There are lots of opportunities to make a movie from a bad or average comic, an old or otherwise forgotten comic. Who cares about those books anyway? But are there lots of opportunities to make a movie from a good comic, that can still be bought by dozens in any bookstore, that is fresh in the memory of many people? I don't think so. Asterix is considered a good comic. Not average or poor. Asterix is not old. I don't mean the character, because no character in a comic ever seems to grow older. I mean, this comic book series doesn't grow old. Every day, Asterix-readers die of age. And at the same time young children start to read Asterix. This doesn't apply for more than two or three other comic book series. At least here in Europe, where most comic books you read only appear in one or two neighbor countries, but rarely in the whole Roman empire. So, the makers of Astérix took a high risk. And they succeeded. There are many reasons to call this an Asterix-product, not just some movie based on a comic.