Citizenship : Gaul
French name : Maître Panix
German name : Meister Panix
Dutch name : Meester Panix
Spanish name : Panix
Name on a shop sign in Massilia
The name «Tunafix», which continues the series of sea-related gags (Drinklikafix, Fishfingus, Hydrophobia, etc.) from the Asterix and the Banquet album, appears on the sign of a shop in Massilia (Marseille), a city whose culinary speciality is none other than fish stew.
The original French album displayed a quite different phrase on this same sign: «Master Panix», a cultural reference from French cinema.Essentially, the visit paid by Asterix and Obelix to Massilia on their tour of Gaul gave their creators René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo a dream opportunity to doff their caps to Marcel Pagnol, a French cinematic legend.
The two most southerly-based plates from the world of Asterix are simply stuffed with references to Pagnol's famous trilogy, formed by the films Marius, Fanny and César. It all starts, and rightly so, with Caesar.
Not our dear old friend Jules, for once, but instead César Drinklikafix, whose features bear a striking resemblance to the immense actor Raimu, forever associated with these great classics of French cinema.
Two legendary scenes from these film masterpieces of the 1930s are also reproduced, highlighting Albert Uderzo's talents as a caricaturist: Marius' card game and Fanny's game of bowls.
And for the more attentive, the name of «Master Panix» is displayed above a Massilia shop, no doubt owned by a distant ancestor of the Master Panisse played by Fernand Charpin in Pagnol's films!