Asterix #2
As the second album in the German Egmont Ehapa numbering — despite being the sixth story in the original French sequence — this edition established a distinct publication order that shaped how an entire generation of German-speaking readers encountered the Asterix universe, making the Cleopatra adventure the de facto second chapter of the series in Germany. The album is a creative landmark within the Goscinny–Uderzo canon: it is the story in which Idefix (Dogmatix), Obelix's small white terrier, receives his official name after a reader contest run in Pilote magazine, cementing a character who would become inseparable from the franchise. Goscinny and Uderzo used the Egyptian setting to mount a sustained parody of Hollywood epic cinema, particularly the 1962 Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra blockbuster, giving the album a satirical depth that extended far beyond the usual Roman-occupation premise. The timing of this German album release — just weeks after the 1968 animated film adaptation, which Goscinny and Uderzo personally co-directed — meant the two works reinforced each other and helped drive the explosive early growth of the Asterix readership in Germany.
In "Asterix in Spain," the Gaulish hero and his loyal companion set off on a daring mission across the Iberian Peninsula to rescue Huevos y Bacon from Roman captivity, following his dramatic escape from Julius Caesar’s clutches. René Goscinny’s sharp storytelling, brought to life with Albert Uderzo’s dynamic art and inking, captures the series’ signature blend of humor and adventure, all framed by Uderzo’s iconic cover.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The story was first serialized across 41 installments in the French magazine *Pilote* beginning December 5, 1963 (issue 215), before Dargaud collected it as a standalone French album in 1965. German readers encountered it first in the magazine *MV* (issues 2–9/1968), and the Ehapa album edition followed on January 15, 1969, under the Delta Verlagsgesellschaft mbH imprint, with translation by Gudrun Penndorf — whose widely praised German adaptations were credited by Germany's patent office (DPMA) as a significant factor in the series' enormous success in the German-speaking market. Goscinny and Uderzo openly acknowledged the 1962 Hollywood *Cleopatra* film as a creative touchstone: visual details including the throne design and the queen's chariot were borrowed directly from the film, and the original French cover parodied the epic production by listing mock statistics for how much ink and paper the album required.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published January 15, 1969 by Delta Verlagsgesellschaft mbH / Egmont Ehapa, Stuttgart; this is the German-language edition of the sixth Asterix album (Astérix et Cléopâtre, Dargaud, 1965).
- Written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo; translated into German by Gudrun Penndorf.
- Numbered #2 in the German series, not #6 as in the French original — a deliberate departure in release order that affected all German Asterix numbering through volume 7.
- Idefix (Dogmatix), Obelix's canine companion, is officially named for the first time in this story; he had first appeared in the preceding album (Asterix and the Banquet) but was unnamed until a reader-contest result published in Pilote issue 216 (December 12, 1963) gave him his name during the original serialization of this adventure.
- The plot centers on a wager between Kleopatra (Cleopatra) and Julius Cäsar: the Egyptian architect Numerobis must complete a palace in Alexandria within three months, with Asterix, Obelix, and Miraculix traveling to Egypt to assist him.
- A 1968 Belgian–French animated film adaptation, co-directed by Goscinny and Uderzo themselves (their directorial debut, correcting their lack of involvement in the first Asterix film), was released in France on December 19, 1968 — less than a month before the German album hit shelves.
- The story and its cover were consciously inspired by the 1962 Hollywood epic Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor; visual design elements including the throne and royal chariot were drawn from the film.
- The album has been reprinted in multiple German dialect editions under Egmont Ehapa's Mundart (dialect) series, including Hessisch, Berlinerisch, Kölsch, and Unterfränkisch variants, attesting to its lasting cultural footprint in German-speaking territories.
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