Asterix and the Class Act is officially the thirty-second album of the Asterix comic book series, by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, published in 2003. Unlike the other Asterix books, it is a compilation of short stories, rather than one long story. Each story has an introductory page giving some of its original history.
History
Only one of these stories is completely original in this album, the remainder are reprinted from earlier sources, most notably the French comic "Pilote". The majority of these stories were written by Goscinny. Chanticleerix, The Lutetia Olympics and The Birth of Asterix were written by Uderzo after Goscinny's death. Springtime In Gaul and Asterix as you've never seen him were also written by Uderzo alone. Most of these stories have had only very limited distribution prior to this publication. In 1993 there was an earlier, smaller collection also called La Rentree Gauloise which was only available in French. It also contained a story called L'Antiquaire as filler which was not by Goscinny nor Uderzo, does not fit with the other stories and contains two recycled and out-of-character villains. That story has not been reprinted, but otherwise Class Act is an expanded, updated version of this. Even earlier, in the mid-1980s, a promotional collection of some of these stories appeared in a number of translations as Astérix mini-histoires.
The stories
Introduction (Press Conference)
Originally an announcement page for Asterix and the Big Fight – Vitalstatistix holds a modern press conference for the upcoming stories.
Story of the village on the day of Asterix's and Obelix's birth, which interrupts a quarrel among their friends' fathers.
In 50 BC
Introduction to the stories : gives a synopsis of the themes and principal characters.
Chanticleerix
helps the village rooster defeat an eagle terrorizing the local animals, by stealing Asterix's gourd of potion to provide the rooster with the necessary advantage.
in a quasi-modernized one-panel plot in which Getafix has constructed modern firearms, Asterix is telephoning Getafix, and where the word "like" is constantly dropped into their speech,
fighting aliens on a distant planet as Jim Asteryx.
Last of all, Goscinny and Uderzo write a message saying that as they are the authors, they should be allowed to draw Asterix as they wish, and so draw a picture of him and Obelix wearing plus-fours, much to Asterix and Obelix's fury.
The authors find a modern descendant of Obelix and invite him to their publishing house, only to learn that he is too much like his ancestor.
The Birth of an Idea
This story depicts a brainstorming session between the authors, in which they become too excited by the idea of the stories' fights and are as a result carted off to a mental asylum.
Obelix: As Simple as ABC
Obelix tries to learn to read after he receives a letter from Panacea for his birthday which he does not want to share with anyone else. This was later included in the book .
In other languages
Croatian: Povratak u klupe
Dutch: Het pretpakket
Finnish: Gallialainen kertomataulu
German: Asterix plaudert aus der Schule
Greek: Ο Αστερίξ και η επιστροφή των Γαλατών
Italian: Asterix tra banchi e... banchetti
Portuguese: Astérix e o regresso dos Gauleses / Astérix e a volta às aulas
Polish: Galijskie początki
Serbian: Asteriks i povratak u galsku školu
Swedish: Åter till Gallien
Reception
On Goodreads, Asterix and the Class Act has a score of 3.77 out of 5.
