History Woolseyism / ComicBooks

[[folder: [[AC: Other European Comics]]

[[folder: [[AC: American comics in other languages]]]]

* The difficulty translators have with the comics was parodied in ''Asterix the Legionary'', which follows a small, multinational Roman army squad and their interpreter. At one point they're shown trekking down a Roman road, with all the members who can already understand each other (the Greek, the Briton and the Belgican), making increasingly complicated puns. The interpreter is ordered to translate for the sake of the Goths and the Egyptian, but admits that he has no idea how to translate those puns and he'll have to think about it for a while.

** One of the rules of the English translations is not to substitute accents, since they're bonded with a particular place and the translator's belief is that it draws you into remembering you're reading a translation. This caused disppointment occasionally (''Asterix and The Banquet'' is mostly about making fun of French regional accents, which all had to be rewritten with completely new wordplay) but helped them avoid UnfortunateImplications in the case of the unnamed black pirate (who usually rides the crow's nest) - in the French he talks in a stereotypical parody of Haitian speech, but in the English he talks the same as the other characters. They also broke this rule a couple of times for great effect - the villager Bucolix is given an over-the-top Somerset accent (associated in the UK with farmers) as a personality quirk rather than as a regional accent, and some Egyptians get them too in a one-panel gag that is explicitly a translation. Usually in English radio adaptations the villagers are given Cockney accents, which fits their basic personality stereotypes (rowdy and rebellious but honest).

** One of the rules of the English translations is not to substitute accents, since they're bonded with a particular place and the translator's belief is that it draws you into remembering you're reading a translation. This caused disppointment occasionally (''Asterix and The Banquet'' is mostly about making fun of French regional accents, which all had to be rewritten with completely new wordplay) but helped them avoid UnfortunateImplications in the case of the unnamed black pirate (who usually rides the crow's nest) - in the French he talks in a stereotypical parody of Haitian speech, but in the English he talks the same as the other characters. They also broke this rule a couple of times for great effect - the villager Bucolix is given an over-the-top Somerset accent (associated in the UK with farmers) as a personality quirk rather than as a regional accent. Usually in English radio adaptations the villagers are given Cockney accents, which fits their basic personality stereotypes (rowdy and rebellious but honest).

* One of the rules of the English translations is not to substitute accents, since they're bonded with a particular place and the translator's belief is that it draws you into remembering you're reading a translation. This caused disppointment occasionally (''Asterix and The Banquet'' is mostly about making fun of French regional accents, which all had to be rewritten with completely new wordplay) but helped them avoid UnfortunateImplications in the case of the unnamed black pirate (who usually rides the crow's nest) - in the French he talks in a stereotypical parody of Haitian speech, but in the English he talks the same as the other characters. They also broke this rule a couple of times for great effect - the villager Bucolix is given an over-the-top Somerset accent (associated in the UK with farmers) as a personality quirk rather than as a regional accent. Usually in English radio adaptations the villagers are given Cockney accents, which fits their basic personality stereotypes (rowdy and rebellious but honest).

* There's a scene in ''The Big Fight'' involving Asterix and Obelix hearing an owl in the forest and talking back to it. French owls say "hou, hou" (initial h's are silent in French), so the French is mostly plays off 'Oú', the French for 'where', with the characters being drawn looking around themselves, trying to determine 'oú' the sound is coming from. The English uses the slightly old-fashioned "to-whit, to-whoo" sound for the owl, and rewrites the section into plays on 'To who', with the characters looking around for who is talking.

** It's worth pointing out that the original series is not above having {{Bilingual Bonus}}es when it's appropriate. Hence, the British rebel village chief is called Zebigboss.

* The popular Belgian ''{{Tintin}}'' comic books by Hergé feature a pair of bumbling twin detectives named Dupont and Dupond in the original French language version, pronounced the same way. In adapting Hergé's work for foreign audiences, translators usually rename the detectives, giving them names that sound the same in the language they're speaking but that are spelled differently. The English version, as just one example, calls the less-than-competent detectives Thompson ("with a 'P', as in 'Psychology'"[[hottip:*:The word would change around but would always be a case where "P" was not being used for a "puh" sound]]) and Thomson ("without a 'P', as in 'Venezuela'"), keeping Hergé's original intent.

** One scene in ''Caesar's Gift'' involves Asterix sword-fighting a Roman while in character as {{Cyrano de Bergerac}}, quoting a lot of his most famous lines in a gag that goes for almost half a page (referencing Cyrano's famous duelling). While Cyrano de Bergerac is fairly well known in the UK, it's not known to a line-by-line level, and so the translator changed it to a reference to what she considered the most famous sword fight in English literature, {{Hamlet}} vs. Laertes. As a result, Asterix rants about cutting 'too, too, solid flesh' and a side character even makes a 'disdain/this Dane' pun, prompting the Roman to remark he's more like an 'antique Roman'.

* ThePhantom is also known as "the ghost who walks." The Swedish translator could have chosen to call him "det gående spöket," which means exactly the same thing, but instead went for "den vandrande vålnaden," "the wandering spirit." No Swedish reader has ever complained about this.

** It's worth pointing out that the original series is not about having {{Bilingual Bonus}}es when it's appropriate. Hence, the British rebel village chief is called Zebigboss.

* One of the comic magazines in Poland -- "Komiks Gigant" (which is exclusive to Poland) -- contains DisneyComics which, on occasion, are truly well-translated, with lots of puns and {{Shout Out}}s added in.

* One of the comic magazines in Poland - "Komiks Gigant" (which is exclusive to Poland) - contains DisneyComics which, on occasion, are truly well translated, with lots of puns and {{Shout Out}}s added in.

* ThePhantom is also known as "the ghost who walks." The Swedish translator could have chosen to call him "det gående späket," which means exactly the same thing, but instead went for "den vandrande vålnaden," "the wandering spirit." No Swedish reader has ever complained about this.

* One of the comic magazines in Poland - "Komiks Gigant" (which is exclusive to Poland) - contains DisneyComics which, on occasion, are truly masterfully translated, with lots of puns and {{Shout Out}}s added in.

** In the 1950s the Swedish publisher used one specific translator team for all DonaldDuck stories and the members coined a lot of funny neologisms that gradually have become an accepted part of the vernacular.
* The popular Belgian ''{{Tintin}}'' comic books by Herge feature a pair of bumbling twin detectives named Dupont and Dupond in the original French language version, pronounced the same way. In adapting Herge's work for foreign audiences, translators usually rename the detectives, giving them names that sound the same in the language they're speaking but that are spelled differently. The English version, as just one example, calls the less-than-competent detectives Thompson ("with a 'P', as in 'Psychology'"[[hottip:* :The word would change around but would always be a case where "P" was not being used for a "puh" sound]]) and Thomson ("without a 'P', as in 'Venezuela'"), keeping Herge's original intent.
** Other language examples include the Dutch Janssen and Jansen, the German Schultze and Schulze (in German, "lz" makes an audible plosive, just like "ltz"), the Icelandic Skapti and Skafti, the Spanish Hernandez and Fernandez...
** Most of the other names were changed as well, and there are whole websites listing the names of the main cast in various languages. Even the title character's name is changed frequently, most notably to the rather bland-sounding "Tim" in German and the completely different "Kuifje" in Dutch, which means something like 'quiffy'. Also, in French his name is pronounced more like 'Tantan' than 'Tintin'. The dog's name is also prone to change, going from Milou in the French to, for example, Snowy in English, Bobbie in Dutch, and Struppi in German. Finally, Professeur Tournesol became Professor Calculus because "Professor Sunflower", the literal translation of his name, would have sounded a bit silly in English (not so in other languages, though, and he's called Zonnenbloem in Dutch, for example).
*** The Professor's first name, Tryphon, is an antiquated, somewhat stuffy-sounding first name that alliterates with his family name Tournesol. This effect has been recreated in a number of translations, such as in the English Cuthbert Calculus, Finnish Teofilus Tuhatkauno and German Balduin Bienlein. In Dutch/Flemish it is Trifonius Zonnenbloem, however.

* One [[TheEighties 80's]] 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]].

** In ''Asterix the Legionary'', the pirates who [[RunningGag frequently have their ship sunk]] by the Gauls wind up on a makeshift raft, imitating Géricault's painting of ''The Raft of the Medusa''. The English version changed it to a pun in its own right: "We've been framed, by Jericho!"

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* The characters' names in ''{{Asterix}}'' are [[PunnyName puns]]. When translated from French to Spanish, these puns still worked fine, probably because French and Spanish are both Romance languages. However, these same puns often came out rather silly in English: the fisherman, in French, was called ''Ordralfabétix'', from ''"ordre alphabétique"'' ("alphabetical order"); now imagine a fisherman called ''"Alphabeticalorderix"''. So, the translators created new names out of whole cloth, based on the characters' traits and flaws. For example, the fisherman was often blamed for selling stale fish, thus he was called ''Unhygienix''. The chief was called ''Vitalstatistix'' because he had the "vital statistics" at hand, the bard was called ''Cacofonix'' because of his awful singing, and so on. One rather clever example: the name of Obelix's pet dog, Idéfix (from the idiomatic phrase ''idée fixe'', meaning "fixed idea") was translated as Dogmatix.

** 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 gaul man at the gaul 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 "Pnuts" and "Ptarzan".
** The dutch version has some name changes, but mostly retains the French element, since French is a mandatory subject at secondary schools for at least 2 years (except at the very lowest level) most people will understand the jokes. There is one exception, when flying over Tyrus on the magic carpet and getting shot a box is added to one of the panels explaining the relation to "Tyr" (Tyrus) and "tire" (to shoot) which are both pronounced the same in French.

** The Swedish translations are usually excellent, often with puns and clever references to Latin and Greek that do not work in any other language. Some requires a lot of pondering even by the well-educated reader.
*** There was a segment in ''Asterix the Gaul'' in which ''four'' consecutive puns on hair were needed for the panels to make any sense. They pulled off every which one stu''pen''dously in Swedish. The same four panels were translated to Polish with similar ingenuity.

** It's worth pointing out that the original series is not about having {{Bilingual Bonus}}es when it's appropriate. Hence, the british rebel village chief is called Zebigboss.
*** 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.]]

** The Tintin books, like their rival Asterix, are also famous for a lot of punning, especially when the fairly deaf Professor enters the scene, and the translators, at least into English, tend to be quite good at altering the text to make the things like rhyming work. They also have Tintin, in particular, using a lot of contemporary British turns-of-phrase, [[HaveAGayOldTime many of which have changed in meaning]].

* European example: the characters' names in ''{{Asterix}}'' are [[PunnyName puns]]. When translated from French to Spanish, these puns still worked fine, probably because French and Spanish are both Romance languages. However, these same puns often came out rather silly in English: the fisherman, in French, was called ''Ordralfabétix'', from ''"ordre alphabétique"'' ("alphabetical order"); now imagine a fisherman called ''"Alphabeticalorderix"''. So, the translators created new names out of whole cloth, based on the characters' traits and flaws. For example, the fisherman was often blamed for selling stale fish, thus he was called ''Unhygienix''. The chief was called ''Vitalstatistix'' because he had the "vital statistics" at hand, the bard was called ''Cacofonix'' because of his awful singing, and so on. One rather clever example: the name of Obelix's pet dog, Idéfix (from the idiomatic phrase ''idée fixe'', meaning "fixed idea") was translated as Dogmatix.

** Most of the other names were changed as well, and there are whole websites listing the names of the main cast in various languages. Even the title character's name is changed frequently, most notably to the rather bland-sounding "Tim" in German and the completely different "Kuifje" in Dutch, which means something like 'quiffy'. Also, in French his name is pronounced more like 'Tantan' than 'Tintin'. The dog's name is also prone to change, going from Milou in the French to, for example, Snowy in English, Bobbie in Dutch, and Struppi in German. Finally, Professeur Tournesol became Professor Calculus because "Professor Sunflower", the literal translation of his name, would have sounded a bit silly in English (not so in other languages, though, and he's called Zonnebloem in Dutch, for example).