Asterix the Gaul was first published in October 1959. Happy fiftieth birthday Asterix! Apparently, Asterix is the most translated piece of French literature! Well, I did say I was starting to like the French.



Asterix is just great ... As John Mander says:

The stories are ostensibly for kids, but full of puns and current event gags and spoofs of Latin... But here’s what’s important: Goscinny and Uderzo paid their audience the compliment of assuming we had enough knowledge of Classical history to get the jokes.
I actually remember studying for a high school Classical Studies exam by reading Asterix (amongst other things). I got a good grade, so don't knock it!
However, as Mander also notes:
Alas, the world has changed in 50 years. Europe is become the European Union, and national pride—French or otherwise—is not to be encouraged. A couple of years back according to Charles Bremner of the Times, Albert Uderzo was asked by Dominique Versini, the EU Children’s Defender to let Asterix and Obelix be the official ambassadors to the United Nations convention on the Rights of Children. Not so fast, said the higher-ups at Defence for Children International:
‘… Astérix conveys an “archaic…hierarchical” world at odds with the revolutionary” values of the 1989 convention…said Jean-Pierre Rosenczveig, a senior juvenile judge who heads the French DCI. Astérix also projects “a Gaulish vision which ignores the intercultural reality of French society,” they say. His constant resistance against the Romans and other foreign invaders sends altogether the wrong message in the peace-loving European Union.’
Hah ... is nothing sacred anymore?