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The Twelve Tasks of Asterix was an animated movie which was also adapted as a storybook, and released (in the UK, at least) alongside the other Asterix comic books.

However, the content of the story is quite fantastical (even by the standards of the series in general). Do the events of the story fit into the (admittedly loose) continuity established by the rest of the comic books? To put it another way, do the events of 'Twelve Tasks' take place in the same 'universe' as the rest of the books? Does anyone have any commentary from Goscinny or Uderzo on this?

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    What do you mean by canonicity? Goscinny or Uderzo wrote the screenplay themselves.
    – bobbyalex
    Mar 11, 2015 at 8:35
  • Thanks! I've added the sentence 'Do the events of the story fit into the continuity established by the rest of the comic books?' to explain what I was trying to get at.
    – EleventhDoctor
    Mar 11, 2015 at 8:48
  • Well, there is really no continuity between the comics. The events of one comic are almost never referenced in any of the others (save for a few).
    – bobbyalex
    Mar 11, 2015 at 8:56
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    Although the Asterix books are not focused on continuity, events in the books do reference those in other books. There are multiple examples of this. I'm going to rephrase the question about whether the events of 'Twelve Tasks' take place in the same 'universe' as the rest of the books.
    – EleventhDoctor
    Mar 11, 2015 at 9:04
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    The one thing which always bugged me was that Julius Caesar basically admitted that the Gauls are gods in the end, and symbolically gave them dominion by handing the chief his laurel leaves. But any other book following that one started with the Gaulish village still wanting to be conquered by the Romans. As Bobby Alexander said, there's not much continuity between the books, but this one event seems to stand out from the rest of the discontinuities.
    – nine9
    Mar 12, 2015 at 6:11

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The question is actually anticipated in the movie, which is a nice touch.

From Wikipedia:

After the Gauls succeed in every task, Caesar agrees that they are gods, gives them control of the Roman Empire, and retires to live with Cleopatra in a little house in the country. Caius Tiddlus takes his reward by retiring to the Isle of Pleasure. In the village's celebration, Obelix asks Asterix if the Gauls really did conquer Rome. Asterix tells him that everything that happened to them was a mere cartoon, in which everything is possible. Obelix takes advantage of this and teleports himself and his wild boar meat to the Isle of Pleasure, where he is finally able to enjoy himself.

So, from an in-universe point of view the events of The Twelve Tasks of Asterix simply don't matter.

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    This is kind of an interesting take on the outcome of the 12 tasks... I always thought they were a bit odd in comparison to the rest of stories - in none of the other books do I recall Caeser or any of the Romans capitulating in such a comprehensive fashion. I never really contemplated it heavily though... GLAD you asked the question - and even MORE glad you gave this answer!
    – kiltannen
    Nov 11, 2018 at 1:52
  • Thanks @kitkannen - I do contemplate these things heavily!! :-)
    – EleventhDoctor
    Nov 11, 2018 at 14:12
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    I rememer getting this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix_and_the_Falling_Sky when it came out (in French). There are some fantastic Asterix books!
    – Reuben Mallaby
    Jun 16, 2020 at 12:00

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