7.4 /10 1 Votes
Series Asterix Artist Didier Conrad Originally published 22 October 2015 Preceded by Asterix and the Picts Illustrator Didier Conrad | 3.7/5 Goodreads Writer Jean-Yves Ferri Language French Date 2015 Main characters Asterix, Obelix | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Asterix and the Missing Scroll (French: Le Papyrus de César, "Caesar's Papyrus") is the 36th book in the Asterix series, written by Jean-Yves Ferri and illustrated by Didier Conrad. Central theme is the combat about control of information. A journalist type named "Confoundtheirpolitix" inspired by Julian Assange has a top role in the plot. A whistleblower named "Bigdhata" (an allusion to Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning) passes information about Caesar's lie on to Confoundtheirpolitix. About four million copies of Asterix and the Missing Scroll are to be printed, half in French and the other half in other languages.
Plot
The title alludes to Julius Caesar's classic book, Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War). The comic tells a slightly different version by adding an imaginary chapter with the number 24 (XXIV) named "Defeats at the Hands of the Indomitable Gauls of Armorica", which refers to the famous little village from the Asterix comics. Roman censorship by a man named "Libellus Blockbustus" deletes this chapter, since it would spoil Julius Caesar's fame and curriculum vitae. Bigdhata steals a copy of this chapter and gives it to Confoundtheirpolitix, who, in turn, passes it on to the little village of the indomitable Gauls.
Chief Vitalstatistix thinks the lie that all of Gaul has been conquered by the Romans is not so much of an embarrassment, but his wife Impedimenta urges him to campaign for the truth. Since the Gauls have, unlike the Greeks and Romans, no skills in reading and writing, druid Getafix accompanied by Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix travels to meet his former teacher from the druid's college, Archaeopterix, in the forest of the Carnutes, who shall then pass on the truth by word of mouth to future generations. After many adventures the true story reaches René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo in a French Café, who publish it and thus the mystery behind all the Asterix stories is finally unveiled.