“It was the year 43 AD…
All England came under Roman rule – except for one small village... Try as they might, the Romans could not force these British hardnuts to surrender.” Hard to believe as it may be, Asterix was initially presented to the English-speaking readership as a Briton, fighting against the Roman invaders of the island.
Sixty years ago, in November 1963, Asterix appeared for the first time in the UK in the weekly comics periodical Valiant, as ‘Little Fred’, together with his friend ‘Big Ed’, the name chosen for Obelix. The album Asterix le Gaulois was Britonised into Little Fred, the Ancient Brit with Bags of Grit.