History Woolseyism / ComicBooks

* One [[TheEighties 1980s]] issue of ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' dealt with Spidey busting an arms trafficking ring, complete with an {{Anvilicious}} message about gun violence. The Brazilian translator chose to title that story ''A Cidade Apresenta Suas Armas'' (''The City Presents Its Weapons''), which also happened to be the first verse of a popular, then-recently released Brazilian rock song by band Paralamas do Sucesso. It fit amazingly well, possibly because the song had a similar [[{{Anvilicious}} anti-violence theme]].

* During TheFifties the Mexican Editorial Novarro had the rights for the translation and distribution of the DC Comics in Mexico, so they change many of the Anglo-Saxon names into Latino versions of the name thus Bruce Wayne became Bruno Diaz, Dick Grayson became Ricardo Tapia, Commissioner Gordon became Comisionado Fierro, Catwoman became Gatúbela, The Joker became El Comodín/El Guasón and Gotham City became Ciudad Gótica. They also had problems translating the name of the Bat-artifacts as the word Bat (Murciélago in Spanish) is never translated for obvious reasons, so they had to add an “I” to make the names suitable for Spanish pronunciation as for example: Batmobile became Batimóvil, Batcave became Baticueva, and Batgirl became Batichica.

* Something very common with comic strips: in Spanish ''ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible'' is known as Olafo el Vikingo and/or Olafo el Amargado (Olafo the Viking/Olafo the Embittered) and ''ComicStrip/{{Blondie}}'' is known as Pepita, Dagwood Bumstead as Lorenzo Parachoques, Alexander as Goyito, Cookie as Cuquita, Herb Woodley as Heriberto Campos, Tootsie as Hortensia and Mr Julius Dithers as Julio González or Julio Dolariza.

** Of course, who could forget the Italian translation of the catch phrase "Those Romans are crazy!" ("Ils sont fous ces romains!"), which came out as "Sono pazzi questi Romani." Gloriously, the initial letters of this literal translation [[LuckyTranslation just happen to form]] the abbreviation that was used for the Roman government, SPQR, for Senatus Populusque Romanus ("The Senate and People of Rome").

** The original Danish translation of Tintin by Jørgen Sonnergaard is generally considered to be of very high quality. One of Sonnergaard's changes from the original was to have Captain Haddock swear with AddedAlliterativeAppeal ("Pirate! Plebeian! Polecat! Prussian!") - something that Hergé himself adopted in his later albums. Sonnergaard also invented the name "Max Bjævermose" for the annoying insurance agent Seraphim Lampion (Jolyon Wagg in English) and it fitted so well that when a new translation was announced in 2005 and fans discovered that Bjævermose was to be renamed, a "People's Movement For Max Bjævermose" was formed and the publishers were forced to pony up the extra cash so they could still use the name "Max Bjævermose" in the new translation.

* ''[[ComicBook/MonicasGang Monica and Friends]]'': Jimmy Five's SpeechImpediment is slightly changed in the Japanese translation. Having him [[ElmuhFuddSyndwome mispronounce his "R"s]] doesn’t really translate well to Japanese, (many Japanese speakers [[JapaneseRanguage swap "R" with "L" on the regular]]), so he instead swaps "s" for "sh" and "tsu" for "chu". This also extends to the Japanese dub of the animated series.

** Of course, who could forget the Italian translation of the catch phrase "Those Romans are crazy!" ("Ils sont fous ces romains!"), which came out as "Sono pazzi questi Romani" ([[LuckyTranslation a literal translation]]). Its initials refer to the Roman government, Senatus Populusque Romanus ("The Senate and People of Rome").

** Several of the English dubbed animated films called the fishmonger ''Fishtix'' and the Druid who creates the strength-potions called both ''Panoramix'' (his original French name) and ''[[GettingCrapPastTheRadar Getafix]]'' (the name used in the English translations of the books).

** In some cases, puns are added where there were none in the original. In ''Asterix and the Great Crossing'', after Fulliautomatix comments on the bad quality of Unhygienix's fish once again, he responds that Fulliautomatix never appreciated his fish, such as haddock, herring, smelt, and whiting. Fulliautomatix replies with "Did you say ''smelt''?"

* When ''ComicBook/TheFantasticFour'' comics were translated to Norwegian in the late 1970s-early 1980s, three of the four members' codenames were pretty straightforwardly translated: "Herr Fantastisk" (Mister Fantastic), "Den usynlige piken" (The Invisible Girl)" and "Fakkelen" (the Torch). However, the Thing's codename was changed to "Big Ben." Later on, it became policy that all superheroes were to keep their original names in translation, so the translated names vanished, as did that particular Woolseyism.

** Sometimes the translators will even change the drawings. For exemple, in "Asterix in Switzerland", Asterix, Obelix and Idefix/Dogmatix break a wheel on their chariot and must have it repaired; in the original French version, the gaulish man at the gaulish stand-in for a gas station was also the mascot of a chain of gas stations called "Antar". In several translations, including the original English translations, the character was changed to Bibendum (the Michelin man). The dialog was also altered to include a reference to his weight ("Did you see ''his'' spare tyre?"). Interestingly, other editions of the English translation revert the drawing change but kept the dialog, which made the weight joke misplaced. Other examples of changing the drawing includes, notably, changing the strips in an Egyptian newspaper in ''Asterix and Cleopatra'' from French ones ("Chéris-Bibis") to "[[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Pnuts]]" and "[[Franchise/{{Tarzan}} Ptarzan]]".

*** The writer Goscinny loved using those in any series he wrote, notably with evil vizir Iznogud whose name is the literal phrase "He's no good" which nobody ever seems to notice because the characters all speak French. Maybe that's why the Calife [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter never notices that his vizir is constantly out to usurp him.]]

** Sometimes the translators will even change the drawings. For exemple, in "Asterix in Switzerland", Asterix, Obelix and Idefix/Dogmatix break a wheel on their chariot and must have it repaired; in the original French version, the gaulish man at the gaulish stand-in for a gas station was also the mascot of a chain of gas stations called "Antar". In several translations, including the original English translations, the character was changed to Bibendum (the Michelin man). The dialog was also altered to include a reference to his weight ("Did you see ''his'' spare tyre?"). Interestingly, other editions of the English translation revert the drawing change but kept the dialog, which made the weight joke misplaced. Other examples of changing the drawing includes, notably, changing the strips in an Egyptian newspaper in ''Asterix and Cleopatra'' from French ones ("Chéris-Bibis") to "[[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Pnuts]]" and "P{{tarzan}}".

* Something very common with comic strips: in Spanish ''HagarTheHorrible'' is known as Olafo el Vikingo and/or Olafo el Amargado (Olafo the Viking/Olafo the Embittered) and ''ComicBook/{{Blondie}}'' is known as Pepita, Dagwood Bumstead as Lorenzo Parachoques, Alexander as Goyito, Cookie as Cuquita, Herb Woodley as Heriberto Campos, Tootsie as Hortensia and Mr Julius Dithers as Julio González or Julio Dolariza.

** Sometimes the translators will even change the drawings. For exemple, in "Asterix in Switzerland", Asterix, Obelix and Idefix/Dogmatix break a wheel on their chariot and must have it repaired; in the original French version, the gaulish man at the gaulish stand-in for a gas station was also the mascot of a chain of gas stations called "Antar". In several translations, including the original English translations, the character was changed to Bibendum (the Michelin man). The dialog was also altered to include a reference to his weight. Interestingly, other editions of the English translation revert the drawing change but kept the dialog, which made the weight joke misplaced. Other examples of changing the drawing includes, notably, changing the strips in an Egyptian newspaper in ''Asterix and Cleopatra'' from French ones ("Chéris-Bibis") to "[[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Pnuts]]" and "P{{tarzan}}".

* One [[TheEighties 1980s]] issue of ''SpiderMan'' dealt with Spidey busting an arms trafficking ring, complete with an {{Anvilicious}} message about gun violence. The Brazilian translator chose to title that story ''A Cidade Apresenta Suas Armas'' (''The City Presents Its Weapons''), which also happened to be the first verse of a popular, then-recently released Brazilian rock song by band Paralamas do Sucesso. It fit amazingly well, possibly because the song had a similar [[{{Anvilicious}} anti-violence theme]].

** The original Danish translation of Tintin by Jørgen Sonnergaard is generally considered to be of very high quality. One of Sonnergaard's changes from the original was to have Captain Haddock swear in aliterations ("Pirate! Plebeian! Polecat! Prussian!") - something that Hergé himself adopted in the later albums. Sonnergaard also invented the name "Max Bjævermose" for the annoying insurance agent Seraphim Lampion (Jolyon Wagg in English) and it fitted so well that when a new translation was announced in 2005 and fans discovered that Bjævermose was to be renamed, a "People's Movement For Max Bjævermose" was formed and the publishers were forced to pony up the extra cash so they could still use the name "Max Bjævermose" in the new translation.

* In French, a lot of SpearCarrier characters will have punny names that make sense in tandem with each other when they are said by another character - such as fitting together to make a phrase, but also making sense in the comic's strict ThemeNaming. Usually, in English, where the grammar and pronunciation is different enough to make this very hard, this is changed to just being a lot of names with a similar meaning - for instance, all the villagers addressed in ''Asterix and the Normans'' when Vitalstatistix is making fun of the Normans' names all ending in '-af' are puns to do with audio science. Still, a couple of combo names did make it in - a pair of Roman guards in ''The Banquet'' are named Sendervictorius and Appianglorius, which is particularly clever as it incorporates 'Appian' as in 'Appian Way'.

* The first issue of ''ComicBook/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl'' begins with the titular heroine doing her own theme song on the notes of the classic ''[[WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1967 Spider-Man]]'' theme song. In the Italian translation, she does it on the notes of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTYkOzzYaDU the Italian theme song]] of the 1981 ''Spider-Man'' cartoon.