Check it out! French comics colourist Monika Brozda was kind enough to do these sample pages for me (actually she's Polish, but she's done work for Spirou in France). Aren't they amazing? I'm thrilled! I'll be putting them into a pitch to send around to publishers in the near future. Check out Monika's blog here: http://yolk.cloudtower.com/
10 comments:
This is awesome!
Yeah I know! I'm super excited! It's very Lewis Trondheim-esque, which is just what I wanted.
How can they not publish me?
Yeah this is nice.
Is it going to be like this from here on out? Or is it only if get you some publy backing?
I wish I could afford that. No, it'll only be if I get a publisher.
Monika gave me a good deal, but she is a pro and she certainly doesn't work for free.
Cheese and rice, those are GREAT! I grew up with Spirou too! You should work with a translator, and pitch to french comics magazines like Spirou and Fluide Glaciale, or to comics publishers like Delcourt, Dargaud, or Futuropolis.
Yeah, I definitely plan to do that. I don't suppose your French is that strong?
Oh hey, in other news, Sean Esty is at NerdCorps now.
Wow! I didn't know that. Guess he left Pinata... All my best.
a third of what I read these days is in french, but my comprehension skills are far and away better than my translation skills, I don't think I'd be able to get it great. I could take a crack at it for pitching purposes, but I don't have the chops to do a good enough job for final.
The problem with translating your work from English to French is that you're not just going to need a translator, but a collaborator. That is, you're going to have to find someone who you can work very closely with who's French is good enough to handle nuances like dialect, slang, puns and double-entendres in your dialogue.
Putting it more bluntly, I can imagine an editor at say, Spirou, getting your proposal in the mail and thinking, "Hm, yes, the art is at least as good as anything we've put out in the magazine, but this atrocious dialogue is hurting my brain!" The extra effort involved in translating your comic for a European audience may wind up making the whole effort a Pyrrhic victory. I'm not saying don't do it, just be aware that you're going to be dealing with a whole other layer of complexity you may not have foreseen that could make getting published in Europe more trouble than it's worth. (And what of Spanish and Portuguese comic publishers? Ah, there's yet another can of worms...)
Hey Tom,
I thought of that already. Turns out I know a guy who knows a guy who does translation for a living, so I can probably hook something up temporarily. Plus, my colorist has given me contact info at a bunch of places, Spirou among them, and apparently the editor there speaks English.
Hey, it's worth a try.
Y'know, I kinda had a feeling that you did think all this through. I brought all that up as I was reading about all the grief Kim Thompson of The Comics Journal and Ted White of Heavy Metal went through in dealing with translation issues.
Given all this new info, I think 'Much' has a better chance in Europe than North America. Vive La France!! Down with the Colonies!!
Cheers, Tom
Post a Comment