
Text by René Goscinny, Drawings & captions by Albert Uderzo (1989)
Orion
Hardback 2009
Story Book
978-1-4440-0026-9
Periplus Plasa Senayan – IDR170,000
That’s a hell long of a title! Which basically summarising the whole book in one sentence :) This story was originally published in Pilote magazine issue 291, year 1965, with only a few drawings. In 1989 it was published in an album with complete text stories and illustrations and has been sold out for the past decade! This edition has been given a new cover, but said to be identical with the 1989 album.
So, the truth at last! Asterix is telling what had actually happened that day, when Obelix fell into the magic potion. When he was little, Obelix was a bit soft and a very sensitive kid. He wasn’t the brightest either. He didn’t like fighting and always mocked and attacked by other kids on the village. Asterix is very fond of his best friend and so often Asterix must defend Obelix. Those days, the Gauls have been fighting the Romans too and Getafix (Indonesia: Panoramix) has been supplying them the magic potion when needed.
One day, when their dads marched out to fight the Romans, Asterix thought of an idea for Obelix to learn to defend himself. They went to Getafix’ hut to let Obelix drinks some magic potion. Obelix was supposed to take a good gulp of the potion while Asterix is watching at the front door. Just a gulp, not more than that. But you know Obelix, right? He could never resist any food, even it was the magic potion.
When they’re still in the hut, suddenly Asterix saw Getafix walked closer to his home… *danger*
“Obelix!” I whispered, turning back to the hut “Hide, quick! Here comes the druid!”. I heard a “Splosh!” inside the hut, but I didn’t have the time to go and see what it was because the druid marched straight past me and into his hut, smiling kindly at me. I was terribly worried about Obelix. (Picture 11, para 2)
There you go, you can probably guess what “Splosh!” was about. And… that is also the answer to the secret the world was waiting to know. When Obelix fell into the cauldron to hide, he drank the whole magic potion in it. Imagine, a little boy finished the gigantic cauldron full of liquid potion by himself! No wonder the potion’s effect stays forever with Obelix ;) Since then, no kids ever called him a “sissy” anymore.
A good ending for the Gauls is roast boars party when the sun almost set to sleep and little Cacofonix being tied up to the tree. That’s the way it was since they were kids too :D
I found this book by coincidence because my aim was actually Asterix & Obelix’ Birthday which was just recently published. I thought Kinokuniya has overpriced the book, to my disappointment, Periplus priced it even higher! Arrrgh. Then I saw this book, just my luck! Birthday book can wait because it’s newly published anyway, while this book… I never seen or heard of it before. Plus, just like the whole world, I needed to know how did Obelix fall into the cauldron.
This is a treasure book! A must buy for all Asterix & Obelix fans. In this book, Uderzo’s illustrations are so big covering 2 pages a time. All the small details can be enjoyed to last bit of it. Just to highlight the difference, this book is not a comic and it’s not listed as a comic album on Asterix official website.




