and I think this was about right Gruyère and Emmentaler, wine, cornstarch and lemon juice.
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Ughhhhh.
Did not realize it was a whole recipe….
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There are a few on google, there’s even a beef fondue!
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Ughhhh x2!
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🤣🤣
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Good job using emoticons!
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I do like their happy little faces.
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I loved this one!
I love that the Roman women paint their faces green as a beauty trend.
I love that the Swiss hostel keeper has to track mud on his own floor in order to cover up the fact that he’s hiding the fugitives, and it’s such a sacrifice.
And I love Obelix saying, “Eating those holes in the cheese made me hungry.”
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Wow, you remember a LOT! 😀
Or did you just re-read it?
The authors aren’t shy about making their point, that’s for sure.
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It’s been years. But I really like stories, especially in historical settings, and because I’m an amateur artist, when I read this series I also spend a long time staring at the drawings.
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That makes total sense.
I must admit, the green faces were quite distinctive.
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I think I even remember this one!
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I’d like to say I will remember it in the future, but I wouldn’t place money on it 🙂
But there are scenes in certain stories that really do stand out.
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This was one of the best in the series in my opinion
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Quite a few people seem to remember this one, that’s for sure 😀
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When I read this one a long time ago I didn’t image actually ending up working in Geneva. They do actually eat other things than fondue and they don’t throw people in the Geneva lake (or Lac Leman as it’s really called) for loosing your piece of bread. Speeding however might trigger the anti-car Nazis in Geneva to something like that though.
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They don’t like cars in general?
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The Geneva people in general like cars but the Geneva politicians, which are generally leftists (by Swiss standards) are doing their best to prevent people from driving in Geneva. Speeding fines are ridiculous. Red lights are used to block traffic into Geneva and large chunks of Geneva are prohibited for most normal cars since they are not considered “green”. They even have “cameras” that flash you if your car is too noisy (by their standards).
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Now that’s what I’d call fascism!
How do you survive it?
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Oh, that’s “simple”. I work for CERN and one of the things Dan brown actually got half right in his book is that we actually have a special diplomatic status.
Although it, contrary to his book, does not allow us to ignore the trafic rules it does allow me to work in Geneva but live in France which, so far, is less of a police state.
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The arrow idea just wonderfully fits this franchise but man, I’d find it odd in other comic book stories though hahah This does remind me: when do you plan to pick up One Piece again? 😀
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You really don’t think the arrow thing would work in modern comics?
I’m going to start up manga again in January…
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