Asterix in Spain

I have a sizable collection of Asterix books, all in languages other than English, because they can serve as an entertaining way to review and/or learn a foreign language. The cartoons help with context in a major way, and the cartoons and story line are highly amusing, helping ease the pain of needing to constantly look up translations. I am not a fan of cartoons in general, but Asterix is an exception. A caveat is that the text is not dumbed-down in any way, and contains sophisticated language constructs. This will be tough going for a beginner, but if you have intermediate language skills, you might find these entertaining and useful in maintaining or advancing them.

"Asterix in Spain" is the fourteenth comic in the Asterix series, first published in 1969. There's a lot of adventure, great locations, and lots of wordplays that have been cleverly translated into English from the original French. Caesar has taken over Spain, yet a small town holds out against the invaders. To bring them to surrender, Caesar kidnaps the chiefs son, and sends him away to Gaul. Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix find the boy while he's playing hide and seek with the Roman legionairies. They take him to their village, but he proves to be a bit of a nuisance, holding his breath when he doesn't get something he wants, stirring up fights and giggling at Obelix. They decide to take him home to Spain, across the mountains, and past many dangers. Will things be put right? It's a really clever little comic.

In order to bring the rebel Spanish village (Still holding out against Roman rule) to heel , Caesar kidnaps the son of village chief , Huevos Y Bacon , Pepe, and has him spirited off the Gaul. Pepe escapes from his Roman captors , and is rescued by Asterix and Obelix , who are tasked with getting him back to his village in the south of Spain. Lots of colour and vibe , as Asterix and Obelix , with their little charge Pepe , and the dog Dogmatix, travel across Hispania (Spain), using a Basque guide for the first foray,, spending time in a nomad camp, and coming to the attention of Spurius Brontosaurus, charged by Caesar with responsibility for Pepe , who now disguises himnself to try and kidnap Pepe again from Asterix and Obelix. This brings all sorts of Spanish things into the adventure , including a spectacular bullfight , olive oil and desperadoes who charge at windmills.

My wife is of Spanish descent (her mom's a half-breed, descended from Central AMerican dictators, who traces her tyrannical blood line back to the Basque region of Spain, which really means she isn't actually Spanish, but the Central AMericans living in the land her anscestors ruled with such brutal savagery were not savvy enough to recongnize the distinction between the pre-IndoEuropean Basques and the Spanish and consequently thought of all of their oppressors as Spanish and, if all interested parties had imbibed enough wine after the banana harvest, kind of fun loving too) and there was nothing in this book that bugged me. It's Asterix at his best - kicking butt and showin' 'em who's boss!

This a book that should keep you entertained. Asterix and Obelix must help a child from Spain get back to his village. On the way there they run into Roman soldiers, pirates, and plenty of adventures filled with laughter and comedy.