Review by Frank Plowright

Asterix has never ventured as far eastwards as Russia before, a situation rectified by Asterix and the Griffin. He, Obelix and Getafix are there visiting Fanciacuppov, a shaman friend of the druid, but at the same time the explorer Cartographus has persuaded Caesar to fund an expedition to capture a griffin, a legendary creature that’s half lion and half eagle. Jean-Yves Ferri’s funny opening scene reveals the basis of this being a captured Russian woman telling stories of it that Cartographus believes.

Visiting Russia enables loads of creatively funny new names like Wottastinkov the cheesemaker, Oldbloktchipov the carpenter and Kalashnikova, Fanciacuppov’s niece, and the sample art shows why the Romans might be able to cause trouble in the freezing cold. Artist Didier Conrad makes the most of the adverse conditions, with impressive panels of hundreds of Roman soldiers trudging through fearsomely carved trees, or being carried away in a rapidly running river, and his troop of Amazons are delightful.

Because the magic potion is frozen, Asterix has to be a little more cunning than the usual plan of just piling into the Romans, and that extends the plot as they’re picked off a few at a time. Ferri has a good pay-off, though, in the search for the griffin, and an appealing touch of weirdness occasionally shows through. The pirates only appear in the single panel, but French crooner Charles Aznavour is now among them, and there’s a surprisingly effective play through of the occasionally used idea of Obelix finding a girlfriend, with a more credible than usual candidate.

As with the pirates, the regular villagers are sidelined for this trip away from Gaul, but the replacement cast is enjoyable, even rumourmonger Fakenuis, and while not approaching peak Asterix the adventure supplies delights for adults and kids alike.