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Masaryk UniversityFaculty of Arts
Department of Englishand American Studies
English-language Translation
Michaela Macková
Specifics of Comics TranslationMaster’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Ing. Mgr. Jiří Rambousek
2012
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I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
……………………………………………..Author’s signature
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AcknowledgementI would like to thank to my supervisor Ing. Mgr. Jiří
Rambousek for his valuable advice and kind support and toMartin Buchal and Jiří Pavlovský for their insights into
the processes of comics publication and translation.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents.......................................4
1. Introduction.........................................6
2. Comics...............................................9
2.1 Defining Comics.................................9
2.2 Types of Comics................................11
2.3 Short History of Comics........................15
2.4 Comics and Comics Translation in the Czech Republic
18
3. Comics Translation..................................23
3.1 The Publication Process........................23
3.2 The Translation Process........................30
4. Specifics of Comics Translation.....................35
4.1 Foreignizing, Domestication and Localization...35
4.2 Translation Constrained by Pictures............37
4.3 Translation Constrained by Balloons and Caption
Boxes...............................................41
4.4 Special Signs..................................45
4.5 Onomatopoeic Words.............................48
4.6 Proper Names, Nicknames and Neologisms.........49
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4.7 Intertextuality................................51
5. Translation Analysis................................53
5.1 Calvin and Hobbes..............................53
5.2 Batman: Hush...................................66
5.3 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen..........82
6. Conclusion..........................................93
7. Works Cited and Consulted...........................97
7.1 Primary Sources................................97
7.2 Secondary sources..............................97
7.3 Framing Sources...............................100
8. Czech Resumé.......................................101
9. English Resumé.....................................102
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1. Introduction
Comics is a literary and artistic form which is based
on the interaction of two semiotic systems – pictures and
writings. Thanks to its history and tradition it is a very
culture-specific form as well. Both of these facts
influence the process of translation and give it certain
specifics of which a translator intending to translate
comics should be aware.
Comics translation can be seen as an easy task and
both the specifics of comics translation and the unique
traits of comics are often neglected when possible
difficulties of comics translation are considered. “A
number of studies […] use comics mostly as a source of
examples to discuss the translation of puns, proper names,
onomatopoeias, citations, allusions and other features of
language which are often found in comics but are not
specific to them” (Zanettin, “Comics in Translation
Studies” 3). Even though the necessity to deal with
translations of onomatopoeic words, proper names etc. does
not arise exclusively in comics translation, there are some
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specific usages of these forms which can be found only in
comics and together with other various specifics of comics
translation they deserve a special attention.
For a translator it is useful not only to be aware of
the specifics of comics translation, but also to understand
comics. In that way s/he can make sure, that the quality of
translation will not suffer. As Heiskenen says: “It would
be useful to improve translators’ understanding of comics
through a more systematic and analytical study of their
specifics and elements, and most importantly of the
interplay of word and image” (in Koponen 1). Therefore this
thesis offers the list and the discussion of the specific
aspects of comics translation, and the analysis of three
Czech comics translations. In addition, because the
translation of comics can be seen as “a localization
process, in which the translation of the verbal components
of translated comics is only the part of the adaptation of
the product to the target locale” (Zanettin, “The
Translation of Comics” 200), this thesis describes the
processes of both the translation and the publication of
comics.9
Chapter two of the thesis explains what comics is,
focuses on its history and describes different types of
comics. The historical summary here is not very extensive,
as it is offered only as the basic framework for the reader
to be able to classify comics properly and to better
understand the complexity of comics as an artistic and
literary form. Considering the fact that the main interest
of this thesis lies in English-Czech translation, the
history is focused on the Czech Republic and the production
of translated comics in this country.
Chapter three of the thesis introduces the process of
translation and the process of publication as it happens in
the Czech Republic. This part of the thesis explains and is
intended to prove that some editorial and publisher’s
decisions can influence the translator and his/her
translation of comics. It is based on the personal
experience in the field of comics translation and on the
interviews with Czech publishers, mainly Martin Buchal who
works in BB art publishing house, Jiří Pavlovský who works
in Crew publishing house, and Václav Dort who works in
Comics Centrum publishing house.10
Chapter four of the thesis describes the specifics of
the comics translation and chapter five shows them on the
concrete examples. The list of specifics has been
constructed based on theoretical works on comics
translation (mainly on works published in Federico
Zanettin’s collection of essays Comics in Translation),
on the interviews with the Czech translators Richard Podaný
and Viktor Janiš, and again on the personal experience in
the field of comics translation. Chapter five consists
of three analyses of three comics translated into Czech:
Calvin and Hobbes (in Czech Calvin and Hobbes) translated by
Richard Podaný, Batman: Hush (in Czech Batman: Ticho)
translated by Jiří Pavlovský and The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen (in Czech Liga výjimečných gentlemanů) translated by
Viktor Janiš. The analyses focus mainly on the said
specifics of comics translation.
Chapters four and five combined are intended to show
whether the pictorial content of comics and balloons really
are constraint for the translator, whether and how the
target culture’s expectations and the translators’
awareness of the specifics of comics translation influence11
the analysed translations and whether the specifics of
comics translation differ for various types of comics. The
findings are summarized in chapter six which contains the
conclusion of the whole thesis.
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2. Comics
The discussion of the process of comics translation
and its specifics cannot proceed without explaining what
comics is, where its roots are and what are its unique
traits. Information of this kind helps to understand comics
better and translate it better. The following subchapters
discuss various definitions of the term “comics”, show
the variety of types of comics, and present its short
history focused on comics translations in the Czech
Republic.
2.1 Defining Comics
For some people comics is a funny collection of
cartoons aimed at children, for others it is a colourful
magazine presenting superheroes aimed at adolescents and
for another group of people it can be a profound art with a
deep meaning aimed at adults. The opinions and definitions
differ and the examples of comics analysed in chapter five
show that comics can be all of that. The question is, and
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this chapter tries to find an answer to it, whether any
universal definition exists.
In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary published in 2005
“comics” is defined as “the section of a newspaper that
contains COMIC STRIPS”; however, throughout the years
comics developed from comic strips into a very variable art
form. “Depending on the theoretical framework adopted and
on the context in which the term is used, comics have been
variously termed a ‘genre’, ‘medium’, ‘language’, ‘semiotic
system’ etc.” (Zanettin, “Comics in Translation” 5); yet we
can talk about many different genres of comics rather than
of comics as a genre (ibid). The dictionary definition
offered here is a too narrow definition to encompass all
the range of works considered as comics. On the other hand,
Zanettin’s attempt at illuminating how comics can be termed
is too broad and context dependent. A good definition of
the term “comics” is hard to find, because “[t]he world of
comics is a huge and varied one [and a] definition must
encompass all these types while not being so broad as to
include anything which is clearly not comics” (McCloud 4).
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William Eisner considers comics a form of “a
sequential art” which he sees as “means of creative
expression, a distinct discipline, an art and literary form
that deal with the arrangement of pictures or images and
words to narrate a story or dramatic idea” (5). In his work
Comics and Sequential Art he discusses, together with periodical
comics or graphic novels, instructional manuals and
storyboards. His definition of comics encompasses works
which are not considered as comics, for example animations.
Scott McCloud in his work Understanding Comics starts his
attempt at defining comics with Eisner’s definition and
tries to narrow it down. He defines comics as “juxtaposed
pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence intended
to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic
response in the viewer” (McCloud 9). Both Eisner’s and
McCloud’s definitions have in common one major flaw – they
exclude works which are generally considered to be works of
comics – single panelled cartoons.
R. C. Harvey offers the following definition: “comics
consist of pictorial narratives or expositions in which
words (often lettered into the picture area within speech15
balloons) usually contribute to the meaning of the pictures
and vice versa” (qtd. in Danner). Harvey’s definition takes
into consideration single panelled cartoons, but cannot be
applied to comics which do not contain any words.
Eisner’s, McCloud’s and Harvey’s definitions are
focused on the physical structure of comics (Danner), but a
different approach is also possible. A good example of such
approach is Neil Cohn’s definition:
Truly, single panel comics, text-dominated comics, and
text absent comics are all comics—because their inclusion
has nothing to do with their structural makeup… In
this light, categorically, comics can only be
understood as a sociological, literary, and cultural
artifact, independent of the internal structures
comprising them. (qtd. in Danner)
There is no definition of comics with which would
everyone agree. Some theoreticians, like Douglas Wolk, even
think, that the ideal definition is impossible to find: “If
you try to draw a boundary that includes everything that16
counts as comics and excludes everything that doesn’t, two
things happen: first, the medium always wriggles across
that boundary, and second, whatever politics are implicit
in the definition always boomerang on the definer” (17).
That is the reason why a new attempt at defining comics is
not made here. Besides that, all definitions above combined
offer a good understanding of what “comics” is.
2.2 Types of Comics
Almost every art form can be further sorted out
according to various criteria. Comics is no exception to
that. As the art form consisting of both pictorial and
verbal components, comics can be subdivided according to
artistic features used in it, according to its function and
theme, and according to format in which it is published1.
1 Comics can be also subdivided according to area or country it
comes from i.e. American and British comics, European comics,
East Asian comics etc. because “[d]ifferent cultures inroduce
different kinds of comics” (Rota 81). However in this subdivision
all the aspects mentioned are combined, thus this thesis sticks
to the division based strictly on them.17
As far as the artistic features are concerned, comics
can be divided into many categories. Every artist has
his/her own distinct style of drawing, but two basic
broader art styles in which comics are drawn can be
distinguished: iconic (or cartoony) style and realistic
style (McCloud 54, 192). The iconic or cartoony style uses
the wide variety of lines and characters have usually a
simplified anatomy. On the other hand, the realistic style
tries to get as close to the reality as possible and
characters are depicted very closely. Yet, the art is based
on the freedom of inspiration, so the styles can be
variously combined and one can find for example, comics
with iconic characters and realistic backgrounds (McCloud
54).
Another distinct artistic feature according to which
comics can be divided is the tools and artistic techniques
used to create comics. The basic layout and sketches are
generally done by pencils and the inking is done by various
ink pens or brushes, but as far as the colouring is
concerned, artists can use the wide variety of tools and
techniques based on the tools they use: watercolours,18
acrylics, poster colours, pastels, crayons etc. However,
the old fashioned painting techniques are not the only
option available to the artists nowadays – they can use a
computer and create digital illustrations. The whole comics
then can be computer-generated.
To various painting techniques the use of colour is
connected – comics can be black-and-white, shaded, or
coloured either in flat colours or in expressive colours
(McCloud 192). The division of comics based on colour is,
however, rather close to the division according to format,
because colour can be considered as aspect of format2,
because it can be changed not only by the artist himself,
but by the publisher as well.
The artistic features mentioned here are only the
basic ones. Extensive works could be written on the
artistic features of comics. Nevertheless, because the
division according to these criteria is not used very often
in connection with comics, only these examples are
2 The term “format” of comics in this thesis refers to properties
of comics such as the size of the comics, the type of its
binding, the number of pages, the size of its page etc.19
mentioned to give the reader an idea about the artistic
possibilities comics may offer. The more frequently used
criteria for division of comics are discussed in
the following paragraphs.
Comics can be read for various reasons – for example
to be entertained or to be instructed (Zanettin, “Comics in
Translation” 5). These are two basic functional divisions,
yet the further thematic division can be applied.
Entertainment comics can be, similarly as other media,
divided into genres based on their theme. The main (super-)
genres are: comedy, tragedy and epics (Zanettin, “Comics in
Translation” 6). Comedy genres can range from a gag humour
to a political satire (ibid). Tragedy comics appeared only
recently (ibid) and thus their sub-genres are not much
profiled yet. Epics is thematically the most varied
(super-) genre. One can read detective comics, sci-fi
comics, horror comics, romance comics, adventure comics,
history comics etc. (ibid). Instruction comics can be
further divided into technical instruction comics and
attitudinal instruction comics (Eisner 142, 145). Technical
instruction comics teach the reader how to do something,20
show them processes they can perform following
the instruction offered (Eisner 142-4). Attitudinal
instruction comics show the reader certain attitude and try
to make him assume the role or the attitude presented
(Eisner 144-5).
The most widely used division of comics is based on
the format in which comics is published. The original
format which gave comics its name is a comic strip – a
short set of panels3 published in newspapers or magazines.
People traditionally linked comic strips to humour and
satire. In the Untied Stated of America these daily strips
were originally collected in comic books (Rota 81). This
format developed further and nowadays it usually contains
“a short episode (22-24 pages) of a longer, ongoing story,
usually to be continued in the following issue” (ibid).
Comic books are soft-covered, periodically issued books of
32 to 80 pages (ibid). In this format superhero stories
appear and therefore people mostly associate this format
with superhero comics. Comic books are also collected. In
Europe, these collections are called comic albums. They are
3 “A box which contains a given scene” (Eisner 163)21
non-periodical, hard-covered books (ibid). In the United
States of America they are referred to as graphic novels or
trade paperbacks and they do not have to be hard-covered –
just card-covered. There is a discrepancy in using the term
“graphic novel” – it is used both for collections of comic
books and for originally published larger works created as
one consistent work. Therefore sometimes the term original
graphic novel is used for those larger self-contained
original stories.
There are also several formats specific only for
countries of their origin i.e. bonelliano from Italy and
tankōbon from Japan. Bonelliano is a soft-covered, square-
bound, black-and-white, periodical book of 96 to 160 pages
(ibid). Originally this Italian format also collected
newspaper strips, but evolved into books containing longer
self-contained stories usually centred on one main
character (Dylan Dog, Tex etc.). Japanese tankōbon collects
episodes from Japanese manga magazines – it has from 200 to
400 pages, is printed in black and white, it is soft-
covered, square-bound and non-periodical.
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This list of comics types may not be exhaustive.
Comics is a form of art which develops in time and develops
in different places differently according to various
culture-specifics. There may be other, less known divisions
of comics and other specific types of comics not listed
here, but the most frequently used divisions were covered.
2.3 Short History of Comics
As the beginning of comics era the end of the 19th
century is traditionally considered (Zanettin, “Comics in
Translation” 1). However, the first examples of comics
stories are much older than that. They can be found among
the creations of the ancient cultures like Egyptians,
Chinese or Greek. The Egyptian paintings of everyday life
or the French Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Norman Conquest
are basically sequential images with written comments and
they can be considered to be the predecessors of comics
(McCloud 10-15).
Both for comics and the written text the important
milestone in history is the invention of the printing press
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(McCloud 15). Thanks to the printing press, literature
could spread to wide masses. The printing press made comics
possible. But comics had to wait for its first modern
creator, Rodolphe Töpffer, till the beginning of
the 19th century. Töpffer was the first one who combined
words and pictures, and used cartooning and panel borders
(McCloud 17). At this time caricature cartoons and
magazines were widely popular and this form of art started
to thrive (McCloud 17-8). The appearance of another comics
pioneer is therefore no surprise. A German artist Wilhelm
Busch “quickly established himself as the first fully
professional and truly popular comic strip artist” (“comic
strip”). He revived the realistic social satire in
his famous Max und Moritz picture story (ibid).
The most important year in comics history is
considered to be 1894, the year when R. F. Outcault’s
character Yellow Kid appeared in New York newspapers
(Zanettin, “Comics in Translation” 1). It was one of the
first comics printed in full colour, containing dialogues
in balloons and profitably merchandised (ibid). Comic
strips were becoming more and more popular and as soon as24
in 1920’s “most of the major categories of American comics
were established” (“comic strip”). In 1930’s “the United
States witnessed an explosion of comics strip” (Zanettin,
“Comics in Translation” 2) and American comics spread
throughout the world. Other countries, however, did not
fall behind – Hergé’s legendary Tintin appeared in 1920’s
and René Goscinny’s and Alberto Uderzo’s Astérix was
published in 1960’s (“comic strip”).
More realistic continuous adventure strips of many
forms were published in 1930’s and such characters as Dick
Tracy raised demand for this kind of stories (ibid). Short
stories and strips started to be collected and published in
comic books (Zanettin, “Comics in Translation” 2), which
very soon specialized. Detective Comics and Action Comics4 were
established (“comic strip”). With upcoming WWII
the superheroes stories became immensely popular, because
in them, readers could see for example Superman or Captain
America fighting Hitler or Japanese soldiers and winning
4 In Detective Comics Bob Kane’s and Bill Finger’s Batman appeared
for the first time and in Action Comics Joe Shuster’s and Jerry
Siegel’s Superman appeared for the first time.25
the war. This era of American comics is called the “Golden
Age” of comics.
After WWII people turned to stories of crime, exotic
adventures and horror (Zanettin, “Comics in Translation” 2)
and the vicious nature of comics started to be criticized
by moralists. In 1954 a psychiatrist Frederick Wertham
published his famous work Seduction of the Innocent in which he
blamed comics for rising delinquency. “The industry
responded by instituting systems of self-censorship”
(“comic strip”). American publishers created so called
Comics Code Authority (Zanettin, “Comics in Translation”
2), the set of rules about what content can and cannot
appear in comics (i.e. nudity, violence etc.). What is
more, prior to its publication, every comics had to be
assessed by a special committee. This had a devastating
effect on some comics genres in the United States of
America and the number of published comics significantly
lowered (ibid). On the other hand, the diminishing
production of American comics boosted the production of
comics in some European countries (ibid).
26
In 1960’s superhero comics regained its popularity
starting with the revival of one of pre-war superheroes
Flash. Besides DC Comics’ superheroes like Batman and
Superman, whose stories were still published, but their
quality was significantly lower than that of the pre-war
stories, new superheroes like Spider-Man or Iron Man
emerged (Zanettin, “Comics in Translation” 3). The so
called “Silver Age” of comics in the United States of
America began. Another big publishing house, Marvel Comics,
which targeted not only on children, but also on a more
adult readership, started to thrive. New superheroes
appeared, new stories of the pre-war ones were published,
and superhero comics were enriched by superhero teams like
Fantastic Four or X-Men.
In 1960’s and 1970’s educated adults could read a new
type of comics meant for them (ibid). In the United States
of America it was the underground comics which offered the
readers adult themes (ibid). Slowly the topics covered in
comics, especially in some superhero comics, were becoming
more serious. First superheroes failed to save the day and
in their stories they dealt with drugs, alcohol and27
psychical problems. The harsh reality clashed with
fantastic worlds and comics artists finally proved that
comics do not have to be for children and teenagers only,
but that they are for adults as well. This age of American
comics is known as the “Bronze Age”.
The “Modern Age” of American comics began
approximately with the emergence of original graphic novels
(see 2.2): in 1986 Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
was published, Alan Moore’s Watchmen closely followed and
Maus by Art Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize (“graphic
novel”). These novels deal with much serious content such
as various social issues, political issues, common threats
etc. By these novels the publication of comics has not
ended. Since 1980’s various notable works of comics were
published both in Europe and the United States of America.
The great influence of American comics still lasts. Not
only because American comics are world-widely translated,
but because American comics introduced many genres and
styles which are nowadays “incorporated and developed
within other national traditions” (Zanettin, “Comics in
Translation” 4).28
2.4 Comics and Comics Translation in the
Czech Republic
The same way as in other countries in the former
Czechoslovakia and in the later Czech Republic comics was
firstly seen as the form created only for children and
teenagers. There is nothing strange about it considering
the fact that first comics presented in Czechoslovakia were
cartoons drawn by Josef Lada and Ondřej Sekora. These were
aimed at children and in 1920’s they were published in
children magazines like Malý čtenář or in children’s section
of newspaper Lidové noviny. One of Lada’s notable creations is
the cartoony story Švejkovy osudy and Sekora is best known for
the creation of the character named Ferda Mravenec, whom he
firstly presented in 1935 in Lidové noviny. He admitted to be
inspired by Walt Disney and Wilhelm Busch. Comics slowly
gained on popularity and even some translations of works
like American Felix the Cat or British Bonzo the Dog were
published.
29
The best known Czech comics, generally considered to
be one of the first true comics in Czechoslovakia and the
Czech Republic, is Rychlé šípy written by Jaroslav Foglar and
drawn by a caricaturist Jan Fischer. In 1930’s it was
published in Mladý hlasatel magazine and it was so popular
that it survived not only World War II, but also the
socialist era. It influenced several generations of
readers. Throughout the years it was published in magazines
Mladý hlasatel, Vpřed and Skaut – Junák. In 1970’s it appeared as a
stand-alone magazine (which can be considered as a kind of
comic book) and many years later, after the Velvet
Revolution it was published as the voluminous hard-covered
collection. After Jan Fischer it was drawn by Václav Junek,
Bohumír Čermák and Marko Čermák.
After the World War II comics slowly regained its
position only to lose it with the beginning of Soviet
Occupation of Czechoslovakia. Comics was marked
as the product of western ideology, but it survived in
children’s magazines such as ABC mladých techniků a přírodovědců,
Ohníček, Pionýr, Mateřídouška etc. From 1950’s to 1980’s the
situation remained mostly the same. Only the number of30
children’s magazines grew slightly and as comics gained on
popularity again, it started to be published even in other
magazines and newspapers like Mladý svět, Svobodné slovo, Mladá
fronta. Mostly the original stories were published (i.e.
Vzpoura mozků), but there were also adaptations of well known
literary (i.e. Dobrodružství Johna Cartera) and occasionally
translations of French, Polish and Yugoslavian works (i.e.
French Pif).
In 1969 Čtyřlístek the first comics-only magazine, for
the greater part drawn by Jaroslav Němeček, started to be
published and it is published since. Together with Rychlé šípy
it is one of the most popular Czech comics. Another notable
artist of the time was Kája Saudek, who published his first
work Agent Nr. 00 – WC in 1966. He worked for magazines Mladý
svět and Student. Three years after his first work had been
published, he published one part of his next work Múriel a
andělé, but he was forbidden to continue with it. The whole
work Múriel a andělé was published as late as in 1991. Kája
Saudek’s works are notable for the unique style and irony,
which were unfortunately unacceptable for the communist
regime. For some time Kája Saudek could publish only semi-31
legally, but it did not stop him. Later he cooperated with
Jaroslav Foglar on Modrá rokle, Ztracený kamarád and Jeskyně
Saturn.
After 1989 Czech original comics was still published
in magazines such as Kometa or Aréna. Kometa played an
important role on the Czech market in the first years after
the Velvet Revolution, mainly thanks to the works of Kája
Saudek and Marko Čermák which attracted the readers.
Besides these two, many other promising young artists
started publishing in this magazine. Besides Kometa and
Aréna, Čtyřlístek was still published and Rychlé šípy and Kája
Saudek’s works reprinted. However, there seemed to be no
interest in comics among the Czech people at the beginning
of 1990’s.
Readers’ interest in comics was renewed as late as in
1997 by the specialized comics magazine CREW. This
magazine focused on translations of foreign comics.
The Czech authors could and still can publish in Aargh!
magazine, Komiksfest! magazine, Zkrat etc. Independent works
also started to be published i.e. Alois Nebel by Jaromír 99
etc.32
The two most important publishing houses which issued
comics for some time regularly after 1989 were Semic-
Slovart and Egmont ČSFR. As soon as in 1990 Egmont
published Mickey Mouse comic books followed by Duck Tales5 and
in the years 1991-1994 Semic-Slovart published such series
as Spider-Man, Barbar Conan, Pink Panther, G. I. Joe, Transformers or
Garfield and even the film adaptations like Terminator 2: The
Judgement Day. Unfortunately these Semic-Slovart comic books
were of disputable quality. The continuity was disrupted –
the stories which were originally narrated in several
issues often ended abruptly without being finished in their
Czech version; or they were illogically divided into
several issues which did not follow one another. Besides
that pages of stories were often missing. It is interesting
though that these comics were published in two language
mutations – both in Czech and Slovak (even before the
separation of both countries in 1993).
Besides these two main well known publishing houses
there were naturally other ones, which often ceased to
5 Egmont, nowadays Egmont ČR, still continues to publish Disney
licensed comic books.33
exist after publishing one or two comics titles. Such
an example is AG Comics, which published only one Star Wars
comics. The main player on the field of translated comics
publication was Crew. As it has been mentioned above, it
firstly introduced foreign comics in its CREW magazine and
then it became a major publishing house publishing comic
books and graphic novels. Its first place on the market is
nowadays threatened by other publishing houses which are:
BB Art, Comics centrum, Talpress (publishing manga) and
Egmont (publishing mainly children comic books distributed
at newspapers stands).
These publishing houses nowadays publish the vast
amount of foreign comics starting with Garfield, Astérix, The
Simpsons (Simpsonovi) and ending with paper-back collections
of comic books like 100 bullets (100 nábojů), Transmetropolitan
and special hard-covered “Omnibuses” of Captain America,
Daredevil, Star Wars etc. Besides them some newspapers still
publish comic strips: Reflex publishes Zelený Raoul (the
original Czech comics), MF Dnes publishes translated Dilbert
etc.
34
3. Comics Translation
“When comics are translated a change of genre,
readership, publication format (or a combination of the
three) may be involved which will then govern primary
translation choices […]” (Zanettin, “Comics in Translation”
8). Therefore this chapter not only describes the process
of comics translation itself, but also the whole publishing
process as it happens in the Czech Republic starting with
obtaining the publishing rights and finishing with
the printing of the final product. In the course of this
description this chapter deals with two kinds of
translations: firstly it deals with the translation
of comics format – with the adaptation of comics to
“the publishing conventions of target culture” (Rota 79),
and secondly it deals with the translation per se – with
the translation of verbal parts of the comics.
3.1 The Publication Process
The first step which needs to be done before any
comics can be translated into a different language in35
a different country is the obtaining of rights to translate
and publish it. The choice of rights to be bought is
governed by several factors: the taste of the publisher,
the saleability of the product, the availability of the
rights and the financial budget available (Kormosi).
Even though publishers Václav Dort from Comics centrum
and Jiří Pavlovský from Crew claim that they primarily
publish comics they like, they naturally cannot be guided
just by that – in fact, the taste of the publisher and the
saleability of the product are indirectly influenced by the
intended readership (Pavlovský, “Beseda”). Every publisher
wants to publish comics which will be read and which will
earn him/her the invested money back, so s/he needs to know
the readership’s preferences: Will the superhero comics
sell well? Will the witty collection of cartoons sell
better? From the interview with Václav Dort it is obvious,
that the publisher also considers the format which is more
suitable for him/her to publish and the additional changes
of graphic elements which will be needed. S/he considers
these facts with respect to his/her financial budget and
with respect to what the readership is used to and what36
the readership will be willing to pay for the final
product: Will the 32 paged “one-shot6” be good? Will the
collection of several comic books with a compact finished
story be better? Will the fully coloured version of comics
be the right choice? Will the black and white version of
comics be acceptable for the readers? Will the cover and
the size of comics need a change?
The readership preferences can be learned in several
ways: they can be estimated based on sales numbers of
similar types of products or on sales numbers and
popularity of the product in different countries or they
can be learned directly through the contact with the
readership. In case of the sales numbers and popularity,
the publisher can do the research or order the survey.
However, to remain in contact with the readership may be a
more demanding task. Luckily, in the Czech Republic,
the community of comics readers/fans tends to stick
together, meets at conventions, posts in web forums and
actively evaluates the published products both from the
6 One-shot is a comic book containing only one short story which
is not continuous and can stand alone independently.37
point of view of original quality as well as from the point
of view of work done by the translators, letterers7 and
publishers. The Czech publishers are well aware of this
readership and they visit or organize the meetings of fans,
answer their questions, watch closely their reviews and try
to listen to their pleads and demands8.
As far as the possibilities of learning readership
preferences are concerned, the relatively small comics
market of the Czech Republic is an advantage – it is not so
difficult for the Czech publishers to stay in contact with
their readers. Unfortunately, as far as the availability of
the rights is concerned, it is not so easy. Big foreign
(especially American) publishers and licence holders are
profit-driven and have license policies more suitable for
bigger markets or bigger publishing companies (Buchal). For
7 “the person responsible for writing the translated text in the
balloons and caption boxes” (Zanettin, “The translation of
Comics” 202)
8 See, for example, Crew webpages www.crew.cz, especially
discussions in “Auditorium” section, promotions of various fan
projects in “Doporučujeme” and links to the convention organized
by Crew publishing house in “Links” section.38
small publishers publishing at such small markets as the
comics market in the Czech Republic is, it can be difficult
to financially reach some publishing rights and even to get
the right contact to ask for them – there are rights owners
who literally “live in a log cabin somewhere in the middle
of the prairie” (“Č. K. D.”).
According to Martin Buchal’s talk, the further
financial problems for the Czech publishers may arise from
financially unfeasible practices held by some of the
foreign rights owners. The first practise is that comics
rights may be sold in packages – several rights for several
different comics are sold at once as a so called package.
The Czech publisher is often interested only in some of
comics included in such a package, because other comics
included would not sell. Yet, s/he does not have much of
the choice – either s/he pays for all of them, or s/he gets
nothing. The second practise is that the ownership of
the rights is limited to a certain number of years (usually
two years). During this time the publisher has to publish
the comics and distribute all the published pieces. There
should not be any piece left in his/her warehouses,39
otherwise s/he needs to prolong the ownership of the rights
(Buchal). The third practice is probably the most feasible
for the Czech market: the publishing house pays for the
rights, pays the irreversible advanced payment and
regularly reports sales of the product9 (Litoš). Additional
payment for the rights is needed only if the sales are
higher than the irreversible advanced payment, which
happens only occasionally (ibid).
In the past, to overcome some of the financial
difficulties and communication problems, the two Czech
publishers Crew and BB Art found their own solution – they
were buying the rights together and were publishing comics
together. It was financially more feasible to them and they
could share the valuable contacts (Pavlovský, “Beseda”).
Nowadays, with the readership and the demand for comics
growing, the publishers seem to be established better in
their branch of business. They have established better
contacts with the rights owners by visiting the big comics
conventions in the United States of America and by
9 To see details about how the payment for the rights and the
irreversible advanced payment is calculated see Litoš.40
negotiating personally with the top agents of the big
publishing companies such as DC Comics, Marvel or Dark
Horse (Buchal). And they also can publish comics which they
would not dare to dream of publishing few years ago as the
readership nowadays is ready for them and demands them.
If the negotiation and communication with the
distributor of the rights goes well the contract is signed,
the advance payment is paid, and the publisher can find
the translator (Kormosi). The publisher needs two kinds of
source materials: the printed original comics (or its
scanned version) for the translator to translate and
graphic materials for the graphic processing of the
product. The second ones can take some time to get
according to Crew’s pages, because the big publishing
companies may have problems to find older materials
(Pavlovský, “Beseda”). It apparently happens that some
pages are not received at all, as can be seen in Calvin and
Hobbes: Pomsta hlídaných (in English The Revenge of the Baby-Sat:
A Calvin and Hobbes Collection), where one can read the apology
for the lower quality of the publication due to missing
graphic materials.41
The graphic adaptation of comics starts as soon as the
publishing house receives the graphic materials – it is
done either by the letterer or the graphic(s) and the
letterer. According to Valerio Rota, the options the
publishing house has in translating format are three: the
adaptation to a local format, the retention of the original
format or the adoption of a third format (84). “The current
tendency of European publishing houses is to manipulate and
alter comics to be translated as little as possible, for
economic, as well as cultural reasons” and two strategies
applied in this process may be foreignizing strategy and
domesticating strategy10 (Rota 84). The foreignizing
strategy “is mainly adopted in countries […] where the
reading public has developed an awareness of the artistic
importance of comics and where, consequently, drastic
alterations of original works (a domesticating strategy)
would not be viewed in a favourable light” (ibid). Typical
signs of this strategy are the preservation of the original
format of the comics and the scarceness of the adaptation
10 “Domestication” and “foreignization” are terms coined by
Lawrence Venuti. See Venuti.42
of graphically rendered textual elements i.e. onomatopoeic
expressions or titles (Rota 85-6). The Czech Republic can
be seen as the country where the foreignizing strategy
prevails. Nevertheless, some domesticating strategies such
as the change of format from the smaller paperback to the
bigger bound product were applied on Star Wars Omibus: Stíny
Impéria (in English Star Wars Omnibus: Shadows of the Empire) and
the change of colours from the coloured print to the black
and white print was applied on Batman: Deset nocí Kgbeasta (in
English Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast). Still, such practices as
the re-arrangements of pages and panels, or the censorship
are only rarely applied by the Czech publishers.
The major amount of the graphical adaptations of
verbal content of comics can be done only after the
translation is received by the publisher and checked by the
editor and the corrector. The editor checks the correctness
of the facts, the naturalness and cohesion of the text and
the corrector checks its grammatical correctness.
The changes proposed by the editor are discussed with the
translator, sometimes they are discussed by the whole
editor’s office (if the terminology affecting several43
subsequent publications of comics or the extensive
graphical changes is concerned). The changes are then
incorporated into the translated text.
The textual elements of comics are then modified by
the letterer – the translated text is put into balloons and
the translated titles and the onomatopoeic expressions
located outside the balloons are graphically changed. The
letterer has to deal with several aspects influencing the
reading of the comics: special signs (the placement of
asterisks, breath signs, note signs etc.; see subchapters
4.2 and 4.3), the choice of font (which should be as close
to the original one as possible), the visual disproportion
of various language sign systems (the Czech language has,
for example, signs which overlap into the space between
lines), the disproportion of the text length of various
languages, graphical renderings of the textual content
(Mičátek). Not only the letterer, but also the translator
should pay the attention to these aspects when translating,
because his translation choices, as far as these aspects
are concerned, can make the letterer’s job easier or more
44
difficult and subsequently they may improve or worsen the
overall impression of comics.
After the letterer finishes his work, the whole comics
should be fully graphically adapted. It is printed out and
sent to the translator and the editor for the final
revision. All aspects are checked now – facts, grammar,
graphics. The corrections are implemented into the comics
by the letterer. If a high number of textual changes are
needed, the grammar revision is preformed again. When
everything is ready, the comics is converted into the
needed format and sent to the printing press. The remaining
step is the distribution of comics to the readers – to
newspaper stands or, in the Czech Republic more commonly,
to the book shops.
The same way comics is a product of several authors
and artists (a penciler11, an inker12, a letterer etc.), a
final translation is a product of a translator, an editor,11 A penciler is the first one who renders the story of comics in
the visual form. S/he outlines the layout of every page and
sketches every part of the plot. S/he works in pencil.
12 An inker is responsible for refined outlines in black ink which
s/he draws over a penciler’s lines.45
a letterer, a graphic and a corrector (Zanettin, “The
Translation of Comics” 202). The cooperation and
communication among these people is important and quite
specific aspect of the work. What they achieve together,
“[t]he publication of a foreign comics[,] can also be seen
as an instance of localization in that it involves not only
linguistic translation but also the adaptation of
visual/cultural information, as well as technical
constraints” (Zanettin, “The Translation of Comics” 201).
From that it seems that the translation of comics certainly
is not only a matter of translation per se, done by
the hired translator, but it is heavily influenced by
the publisher’s and editorial decisions and it depends on
the work of the group of people cooperating and working on
different aspects of translation/adaptation of comics.
3.2 The Translation Process
Once the translator is hired by the publisher and
receives source materials (a comic book or its scanned
version) to translate, the process of translation per se
46
begins. “No translator can afford to overlook the role of
contexts in translating because they are crucial for so
many decisions […]” (Nida 79), so as soon as the translator
gets the source materials, s/he, at least partially,
analyses them in order to determine the intention of the
text, to see how it is written and to detect possible
problematic aspects of it (Newmark, A Textbook 11). In case
of comics this assessment means to mainly focus on the
specifics of comics translation – to assess the amount
of wordplays, onomatopoeic words, proper names, newly
coined expressions and to asses possible difficulties which
may arise from the complementarity of pictorial and verbal
content of comics. Throughout the whole process of
translation the translator needs to consider that his/her
translating solutions will require graphical adjustments.
S/he also should, at least partially, assess the
extensiveness of graphical adjustments his/her solutions
will require.
Basically, s/he has to decide on the degree to which
s/he intends to adapt the comics to the target culture
expectations (i.e. to what extent s/he will apply47
foreignizing or domesticating strategies). Of course this
needs to be discussed with the publisher or the editor.
This is the matter not only of the terminology, culture-
specific terms and series- or issue-specific expressions,
but also a matter of onomatopoeic expressions appearing
outside balloons (see 4.5), of titles (see 4.6) and
of linguistic paratexts (see 4.6). What gets translated is
not solely the translator’s decision in these cases. The
publisher and/or the editor play major role here too.
The genre of comics, the intended readership and the
financial budget available influence these decisions – as
has been already mentioned in the previous subchapter.
The translator’s translation of a certain term may be
denied by the publisher or the editor because it was not
translated in the previous series or because it has some
significant role in another series of comics which the
publisher plans to publish. Similarly, the extensive
translations of onomatopoeic expressions implemented
in pictures may be denied because of an extra work and
additional expenses which the graphical adjustments of such
expressions represent.48
As soon as the matter of what is redundant for the
translator to translate is settled, and the question of the
degree of adaptation resolved, the translator proceeds with
the translation. Peter Newmark in his Paragraphs on Translation
lists “golden rules for translating comics strips” (152)
coined by Anthea and Derek Hockridge:
1. Keep the feel of the original. [Stylistic
register?]13
2. Don’t try to translate puns literally. Make a
different joke to fit the spirit of the French one.
[What if Romance and English puns coincide?]
3. Make sure the English fits the drawings [and
diagrams in technical texts], particularly facial
expressions [and in children’s stories].
4. Have roughly the same number of jokes – knockout
and literary – even if they aren’t quite in the
same places as in the original strip.
[Compensation, as in translations of light comedy
of farce.] (Newmark, Paragraphs 152)
13 Texts in square brackets are commentaries from Peter Newmark.49
The translator can get some guidance from these rules.
However, they are very specifically oriented at translating
comics strips and thus interested mainly in preserving
jokes. What is more, the point number four often cannot be
adhered to, because of the complementarity of pictorial and
verbal parts of comics – if the translation of the joke
cannot be placed at the same place as it is placed in the
original, the following text containers hardly ever afford
enough space to compensate for the previous joke (see 4.2).
Comics is of various genres and uses various narrative
techniques. Texts in comics usually appear in balloons, in
caption boxes, as titles and as linguistic paratexts
(Celotti 38-9). All these forms may seem as limiting and
separating text into smaller independent units. The
translator, however, should not treat this verbal content
of comics as a set of separate independent texts but s/he
should treat it as the complex unit. Therefore, comics
translation may generally follow the same guides as the
literary translation – guides such as those, for example,
proposed by Jiří Levý, who claims that translator decides50
between sets of following contradicting statements when
translating:
1. A translation must give the words of the original.
2. A translation must give the ideas of the original.
3. A translation should read like an original work.
4. A translation should read like a translation.
5. A translation should reflect the style of the
original.
6. A translation should possess the style of the
translator.
7. A translation should read as a contemporary of the
original.
8. A translation should read as a contemporary of the
translator.
9. A translation may add to or omit from the original.
10. A translation may never add to or omit from the
original.
11. A translation of verse should be in prose.
12. A translation of verse should be in verse. (Levý
14-5)51
However, “[c]omics are a narrative space where both
pictures and words convey meaning and jointly create the
story, with the translator ‘reading’ the meaning of
the pictorial elements and their different relationship
with the verbal messages” (Celotti 33) and from that some
specifics of comics translation arise. When following
general translation guides, the awareness of these
specifics is still needed.
The specifics of comics translation are dealt with
separately in a greater detail in the following chapter.
Based on Celotti’s approaches to the translation of
linguistic paratexts (see 4.2) and on the practical
experiences with comics translation five general strategies
used in comics translation can be foreshadowed:
1) content can be translated
2) content can be left untranslated
3) content can be culturally adapted
4) content can be deleted
5) the source material can be adjusted (i.e. footnote
addition, balloon enlargement) 52
They can be applied both on translation of the verbal
content of comics and the pictorial content of comics.
The translator of comics usually enters his/her
translation into a text document in which s/he has to
visibly mark the page number of the translated page and
visibly differentiate translations of individual balloons
and caption boxes (for information on balloons and caption
boxes see 4.3). The information provided in this way has to
be understandable to the letterer, who is to work with the
text further. The translator should also very thoroughly
transcribe bolds and italics – in this way an emphasis is
added to certain words and messages, which should be kept.
There are also aspects of the original comics the
translator should leave out i.e. advertisements. In
addition to his/her translating job, the translator may be
as well asked to add some material to the target product
i.e. foreword, afterword, new text for flaps or new text
for back cover.
The translator’s work of course does not end when s/he
hands in the translation to the publisher. As it has been
mentioned in the previous subchapter, the translation is53
checked by the editor. In the next instance the editor
discusses possible changes with the translator and only
after these changes are worked into the translation,
the translation goes to the letterer and/or graphic(s). The
translator checks his work for the last time after his
translation is inserted into balloons, caption boxes and
reworked into graphic titles and inscriptions.
54
4. Specifics of Comics Translation
The list of specifics of comics translation presented
in this chapter is based on the opinions of Richard Podaný,
Jiří Pavlovský a Viktor Janiš, three comics translators
whose translations are analysed later in this thesis, and
on the discussions of various theoreticians such as
Celotti, Garcés and Zanettin. All these people mentioned
and discussed some of the following specifics and
considered them the important aspects of comics
translation.
Some of them are solely aspects of comics translation,
some of them are aspects which come up also in literary
translation, or technical translation, but which call for
a different and a specific approach if they are to be
translated in comics. The translator should be aware of
them and should take them into consideration when
translating, because “[t]exts in comics are not mere
transcription of the characters’ speeches: they are graphic
representation of them. Before being something to be read
(i.e. texts), they are something to be seen: pictures
55
themselves, which contribute to the visual equilibrium of
the page” (Rota 80).
4.1 Foreignizing, Domestication and
Localization
The conclusion of subchapter 3.1 indicates that,
considering format changes, graphic changes and translation
of various graphically rendered texts, comics translation
can be considered as the instance of localization. The
process of localization is described as “taking a product
and making it linguistically, technically, and culturally
appropriate to the target locale where it will be used and
sold” (qtd. in Zanettin, “The Translation of Comics” 200).
The strategies of foreignizing and domestication are part
of this process. In case of foreignizing “[t]he comics
keeps, as far as possible, its original cultural and
editorial characteristics” (Rota 85). Domestication, on the
other hand, “involves the publication of a foreign comic in
the local format, notwithstanding the characteristics of a
56
foreign publication” and may be “accompanied by many
alterations of the original comic” (Rota 86).
The processes of foreignization and domestication have
already been discussed in chapter three. They were
mentioned in the context of format adjustments of comics
and in the context of translator’s need to decide on the
degree of domesticating and/or foreignizing strategies s/he
intends to use.
As far as format is concerned, when a domesticating
strategy is adopted, the type of publication may be changed
(i.e. from a paperback to a hard cover), pages and panels
may be shrunken or magnified, re-arranged, or even omitted,
and colouring may be changed from black and white to fully
coloured and vice versa (Rota 86-9). Also various minor
changes may be applied – some pages of comics can be
redrawn or updated when it is re-published, covers and
pictures can be changed or retouched (Zanettin,
“The Translation of Comics” 205). On the other hand, when
the foreignizing strategy is applied, “the format is
preserved, thus clearly revealing the foreign origin of the
comic” (Rota 85) and only necessary changes are made. 57
The domesticating strategy applied to verbal parts of
the comics may include mutilation of texts (Rota 87) – the
translator or the letterer can shorten or in another way
modify the texts (Zanettin, “The Translation of Comics”
204) – graphical adjustments of onomatopoeic expressions
and titles, and application of cultural or political
censorship (i.e. name changes due to unsuitable
connotations). The foreignization process usually means
that the onomatopoeic expression outside the balloons,
titles and other “graphically rendered textual elements”
are kept unchanged (Rota 85). Even culture-specific
expressions, names and terms can be treated the same way.
It is specific to comics that both verbal and visual
content is adjusted to the target culture’s expectations
(Zanettin, “The Translation of Comics” 200). Even though
the foreignizing and domesticating strategies can be
applied in all kinds of texts translations, in comics
translation the uniqueness of these strategies’ application
lies in the fact that they are applied both to the verbal
and the pictorial part of comics and frequently used to
58
“update” the original product when it is re-published or
translated into another language.
4.2 Translation Constrained by Pictures
Comics is unique in its combination of pictorial and
verbal content. Text in comics is incorporated in and
surrounded by the pictorial content, it intertwines with
it, reacts with it, adds to it, it is supported by it and
so forth. “Comics require the reader to blend the print and
the graphics to comprehend the intended communication”
(McVicker 85). Not only the reader, but also the translator
have to focus both on the verbal and the pictorial content
and consider their mutual interaction while translating. It
is one of the most important specifics of comics
translation – verbal parts of comics are extensively
influenced by pictorial parts of comics.
In one of the interviews Richard Podaný states that
“one of the worst [differences in translating the fiction
and the comics] is that because of how images and text are
intertwined, the translator is often deprived of the
59
possibility to use some alternative escapist solution which
he can use when translating fiction14” (Klíčník).
The lengthy escapist solutions or the additional
explanations of terms or situations are often not
applicable in comics. There is usually no extra space in
balloons where the explanation could fit. Scarcely
footnotes are used, but generally they are seen as
the violation of the original page composition requiring
additional graphic adjustments. What is more, sometimes the
page composition even may not allow such graphic
adjustments.
From this it seems that the picture is a constraint
for the translator. “A specific concept has even been
created within Translation Studies for the translation of
multimedia text, i.e. ‘constrained translation’” and some
theoreticians like Shuttleworth or Cowie classify comics as
a multimedia text type (Celotti 34). However, in the same
interview from which the previous statement is quoted,
14 “Jedním z nejhorších je, že vinou provázanosti na obraz je
často překladatel zbaven možnosti provést nějaký úhybný manévr
jako v beletrii.”60
Podaný admits that “[…] the comics is one of synthetic art
mediums which join together literary and visual components
[…]15” and that he “[…] had to learn how this fact
influences the text […]16” (Klíčník), which not only shows
that he is aware of this basic specific of comics
translation and understands the mutual interdependence of
texts and images, but also that comics translation does not
have to be inevitably seen as a constrained translation.
If this notion of comics as a synthetic art medium is
elaborated on a little further, comics can be seen as “the
form of sequential art, in which the simultaneity of the
visual and the verbal languages generates the diegesis”
(Celotti 34). The translator can thus approach the comics
translation in a different way, as Celotti suggests – as “a
semiotic investigator faced with the multimodal text with
two meaning-making resources rather that with a text
constrained by the pictures” (47).
15 “[…] komiks patří mezi syntetická umělecká média, která spojují
slovesnou složku s vizuální […]”
16 “[…] se musím naučit, jak tenhle fakt ovlivňuje text […]”61
The interdependence of the visual and the textual
content of comics can be best seen on examples of puns and
idioms which are often represented both graphically and
literary. Due to the cultural differences, however, some
idioms and puns cannot be translated word for word as they
would not be understood by the target readership which is
not familiar with them. The translator thus has to
substitute the original idiom or pun with the local idiom
or pun, which has the same meaning and is understood by the
target readership. This can be problematic, if the graphic
representation of the pun or the idiom in target language
does not match the representation depicted in the original.
The solution is to change the graphic representation, but
that is usually quite expensive and complicated: the
creator(s) of the original would have to agree with the
change and the artist capable of performing such a change
would have to be found. The compensation somewhere else is
similarly complicated as substitution, because of
the complementarity of pictures and writings and because of
the continuity of the story. The translator thus has to
come up with his/her own, most probably descriptive62
translation and try not to spoil cleverness, naturalness
and smoothness of the pun or the idiom very much.
Similarly as the choice of a suitable idiom or pun,
also the choice of individual words and simple phrases may
depend on the visual content of comics. Visually
established mood of the scene or a tempo of narrative set
by frames can influence the choice of a suitable
expression. Such a choice can be based on what the
translator sees on the picture. Pictures often help to
choose a suitable register, a style of speech, or just the
most suitable synonym. This all helps to transfer a mood,
style and other non-linguistic aspects of the original work
properly.
Verbal content of comics does not appear only in
balloons and caption boxes. Some of it can be rendered
graphically and thus become an integral part of the graphic
composition. These are onomatopoeic expressions appearing
outside the balloons, linguistic paratexts and story
titles. Because the onomatopoeia can also appear inside the
balloons, it is treated separately in subchapter 4.5, but
both linguistic paratexts and story titles are described63
here as verbal content of comics heavily interconnected
with and influenced by the pictorial content.
A linguistic paratext is a term suggested by Maria
Grazia Margarito following Gérard Genette (Celotti 39) and
stands for signs, placards, graffiti, epigraphs, newspaper
articles etc. which specify the place, the time and the
circumstances of events happening in the comics or they
expand its story. They show cultural, geographic, social
and other contexts (Celotti 39). Because of them long
descriptions and specifications of whereabouts are not
needed in comics. Depending on paratexts’ importance and
connection to the pictures or the story of the comics, and
on the degree and the kind of localization the translator
or the publisher decided to apply throughout the comics,
paratexts can be or do not have to be translated,
culturally adapted or left-out (ibid). In case the paratext
is vital to the story, it is translated; in case it
specifies the place and the overall domesticating strategy
is applied throughout the comics, it is culturally adapted;
in case it is just a graffiti text supporting the
64
atmosphere of the story’s setting, it may be left
unchanged.
The last example of the verbal content of comics
influenced widely by the visual content, or more likely
influenced by the whole story depicted visually, are the
titles of comics. The same as the book titles, the comics
titles should be attractive, suggestive and should reflect
the content of the work (Celotti 38). They also can have
various puns and allusions hidden in them. Therefore, to
leave the title of the story untranslated is in most cases
hardly an option for the comics translator. S/he either
needs to change the whole title – change it from the
allusive one to the descriptive one (Newmark, A Textbook 56)
– or very rarely the title can be translated in a footnote.
So far the comics titles do not differ from the book
titles. However, contrary to the book titles, the comics
titles are often graphically rendered in such way that they
allude to the content of the story graphically. This is the
way in which the pictorial content of comics once again
influences the verbal content of comics and makes the
translation of comics titles specific.65
4.3 Translation Constrained by Balloons and
Caption Boxes
In the previous subchapter some of the examples
presented touched upon the second specific of comics
translation, balloons. Federico Zanettin considers them one
of the “grammatical devices” (Zanettin, “Comics in
Translation” 18) of comics. Viktor Janiš talks about them
as about the first specific of comics translation which
comes to everybody’s mind as possible constraint of comics
translation (Pavlovský, “Janiš”). Even though balloons are
nowadays inherently associated with comics form, originally
they were absent in comics and “began to appear only later
in the twentieth century outside the United States”
(Zanettin, “Comics in Translation” 2). Balloons “can thus
be considered a distinguishing feature of comics as an
American form of visual narrative” (ibid).
Janiš states that the limited space of balloon comes
to people’s minds as a constraint almost immediately,
especially when the translation from English into Czech is
66
considered – the Czech sentences tend to be longer than
their English counterparts (Pavlovský, “Janiš”). However,
he explains that “[i]t is not as tragic as in case of
subtitles […]”, because in the comics, the size of font,
the space between lines or the whole balloon can be
adjusted (ibid.).
Balloons, together with caption17 boxes, contain the
majority of written text which is translated in comics. As
has been mentioned above, a translation is partially
influenced by the place available in a balloon or in a
caption box (Pavlovský, "Janiš"). The translator should
watch the length of his sentences, which should not differ
from the length of the source text extensively. In
addition, as it has been already mentioned in subchapter
3.2, the translator should not treat the content of the
balloon as the separate unit, but as the part of the
17 “The ’sacred’ text […], usually in the third person, grants the
narration a literary dimension” (qtd. in Celotti 38). “It usually
marks changes in time and space, but it can also include
commentaries connected with the pictures” (Celotti 38).67
complex whole – s/he should think about logical continuity,
cohession and coherence of the text.
The translator should presuppose which adjustments may
be needed if his translation is lengthier than the
original, and s/he should assess whether these adjustments
are possible – even though s/he is not the one performing
these adjustments. If the length of text differs, there are
basically four solutions, all applied by the letterer: the
size of font can be reduced or enlarged, the space between
lines can be similarly adjusted, the balloon can be reduced
or enlarged as well, and sometimes even deleted or added
(Mičátek). The size of balloon is not the only aspect which
needs to be considered – the surrounding of balloon, the
overall layout of panel, or the layout of page can be also
of interest to the translator and the letterer. For such an
adjustment as the enlargement/reduction and the
deletion/addition of balloon the pictorial content of
balloon’s surrounding needs to be suitable.
Not only balloons were mentioned in the previous
paragraph, but captions as well. The existence of this
differentiation shows that there are various kinds of text68
containers and types of balloons (see fig. 1). These
various containers have different functions. They
differentiate the direct speech from narrating voice and
thoughts, and they mark different styles of speeches.
Fig. 1: Types of Balloons (Piekos)
An ordinary balloon containing speech of character is
rounded, drawn by a clear straight line. A connection to
the "speaker" uttering its content is marked by a balloon
tail aiming at the character’s mouth. The same shape as the
ordinary balloon has a whispering balloon, the only
difference is that it is grayed-out or painted with
a dashed line (Piekos). The so called burst balloon is used
when someone is screaming – its line is irregular, more69
chaotic than the line of a radio balloon (or electric
balloon), which is used “whenever the speech is transmitted
through a radio, TV, telephone, or any type of speaker”. It
is drawn by a spiky line and it has an italicized content
(ibid). There is also a special balloon for situations when
someone is talking from off-camera (i.e. from behind the
door), emanating speech balloon, which looks like an
ordinary balloon, but at the end of its tail it has a
multi-pointed burst (ibid). Last three types of balloons
are those with the wavy lines: so called wavy balloon,
which represents a distressed speech and whose line and
tail are shaky; a thought balloon, which is bordered by the
regularly waved line and instead of balloon tail it has
little bubbles painted towards the head of the character;
and a telepathic balloon, which “look[s] like a thought
balloon except [it has] breath marks on opposing corners”
(see subchapter 4.3 for breath marks) (ibid). Here it
should be emphasized, that balloons can be joined and
connected (ibid), which may be important as far as the
cohesion of translation is concerned.
70
Thought balloons are nowadays used less often and are
replaced with so called narrative captions (ibid). Captions
are usually inserted in coloured rectangular boxes without
tails, placed near and aligned to the top or the side of
the panel. There are four types of captions in comics:
Location & Time, Internal Monologue, Spoken, and Narrative
(ibid). All of these captions are italicized except for the
spoken caption which represents “the vocalized speech of
a character that is off camera” and is placed within the
quotation marks (ibid).
The letterer working on the original text adds into
comics caption boxes and/or balloons. S/he chooses the type
of balloon corresponding to the style of the text s/he is
expected to insert. The translator translates this text
with both these aspects – the style of the source text and
the type of balloon – on his/her mind. In addition, the
text in the balloon usually simulates the spoken mode and
this, together with field of discourse and tenor of
discourse, influence the register used; which the
translator should maintain. The sentence structure, syntax
and even lexical choice can be influenced by the type of71
the balloon or by the arrangement into the caption box.
There are likely to be short exclamatory or imperative
sentences in the screaming balloon both in the source text
and the translation. The narrative caption, on the
contrary, will probably contain long complex and
declarative sentences. However, some cultural differences
or grammatical conventions may demand usage of a different
sentence structure or a sentence with a different syntax
compared to the original. In such cases the translator
still has to reflect the type of balloon and nature of
caption. S/he has to avoid an undesired ambiguity and
therefore has to be aware of meanings of different types of
balloons and captions; the translator needs to be aware of
characteristics which different types of balloons impose on
the text.
4.4 Special Signs
Comics translation is not specific only because of the
pictorial content or because of presence of balloons and
captions. Comics also contain a high number of special
72
signs. This thesis distinguishes two types of signs in
comics: the signs which are inserted into the verbal
content of comics (excluding punctuation marks) and
the signs appearing in pictorial parts of comics (“visual
metaphors” or “pictograms”18, as Federico Zanettin calls
them in his “Comics in Translation: An Overview”).
The “visual metaphors” are usually of no interest to
the translator. They add more to the pictorial content –
for example they specify the feelings of character and do
not influence the verbal content of comics. This type of
signs may be of more interest to the letterer and/or
graphic(s) and mostly only if they are so culture-specific
that they need to be redrawn or retouched. The signs
inserted into the verbal content of comics are on the
contrary very important for the translator and are another
specific s/he can encounter when translating comics. These
signs, similarly as the pictorial content and balloons
18 “i.e. conventional stylized representations which are
intertextually recognized, such as saw to represent sleep or
stars to represent pain in humorous comics” (Zanettin, “Comics in
Translation” 18)73
influence verbal parts of comics – they add additional
qualities to the text.
The special signs used in comics are (see fig. 2): an
asterisk, a breath mark, a foreign languages sign (the less
than and the greater than symbols), a music note sign, a
lower case (Piekos) and special characters such as &#@. An
asterisk refers to “the narrative caption somewhere else in
the panel or on the page” (ibid) – it usually stands for
the editor’s note about where the reader can find some
additional information, or in which of the previous issues
the event, which is mentioned, happened. It is a footnote
used in comics. Breath marks, or cat whiskers, fireflies or
crow feet (in Czech called “kočičí fousky” i.e. cat
whiskers) come usually before and after a cough or a breath
(ibid) expressed by an onomatopoeic word. Without the word
in between, these signs form an asterisk indicating the
unconsciousness or the death of the character (ibid).
The words uttered in foreign languages are bordered by a
“lesser than” and a “greater than” signs. The first
appearance is usually accompanied with an asterisk
referring to the narrative caption informing about the74
language from which the utterance is being translated from
(ibid). A music note simply shows that the text is not
said, but singed. A lowercase use is “reserved for non-
verbal vocalizations like ‘Uh’, ‘Heh’, ‘Umm’, etc.” which
can be characterized rather as noises than words (ibid).
Special signs &#@ are used as the indistinguishable
swearing or speech.
Fig. 2: Special Signs (Piekos)
The music note alerts the translator to the fact there
is song sang in the comics. The translator then looks up
the song and decides whether to retain the original,
75
substitute and accommodate the song to the target culture,
or whether s/he produces a new translation respecting
the fact that it is the song to be sung. The onomatopoeic
sounds in between of breath marks are often quite
challenging, because a proper equivalent sometimes may not
exist in the target language. And asterisks and footnotes
sometimes may be left out in the adaptation, because the
comics issue to which they refer has not been published in
the target culture yet. As can be seen, these signs not
only add new qualities to the text, but they draw the
translator’s attention to the words in their closeness
which could be difficult to translate or which could be
overlooked. They offer a new helpful context.
4.5 Onomatopoeic Words
Onomatopoeia is “the formation of a word from a sound
associated with the thing or action being named; the
formation of words imitative of sounds” (OED). Onomatopoeic
76
words can be found in various kinds of texts and mediums,
but in comics they are used very extensively and very
specifically. Either they are used inside the balloons or
outside them.
Inside the balloons onomatopoeic words appear in
combination with breath marks. Outside the balloons they
are integral part of the pictorial content of comics. They
do not have “a clear and conventional graphic
representation” and their expressive effect is
traditionally enforced by different typographical and
graphical signs (Garcés 237). Onomatopoeic words can be
generally known and used expressions, or newly invented
words (ibid).
Even though onomatopoeic words represent sounds, they
need to be translated as any other word, because written
representations of sounds differ across languages i.e.
a dog’s bark in English is represented as “woof-woof” and
in Czech it is “haf haf”. Translating onomatopoeia in
comics is mainly about decision making. Newly invented
onomatopoeic expressions require newly invented
translations. The translator needs to decide whether to77
leave the original or whether to translate it. The biggest
problem with onomatopoeia in comics is that graphically
they are usually heavily interconnected with drawings. The
change of such onomatopoeia means additional expenses for
the publisher and additional work for the letterer or the
graphic(s) (Garcés 240). Another aspect influencing the
translation of onomatopoeia is the use of colour – coloured
drawings are more difficult and expensive to adapt then
black and white drawings (ibid). The decision to translate
or not to translate an onomatopoeic word in such cases is
not the translator’s decision, but the publisher’s decision
depending on publisher’s willingness to invest more money
into the graphical adaptation of comics.
To translate and graphically adjust onomatopoeia is
not always necessary – this may depend on the publishing
tradition of respective publishers and countries and on the
readership’s expectations. In countries where foreignizing
strategies in translation prevail, onomatopoeia is not
translated and readers accept and expect that (Garcés 239).
In Spanish comics, for example, a mixed approach is common.
The replacement of onomatopoeia by respective Spanish78
equivalents depends on the type of sound which it
represents – representations of sounds made by animals,
humans and sounds of feelings are replaced by their Spanish
equivalents and representations of mechanical sounds are
retained in their original form (Garcés 241). In some
countries, the original form of onomatopoeia may also be
retained because the words are understandable in a given
context, or their original form is similar to the target
language equivalent and that makes them recognizable and
understandable for the target readership.
4.6 Proper Names, Nicknames and Neologisms
Peter Newmark in his notes states that “[p]roper names
are translation difficulty in any text. In literature it
has to be determined whether the name is real or invented.
In non-literary texts, translators have to ask themselves
what if any additional explanatory of classificatory
information has to be supplied for the TL readership”
(Paragaphs 15). “People’s first and surnames are
transferred”, there are only some exceptions such as names
79
of some monarchs and prominent figures which are often
naturalized (Newmark, A Textbook 214). In some literary
genres, for example in comedies, fairytales etc.,
connotations of the respective names have to be taken into
consideration and the needs to be translated according to
that (ibid). The exact, generally applicable rules on
translating, transferring and naturalization of names do
not exist and the choice on this matter is usually the
translator’s choice.
In comics the issue of names translation is more
pressing and more frequent, because, especially in
superhero comics, names are often not proper names per se,
but aliases or nicknames. In comics names, aliases and
nicknames have to be checked for double meanings,
connotations and intertextuality. The translator needs to
search for the target language equivalent of the name, s/he
needs to verify, whether it is culture- specific and s/he
has to assess the name’s importance for the story and
series. Some names have different functions in comics –
comical effect, characterizing function, referential
function, metaphoric function etc. Some names appear only80
in short, one-shot stories, and some re-appear throughout
one or more long-running series. Depending on these factors
the translator chooses the suitable approach to translation
of names: s/he translates them all, s/he transfers them
(and treats them according to the Czech grammatical rules;
sometimes s/he needs to adjust their spelling according
to the Czech typographical conventions), or s/he translates
only some of them and the rest leaves untranslated.
Comics is an imaginative form and as such it is not
only full of strange names, but it is rich in neologisms as
well. “Neologisms can be defined as newly coined units or
existing lexical units that acquire a new sense” (Newmark,
A Textbook 140). Newly invented fantastic words are full of
characters using and encountering newly invented things and
surroundings. For old words with new senses a descriptive
equivalent often can be found, derived words can be
similarly derived with the target language equivalent and
new coinages of words are mostly derived from various
morphemes, are phonoaesthetic or synaesthetic and as such
they can be recreated in translations (Newmark, A Textbook
142). The context plays an important role here.81
Translator’s choices in translating neologisms are the same
his/her choices in translating names – the target language
equivalents need to be searched for (even the equivalents
of parts of the words) and every original words needs to be
checked for double meanings, connotations,
intertextualities and cultural specificities which should
be preserved in the translation.
4.7 Intertextuality
“’Intertextuality’ is used in some literary criticism
to describe the variety of ways that texts interact with
other texts, and in particular to focus on
the interdependence between texts rather than their
discreteness or uniqueness” (Montgomery et al. 162). It can
be recognized in various types of texts and “in most
cultural and artistic forms” (Montgomery et al. 159).
Comics is not an exception. Parts of comics can be
intertextually related to other texts and genres. Usually
they parody them, but the most frequently used form of
intertextuality appearing in comics is an allusion. Comics
82
can allude to other texts “through a verbal reference to
another text […], through epigraphs […], through names of
characters […]” and “[…] through choice of titles […]”
(Montgomery et al. 158).
The majority of verbal content of comics is
intertwined with the graphical content of comics and thus
the allusions and other intertextual references are
intertwined with it as well. In comics newspaper articles,
letters and documents can be represented graphically as
linguistic paratext (see 4.6) and their textual content may
allude or directly refer to the existing documents either
of the similar kind or to the actually existing ones. The
translator should be aware of this possibility in order to
be capable of searching such documents out. Another
specific of comics in general is that it draws on the long
tradition of comics – allusions thus often allude not only
to other literary texts and other mediums such as film, but
they also frequently allude to various comics and comic
series. The translator often needs to trace these allusions
to their source, which can be a demanding job. In addition,
the translator may often encounter allusions to works which83
were not translated in his/her target language and then
s/he is confronted with a decision whether to translate
such allusion (and how), substitute it with a different
allusion, explain the original allusion somehow or leave it
out.
84
5. Translation Analysis
In this chapter translations of three different comics
of three different translators are analysed. The analyses
mainly focus on the specifics of comics translation
introduced in the previous chapter. Works analysed here are
of various types of comics – they differ in their artistic
style, they differ thematically, and they differ also in
their format. Calvin and Hobbes is a collection of black-and-
white comic strips, Batman: Hush is a coloured collection of
super-hero comic books and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
is a coloured collection of a comic book fiction from
the Victorian Era. This choice was made in order to assess
different publication strategies, see whether specific
aspects of comics translation will differ for various types
of comics and to show the wide range of comics varieties
this form offers.
5.1 Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes is a collection of comic strips written
and drawn by Bill Watterson. They depict various comical85
adventures of a little boy named Calvin and his best friend
– a stuffed tiger (whom only he sees as a living one)
Hobbes. These strips were regularly published in newspapers
by Universal Press Syndicate from 1985 until 1995 (“The
Complete Calvin and Hobbes”). In the Czech Republic it was
published by BB Art in 2009 and translated by Richard
Podaný.
The publication format of both the original and the
translation is a paperback; in the Czech version both the
size and the number of pages remain the same as in
the original. The cover picture has been changed. The
strips were originally published in black and white with
the exception of Sunday special stories, which were printed
in colour. These stories, when re-published in this actual
collection, were printed in black and white, their panels
were re-arranged and the titles in their heads were deleted
(see fig. 3). The re-arrangement was performed to adjust
the sequencing of strips on pages – a regular Calvin and
Hobbes strip consists of one row of (usually) four panels,
the Sunday strips consist of two rows of panels, on one
page three rows of panels can be placed; in order to86
distinguish the longer Sunday stories from the shorter
regular ones, panels with the Sunday strips were re-
arranged to fill in one full page. The Czech version also
sticks to the black and white colouring and to the same
arrangement of stories and panels.
Fig. 3: Calvin and Hobbes – Page Re-arrangement
Considering the colouring of comics and its size the
translator’s and the publisher’s choice was to translate
the onomatopoeic expressions placed outside the balloons –
their adjustments were not graphically difficult or
expensive, because only black and white colours were used.
The stories presented – short, humorous, sometimes
satirizing, strips about a little boy playing with his
87
tiger and glossing the world around him, are expected to
attract mostly adults who are not regular comics readers.
Even though the onomatopoeic expressions were
translated, the names of the main characters remained
untranslated and culturally unadapted. Calvin and Hobbes
strips are well known from newspapers and the internet
despite the fact they had not been published in the Czech
Republic before 2009. If the main characters’ names remain
unchanged, the comics is more recognizable. As far as the
names and the nicknames of Calvin and others are concerned,
the list of their translations follows:
Waterson Podaný
Calvin Calvin
Hobbes Hobbes
Mom, mommy addressed mamí
Pop, dad addressed tatí
Spaceman Spiff Kosmonaut Sekáč
Captain Napalm Kapitán Napalm
Miss Wormwood Pančelka
Mr. Spittle Pan Spittle
88
Susie Derkins Susie Derkinsová
Rosalyn Rosalyn
Tommy Cashtann Tommy Cashtann
Moe Moe
There is quite a low number of characters appearing in
Calvin and Hobbes – the main emphasis is put on the two main
protagonists. The stories are depicted through Calvin’s
thoughts, speeches and interactions so the reader learns
other characters’ names from Calvin, who interacts with
them and thus needs to address them somehow. Characters
whose names are mentioned frequently (some are called by
specific names, others by general ones i.e. mom, pop), or
Calvin’s alter egos like Captain Spiff or Captain Napalm
are translated by the translator in the style which
reflects Calvin’s informal register of speech.
The strips are situational and as such they are mostly
based on “dialogues” and Calvin’s comments. The majority of
texts are thus renderings of spoken words appearing in
three types of balloons: ordinary balloons, emanating
speech balloons and burst balloons. Captions are used only
89
scarcely, when Calvin is fantasizing, to introduce a new
situation. His voice in such cases changes into a
narrator’s voice:
We join our hero megazorks above planet Gloob...
(Watterson)
Náš hrdina letí mnoho megazorků nad planetou Glub...
(Podaný 18)
The rest of the narration of Calvin’s fantasies is again
included in balloons. Calvin often narrates such stories
when playing in a sandpit or on a playground, so he is
basically commenting his game.
The plural form of the pronoun “I” and its plural
possessive is used to further emphasize the change of
situation and to reach out to the reader. In his fantasies
Calvin also talks about himself in the third person
singular: as about Captain Spiff (or any other hero or
creature). The example of the caption above shows the
typical use of “we” and “our” in these instances. The
translation basically sticks to the same narrative90
technique and retains “the reaching out” nature of the
addressing (“náš hrdina”). In the example above an acting
participant is changed in the translation to construct more
natural Czech sentence.
The amount of information conveyed by the dialogues
and Calvin’s comments is large. Therefore some balloons
seem to be filled with the text too much (see fig. 4).
The space limitation of balloons certainly was an issue,
however, not for the translator, but rather for the author
himself. In the following example, the translator has
actually chosen a quite lengthy solution of a compound
sentence instead of the original’s simple sentences:
Taste it. You’ll love it. (Waterson)
Ochutnej, uvidíš, že to je moc dobré. (Podaný 7)
There are more instances of translations which are
lengthier than the original, so in Calvin and Hobbes balloons
were not a constraint for the translator.
91
Fig. 4: Calvin and Hobbes Strip – Balloon Filled with Text
The complementarity of the pictorial content and the
verbal content of Calvin and Hobbes extensively influenced the
translator. One of the strips depicts Calvin lying in his
bed announcing his mum that he thinks he will not go to
school. In subsequent panels she is preparing his clothes
and he is still arguing that he will not go to school (see
fig. 5). The last panel depicts Calvin standing at the bus
stop, sulkily uttering “Rats”. Without the pictorial
context of the previous panels, and without the picture of
Calvin’s frowning face, the translator could be at loss
which meaning of the word “rats” the author had on his
mind. There is no additional textual context. The needed
context and the climax of the joke is provided by the
pictures.
92
There are many cases like this in Calvin and Hobbes. It
is given by the nature of the strips – the strips are
situational and comical – that the writings often comment
on, add to and finish pictorial jokes.
Fig. 5: Calvin and Hobbes Strip – “Rats”
In the following example, Calvin and Hobbes are
dressed like pirates and are floating on a wooden plank
saying (Calvin starts):
– Prepare the plank!
– Our ship is a plank.
– And you're going to walk it, wise guy! (Watterson)
– Připravte prkno!
– Celá naše loď je prkno. 93
– Abys z něj neletěl, ty chytrej! (Podaný 102)
This example shows how problematic an idiomatic phrase can
be if it is connected to the picture. In the Czech language
there is no equivalent to “walk the plank” phrase which
would be similarly idiomatic and suitable to this context.
The translator could closely follow the original and use
“projdeš se po prkně”, however this expression is not as
idiomatic for the Czech speakers as the original idiom for
the English speaking people. The translator rather drew on
the unpleased spiky tone of the title “wise guy” and
extended it on the expression substituting “walk the
plank”. He used the expression “letět” (“to dart”) in a
negative sentence. In this way he successfully translated
the threatening undertone originally implicated by the
idiom. With this solution, the translator manages to retain
the point and the joke of the strip, even though there was
no suitable equivalent to the idiomatic phrase.
As it has been mentioned at the beginning of this
subchapter the onomatopoeic expressions represented
94
graphically are translated in Calvin and Hobbes – here are
some examples:
Waterson Podaný
Munch Chřoust
Sheesh Pšššt
Honk Túút
Gurgle Blub Gllg žbrrrk
Ha ha Ha ha
Wheee Huííí
Gronk Grrrng
Slam! Prásk!
thwping vžžžbch
beep boop pííp pííp
dig dig kop kop
pat pat plác plác
Yecchh! Bléééé!
scrape škráb
smack mlask
Wap plesk
chunk žuch
Bink, bonk, bang Bink, bonk, bang95
boing boing
klunk lupp
smash třísk
Words representing sounds made by people: “munch” or
“smack”, words representing sounds uttered by people:
“yecchh” and “sheesh”, words representing noises of things:
“smash” and “beep, boop”, words representing noises of
people’s doings: “pat pat” and “dig dig” etc., these all
were translated or transcribed into the sound system more
natural for the Czech language. Only “Bink, bonk, bang,
boing” remained untranslated, because every word of this
inscription was of different size and all of them were
arranged into a wavy line sophisticatedly intertwined with
the image. Some of the onomatopoeic expressions probably
were translated only after the translator thoroughly
considered the context because there were some newly coined
expressions. The translator’s capability of transcribing
the sounds emitted probably helped with such expressions
too.
96
There were no titles to be translated or adjusted in
Calvin and Hobbes – the original titles “Calvin and Hobbes”
appearing on the Sunday special strips were deleted.
Besides onomatopoeic expressions placed outside the
balloons some exclamations like “Ááááá” or “Pomoc!” etc.
were translated and graphically changed. Also several
instances of linguistic paratexts appeared, such as the
sign on the door with the inscription “teachers lounge”
(“sborovna”) or the inscription on Calvin’s box “insurance
50 ¢” (“pojištění 50 ¢“).
The translation of the box inscription gives away that
the translator had to deal with several culture-specific
terms. There were some instances of time references:
[…] devour anyone who brings me in before 9 P.M.
(Watterson)
[…] sežrat každýho, kdo mě tam dovede dřív než v devět
večer! (Podaný 16)
and of some measurements:
97
He is now over 300 feet tall! (Watterson)
A už je vysoký přes sto metrů! (Podaný 115)
which the translator converted. The currency references, a
reference to the Hoover dam (“Hooverova přehrada”), a
reference to a Valentine card (“valentýnka”), a reference
to Christmas stocking for Santa (“punčocha”), all of them
were retained, because not only they are all well known,
but because the pictorial content referring to them did not
allow to substitute them by the suitable target culture
equivalents.
In Calvin and Hobbes neologisms and intertextualities are
connected mostly with Calvin’s fantasies. In them he refers
to various sci-fi films and stories, to fairytales, or to
superheroes: he is pretending to be the Godzilla
(“Godzilla”), a giant fly (“obří moucha”), Calvin the
mighty giant (“mocný obr Calvin”), or the Spaceman Spiff
(“Kosmonaut Sekáč”). Calvin is not only interested in funny
plays, but sometimes he also philosophizes. Therefore there
are several instances of direct quotations:
98
It says here that “religion is the opiate of the
masses.” (Watterson)
Tady se píše, že „náboženství je opium lidu“. (Podaný
33)
Intertextual references of this kind usually refer to well
known works. They did not seem to cause any problems to the
translator. Furthermore, as far as the neologisms are
concerned, in his fantasies Calvin fights graknils
(“graknil”) on various planets such as Gloob (“Glub”) or
Zorg (“Zorg”) and is using blaster (“blaster”), frap ray
(“frapopaprsek”) or atomic napalm neutralizer (“atomový
napalmový neutralizátor”). As can be seen, if any neologism
consists of the words or parts of the words which are
recognizable and meaningful, the translator translates it.
He pays attention even to such things as alliteration. Even
though he is not able to transfer an alliteration of the
original (as in case of Spaceman Spiff), he retains at
least the assonance: “Kosmonaut Sekáč. Where no part of the
word is recognizable and the word seems to be truly a new
term, he transfers it. If needed, he also transcribes or99
naturalizes words to enable their better usage in the Czech
inflective system.
The last specific which can be encountered when
translating Calvin and Hobbes is the presence of special
signs. They affect the translation of verbal content of
Calvin and Hobbes only minimally. The mostly used signs are
visual metaphors. A picture of a bee and the “zzzz” signs
are used to signify a deep sleep. A black cloud is very
frequently used to represent anger. In the text the breath
marks can be seen with onomatopoeic words like “sniff”
(“fňuk”) in between. The music note sign is also used, but
only separately – to signify that Calvin is singing or
whistling to himself.
The most notable aspect of Calvin and Hobbes is its
narrative style. All texts are written so as to simulate a
spoken language. Even though Calvin is only six years old
boy, he is an exceptionally clever boy and the register he
uses reflects that. Calvin and all people around him speak
in a colloquial language:
100
– Calvin! What’s all this noise! You’re supposed to be
asleep!
– Monsters under the bad, dad! I was whacking one with
my baseball bat! (Watterson)
– Calvine! Co je to za randál?! Proč nespíš?
– Vobludy pod postelí, tatí! Jednu jsem zrovna tlouk
pálkou! (Podaný 19)
Sometimes when he is patronizing someone, he uses more
elaborate language full of specialized terms. By
juxtaposing a colloquial language and a formal, highly
specialized language a humorous effect is created:
– Are your maladjusted antisocial tendencies the
product of your berserk pituitary gland?
– What?
– Isn’t he great, folks? Let’s give him a big hand!
(Watterson)
101
– Nejsou tvoje neadaptibilní antisociální tendence
výsledkem dysfunkce hypofýzy?
– Co to?
– Není skvělý lidičky? Všichni mu nahlas zatleskáme!
(Podaný 39)
The translator renders these different registers very
well. He not only uses similarly colloquial words as are
used in the original (“whacking” – “tloukl”), but he also
adds element typical of the Common Czech: the addition of
prothetic v- to words starting with o- (“vobludy”), the
leaving out syllabic ending -l of masculine past
participles (tlouk), the usage of unified plural ending of
adjectives -ý, the usage of unified plural ending -ma, or
the replacement of -é by -í/-ý and -ý by -ej. This step
very well compensates the impossibility to render the
contracted forms of verbs (which are used in the original
to mark the spoken colloquial language) into the Czech
translation. In this comics the translator also makes a
good use of diminutives when rendering the Common Czech:
“Susie posílá psaníčka!” (“Susie’s passing notes!”). He102
also very well avoids an overt word for word translation.
In the example with monsters under the bed the translator
changed a viewpoint, turned the declarative sentence into
the question and rendered the phrase into a variant which
is typically used in the Common Czech: “Proč nespíš?”
(“You’re supposed to be sleeping”).
To conclude the analysis of specifics of comics
translation encountered by the translator when translating
Calvin and Hobbes, the last example of the strip is presented
(see fig. 6):
– Want to go spelunking with me?
– Spelunking? There aren't any caves around here!
– You don't need a cave. All you need is a rock.
[onomatopoeic graphic] Spelunk! (Watterson)
– Už vím, co budeme dělat. Cáchy!
– Ty chceš jet do Cách? Ale to je hrozně daleko, až
někde v Německu ne?
– Ale ne, stačí když si najdeme pár šutrů.
[onomatopoeic graphic] Cáchy! (Podaný 123)103
The text presents the wordplay connected to the pictorial
content of the strip. It also shows the colloquial language
used in the comics. The translator, again, dealt with
the problems very well. He translates freely and creates a
new lexical ambiguity which can be the source of the
wordplay in the Czech translation. He draws on the phonetic
similarity and the polysemy of the Czech name for Aachen,
“Cáchy”, and an expression representing the splashing sound
“cák”. This similarity is of the same kind as the original
words “spelunking” and “spelunk” in English. He then
changes the activity of spelunking to travelling to city of
Aachen and draws on the situation depicted on the picture –
Calvin and Hobbes deciding what to do. The translator is
careful to adhere to the question-answer rhythm of the
conversation (and of the strip), sustaining
the anticipation. This free adaptation of the wordplay
allows him to retain the same colloquial style as the
original. He adds unnecessary colloquial expression
“hrozně” and the question tag “ne?” which mark the spoken
language. Most importantly, by transposition of the104
singular “stone” to the plural “stones”, he allows himself
to use the collocation “pár šutrů” which would probably be
used by a child in the same situation.
Fig. 6: Calvin and Hobbes Strip – “Spelunk”
When translating Calvin and Hobbes the translator did not
need to deal with all the specifics of comics translation –
the titles were absent, some types of balloons were absent,
the special signs did not influence the verbal content
much, but still there were plenty of examples which showed
the specificity of certain parts of comics translation.
There were the idiomatic expressions presented by both the
verbal and the pictorial content of comics; many
onomatopoeic words appeared, some of which were newly
coined; neologisms and intertextual references had to be
dealt with etc. Calvin and Hobbes are strips based on humour105
and besides the specifics of comics translation Richard
Podaný also had to pay attention to the numerous humour
creating devices like the irony, the juxtaposition of
different registers, wordplays, various ambiguities etc.
And he managed that extremely well.
5.2 Batman: Hush
Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 is a collection of five comic books
from the story spanning over twelve comic books in a
regular Batman monthly series published by DC Comics. It
describes Batman’s fight with his various adversaries, who
are unexpectedly trying new strategies suggested to them
and orchestrated by, as Batman later finds out,
a mysterious Hush. The series was published in the years
2002 and 2003 and the collection Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 was
published in 2003 (Loeb 2). It is a fully coloured story
drawn by Jim Lee, inked by Scott Williams, lettered by
Richard Starkings and written by Jeph Loeb. In the Czech
Republic it was translated by Jiří Pavlovský and published
by Crew and BB Art in 2004.
106
In the United States of America the collection was
published both in a paperback and in a hardcover. Its
content was the same, including introductions and
biographies of authors; only the covers differed. The Czech
version is a hardcover book based on the US hardcover – the
size, the number of pages and the covers are the same,
introductions and biographies are also present and the book
is also fully coloured.
As the story originally published in a regular monthly
series it is aimed at experienced comic books readers
recognizing the characters and the events which are being
referred to. In the Czech Republic, however, the whole
series was not published. The translation maintains signs
of comics which aimed at regular comic readers familiar
with the form i.e. the comics is foreignized to a great
extent. However, the Czech readership, even though familiar
with superhero comics, would not accept fully foreignized
comics. Therefore some localizing adjustments were made and
some domesticating strategies applied.
The way in which the onomatopoeic expressions were
treated, can be seen as one of the foreignizing instances.107
Most of the onomatopoeic expressions outside the balloons
remained untranslated:
Loeb Pavlovský
Whumph (mouth covered by
hand)
whumph
Chk chk chk (batarangs hit
the target)
phtoom
Wharoom (doors explode) wharoom
Phtoom (a hook is shot
from the pistol)
phtoom
Slashh (the beast swings
its paw)
slashh
sssrrc (a little hook is
shot)
sssrrc
Slam (a body hits a metal
object)
slam
vzip (a rope is being
unrolled)
vzip
Krash (fall into a wooden
trash)
krash
108
Vroom (a motorbike) vroom
Skreeechh (skreeching
wheels)
skreeechh
tap tap tap (a morse code
tapped)
tap tap tap tap
Boom (a man bumps the
door)
boom
ha ha ha ha (laughter of
several people)
ha ha ha ha
slikt (a knife cutting the
newspapers)
slikt
krakathoom (a thunder) krakathoom
wap (a slap) wap
Bing bong (a house bell) Bing bong
wham wham wham (a
helicopter)
wham wham wham
buda buda buda (a machine
gun)
buda buda buda
As can be seen from the list above, even the sounds which
are traditionally expressed in a completely different way
109
in Czech, like the sound of a machine gun: “buda buda buda”
(ra ta ta ta), were not translated. The reason for this is
a high number of such onomatopoeic expressions located
outside the balloons. Very complex and expensive graphic
adjustments to the pictures would be needed in order to
change all these onomatopoeic words. The publisher and the
translator did not found these changes necessary, because
the reader of this comics is supposed to be aware of the
fact that s/he is reading comics originally published in
the United States of America. What is more, Batman is quite
famous for its use of huge graphic onomatopoeic words like
“Bang!”, “Boom!” and “Pow!” which were extensively used
even in the original Batman television series.
The names and the nicknames were dealt with similarly:
Loeb Pavlovský
Alfred Pennyworth Alfred Pennyworth
Thomas and Martha
Wayne
Thomas a Martha
Wayneovi
The Batman Batman
Nails Nathan Nathan zvaný Skoba
110
Tommy Harper Tommy Harper
Carlos Valdez Carlos Valdez
Spider Hancock Pavouk Hancock
Bruce Wayne Bruce Wayne
Edward Lamont IV Edward Lamont IV
Killer Croc Killer Croc
Catwoman Catwoman
Selina Kyle Selina Kyleová
Oracle Oracle
Huntress Huntress
Dick Grayson Dick Grayson
Shondra Kinsolving Shondra
Kinsolvingová
Thomas Elliot Thomas Elliot
Amanda Waller Amanda Wallerová
Lex Luthor Lex Luthor
Poison Ivy Poison Ivy
Lois Lane Lois Laneová
Green Lantern Green Lantern
111
Clark Kent
(Smallville)
Clark Kent
(Smallville)
Perry White Perry White
John Gordon John Gordon
Talia Head Talia Head
Ra's Al Ghul Ra's Al Ghul
Icicle Icicle
Maggie Sawyer Maggie Sawyerová
Most of the names and the nicknames are left untranslated
and in the text they are declined as the Czech names. The
only exception is Talia Head, who, from no apparent reason,
lacks a common suffix -ová applied to women’s surnames in
the Czech environment. Other women’s names have this
suffix, as its absence would probably be one of the aspects
which the target readership would not accept.
The majority of proper names in this comics do not
have any characterizing or poetic function, so the
translator could afford not to translate/adapt them. Some
nicknames of supporting characters, which have a
characterizing function, like “Nails Nathan” or “Spider
112
Hancock” are translated, others (mainly superheroes
nicknames which may appear in other comics and play a vital
role there), like “Icicle” or “Huntress”, are translated
only in footnotes. The nicknames of the key characters such
as “Batman”, “Catwoman” or “Poison Ivy” are not translated.
These characters should be known to the target
readership19, they are chronically known to the readers of
the Batman comics and their visual appearance and behaviour
clearly gives away the origin of their nicknames.
As far as the names of places, companies, parts of the
cities etc. are concerned, either they are left
untranslated – from the context it is obvious what they are
– or a descriptive equivalent combined with the original
name concerned, usually coined only for the fictional world
of this comics, is used:
Loeb Pavlovský
Gotham City Gotham City
LexCorp LexCorp
19 All of these characters appeared in well known Batman films
successfully screened in the Czech Republic.113
Crime Alley Crime Alley
(footnote used to
explain)
Gotham Tower
Apartments
byty v Gothamské
věži
Wayne Tech Wayne Tech
Arkham Asylum arkhamský blázinec
Daily Planet Daily Planet
LexCorp Towers věže Lexcorpu
Metropolis Metropolis
Metropolis S.C.U. metropoliský
speciální útvar
G.C.P.D. (Gotham City
Police Department)
G.C.P.D. (footnote
used to explain)
The same translating approach has been chosen in case of
the newly coined terms like “batrope” (referred to by
Batman as “mé lano”), or “green’K’” (“zelené káčko”; it is
explained in a footnote as a green kryptonite).
Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 is an action based comics where the
position of panels and their sequentionality plays an
114
important role. Characters’ movements are often phased into
several panels to give the story the feeling of action and
of the quicker pace. In the same way the speech in such
panels is phased. This is the way in which the pictorial
content of this comics frequently influences its verbal
content. For example, in fourth part of the story Catwoman
fights Poison Ivy. On every panel Catwoman gives Posion Ivy
a punch and throughout this fight she tells her not to mess
with her again. This sentence is divided into four
balloons, and every single one is placed into one panel
(see fig. 7):
Loeb Pavlovský
That To
was bylo
the last time naposledy
you will ever lay a hand
on me! (94)
kdys na mě vztáhla
ruku! (94)
The translator needed to construct a sentence starting with
short sharp words echoing the punches depicted on the
115
pictures. In the same time these words had to fit into
rather small balloons. In addition, a word order of this
sentence had to allow such a division. This sentence should
also read naturally and be coherent. Jiří Pavlovský managed
that very well not only in the example presented here, but
also in other similar instances.
Fig. 7: Batman: Hush – Catwoman vs. Poison Ivy
Another example of the textual content influenced by
the pictorial content is linguistic paratext. The
linguistic paratexts in Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 were translated and
graphically adjusted whenever possible, because they
usually add to the story and move it forward. At the
116
beginning of the story, events are depicted from Batman’s
point of view – literary. Various written information about
Batman’s enemies is an integral part of pictures. The
pictures depict how Batman sees them through his high-tech
mask. The information and graphs depicted are so deeply
embedded into the pictures that it would be very difficult
to change them. Besides that, the most vital information
about Batman’s enemies is also mentioned in the captions.
So these paratexts are not of a vital importance to the
story and thus remained unchanged.
On the other hand, the instant messenger’s window
where Batman’s conversation with Oracle is depicted, or the
newspaper articles informing about Bruce Wayne being out of
danger: “Wayne out of danger” (see fig. 8), are fully
translated and conform to the style of the medium they
should represent. They are translated and adjusted because
they supply information vital to the story.
117
Fig. 8: Batman: Hush – Linguistic Paratext Adjusted
Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 is a collection of several comic book
issues and every single one of them has its title. The
story is thus divided into five parts. The title pages of a
kind ensure this division. The titles of these issues
characterize the events in the given part of the story, so
the translator’s and the publisher’s decision was to
translate the titles:
Loeb Pavlovský
Chapter One, The
Ransom
Kapitola první,
Výkupné
Chapter Two, The Kapitola druhá, 118
Friend Přítel
Chapter Three,
The Biest
Kapitola třetí,
Bestie
Chapter Four, The
City
Kapitola čtvrtá,
Město
Chapter Five, The
Battle
Kapitola pátá,
Bitva
All these subtitles, as well as the main title of the
story/collection “Hush” (“Ticho”), follow the
predispositions of the original titles i.e. they are short
and have the same number of words as the original. This is
because of the necessity to graphically adjust them as
closely as possible to the original (see fig. 9). In case
of the collection title translation, the length of the
title, its mysteriousness, the simplicity of letters it
consists of and the fact that it is the nickname of a main
villain, were the important aspects observed. The Czech
solution “tiše” could not work because of the graphical
representation of the title where the use of hedge is not
possible. “Tajit”, on the other hand, looses the sharpness
119
of the title, is longish and what is more, as well as the
previous suggestion “tiše”, it cannot work as the nickname
of the main villain. “Pst” could possibly work, but its
shortness makes it unsuitable for the same graphic style
used for the original title.
Fig. 9: Batman: Hush – The Title Adjusted
The greater part of the textual content of Batman: Hush,
Vol. 1 appears in caption boxes. In the introductory short
story about Batman’s origin the captions are narrations of
Batman’s loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth, but then,
throughout the whole Hush story, the captions represent
exclusively Batman’s thoughts and commentaries.
The register does not differ much from the one in balloons.
Batman/Bruce uses slightly informal English – he uses
contracted forms of verbs and sometimes colloquial
expressions. The similar register is also used by other120
characters. Except for the beggars and thieves in the lower
Gotham, who speak highly informally:
Didja see that? Didja see that? He didn’t even touch
him? (Loeb 32)
Viděli ste to? Viděli ste to? Ani se ho nedotk!
(Pavlovský 32)
As can be seen the translator reflects that and uses traits
of Common Czech – he leaves out “j” in “jsem, jste” where
it is not usually voiced, he leaves out a syllabic ending -
l of masculine past participles: “nedotk”, elsewhere in the
comics he uses contractions of verbs with “be” i.e. he
changes “přišel jsem” to “přišels”, or he uses other
elements of Common Czech (see 5.1). The rendering of Common
Czech as the equivalent of the colloquial English is
another domesticating strategy which is largely accepted
and expected by the Czech target readership.
There are not only narrative captions in this comics,
but also location and time captions: “Lexcorp Towers”
(“Věže Lexcorpu”). As far as balloons are concerned, in121
Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 the ordinary balloons prevail, but also
the radio balloons (when Oracle or reporters are speaking),
the whispering balloons, the burst balloons, and the wavy
balloons (when Killer Croc is speaking in his distorted
voice) can be found. Balloons are very often joined or/and
connected in this comics. This not only influences the
continuity and cohesion of the text, but it also influences
the translator. Joined balloons mark two utterances of the
same character with a short pause between them. Connected
balloons mark utterances of the same character as well, but
the pause between them is a longer one. To add to that,
these connected balloons are accompanied by the
utterances/balloons of other characters in the vicinity.
The balloons arranged in such way usually mark a dialogic
exchange (Tommy Elliot starts and Bruce Wayne answers):
– You still have those antique war game pieces?
– I do actually.
– And I have mine. Up for a game?
– You’re on.
122
– And I want you to actually show up for an
appointment with me to check on how you’re doing.
(Loeb 84)
– Máš pořád ty starožitné herní figurky?
– Pořád.
– A já mám své. Co takhle partičku?
– Beru.
– A chtěl bych, aby opravdu přišel ke mně na
vyšetření, abych viděl, jak se to hojí. (Pavlovský
84)
And again the translator has to reflect that. He has to be
more attentive and read the balloons in a proper order in
order to render these exchanges successfully.
In Batman: Hush, Vol. 1, as well as in Calvin and Hobbes, the
captions and the balloons are not a constraint for the
translator – some longer translating solutions can be
found:
123
Given the situation it’s at best a distraction...
(Loeb 102)
Když uvážím situaci, tak přinejlepším nám to dá nějaký
čas k dobru... (Pavlovský 102)
and some shorter one as well.
On this comics it is exceptional, that the publisher
decided to use additional footnotes referring to the parts
of the texts in balloons marked by the asterisk.
The footnotes here are usually used to introduce
characters, places and terms from previous comics of the
series or to explain the relationships and things appearing
in different comic series not published in the Czech
Republic (see fig. 10). In this way the publisher localized
this comics – he supposed that the target readership does
not have this information.
124
Fig. 10: Batman: Hush – A Footnote
The footnotes explaining references to other
characters and parts of other comics prove, that a great
number of intertextualities are present in this comics.
However, Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 does not refer only to other
comics, but also to Aristotle (the bandaged villain of the
story quotes solely him):
All men by nature seek knowledge. (Loeb 72)
Všichni lidé od přírody touží po vědění. (Pavlovský
72)
125
This information is only revealed in the second volume of
the collection. This shows how important it is to prepare
for the process of translation thoroughly and read the
whole story in advance. Or be able to recognize such
references and search.
There are not many wordplays in Batman: Hush, Vol. 1. It
is given by the genre – Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 is an
action/detective comics. However, the superheroes and
the villains sometimes use showy and catchy phrases,
clichés and even proverbs:
And curiosity killed you-know-what. (Loeb 95)
A kdo je zvědavý, bude brzy mrtvý. (Pavlovský 95)
In this example a well known proverb was adjusted and used.
The translator thus had to do the same. Fortunately, in
this case, there is an equivalent in the Czech language
which allowed the translator to make adjustments and
include the notion of killing/death into the translation by
exchanging “starý” (old) for “mrtvý” (dead). With this
problem the translator dealt well, but there are some other126
examples of some interesting parts of the original text
which he did not manage to translate so well. For example
the rhyme in the following example:
Loeb Pavlovský
Well. No ne.
Well. No ne.
Well. No ne.
Look what fell into
hell. (27)
Koukni co spadlo rovnou do
pekla. (27)
The translator translates the comment quite literally even
though a free translation could make it possible to
maintain the phrase’s rhyme (at least partially), or to
substitute the phrase with a similarly catchy phrase of
slightly different meaning. For example: “Hele hele hele,
copak nám to spadlo z nebe?” The original phrase is only a
comment of Batman’s fall uttered by one of the thugs in the
lower Gotham. So it does not offer any information vital to
the story and it does not influence the plot substantially
127
either. However, it presents a nicely sounding wordplay
which disappeared in the translation.
Unfortunately, this is not the only flaw the
translation of this comics has. The translator often uses
figurative language in his translations where there is none
in the original:
Loeb Pavlovský
Metropolis. Metropolis.
It is very different
from Gotham City and for
that alone…
To město se liší od
Gotham City jako noc a
den. Už jen proto...
…I try to avoid coming
here. (75)
...ho nerad navštěvuji.
(75)
The translator adds simile “jako noc a den”, which is not
included in the original text. Sometimes such solutions
seem strange to the reader who is then surprised by the
sudden poetism of the harsh and cold Batman. Such a
strategy could be seen as a compensation strategy – a
complicated strategy to be used in comics translation, but
128
not impossible. Yet, the translator explicitates a lot in
general and that does not go well with the idea of
compensation:
Angry, I told her I had no friends at school. (Loeb
46)
Vztekle jsem jí odpálil, že nemám žádné kamarády.
(Pavlovský 46)
From no apparent reason he also sometimes alters meanings:
Croc has been on the move all night. (Loeb 65)
Croc je na pochodu už dost dlouho. (Pavlovský 65)
According to these two last examples it seems that the
translator translates rather freely, and tries to keep and
support (maybe too much) author’s style which emphasizes
Batman’s rough nature. However, the example of figurative
language usage contradicts such an effort, because the
author certainly did not present Batman as the poetic
person. 129
At the first sight the approaches to translating
adopted by the translator and the publisher of this comics
seems to be inconsistent, but from the reasoning above it
is obvious that there is a system in it after all. Batman:
Hush, Vol. 1 shows yet another approach to the translating/not
translating the onomatopoeic expressions.
The complemetarity of the pictorial and the verbal part of
the comics is also of different kind – it is more based on
the sequentionality of the pictures, and on the extensive
use of footnotes (which are not traditionally used in the
Czech translations). Batman: Hush, Vol. 1 is the
action/detective comics whose story is driven by the
sequential pictures and by the texts implemented into the
extensively used captions.
Compared to Calvin and Hobbes this comics is very
different kind of comics demanding completely different
translating approaches. The translator Jiří Pavlovský dealt
with the translation quite well and despite some minor
distortions of meanings he produced a good translation in
which he extremely well managed to render the author’s
style.130
5.3 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol.1 is a collection of
six issues of a comic books series published by America’s
Best Comics of DC Comics. The collection tells the story
about a group of individuals with extraordinary powers who
are recruited to protect Victorian England against its
enemies. The first issue of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
was published in 1999 and a hardcover collection The League
of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1, on which the Czech translation
of this comics is based, was published in 2000. The story
is written by Alan Moore and drawn by Kevin O’Neil. In the
Czech Republic it was published in 2002 by BB Art and Crew.
The Czech edition of this collection has the same look
and the same format as the US hardcover edition published
in 2000. All verbal content, except for the titles of front
covers in a gallery of covers, is translated and
graphically changed to look the same way as the original.
Besides the six issues of comics the collection includes
a gallery of covers, a short story about one of the main
131
characters, Allan Quatermain, and several pages with
riddles and games. The whole content is stylized as a
collection of old magazines/picture periodicals – the
graphics, the fonts, the bonus materials, the language etc.
are stylized to look like a magazine from the Victorian
Era. To preserve this stylization and the unique background
constructed for the story, the publication is completely
translated into the Czech language.
There are no onomatopoeic expressions outside the
balloons present in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1.
This specific of comics translation is missing. There are
only the onomatopoeic expressions located inside the
balloons:
Moore Janiš
Urrhh... (a man is
suffocating)
Chrrr
r...
Hhuch (a man is hit by a
crowbar)
džum
132
Nnk (man is forced to
drink water)
nnk
Gnnk (man is forced to
drink water)
gnnk
Pfahh! (the sound of
spitting)
Pfa!
Pfugghh! (the sound of
spitting)
Pfuf!
Nnnk (a man is hit by a
bucket)
dzumm
Hhumpf (a man has a knife
on his neck)
hhump
f
These are mostly unarticulated sounds emitted by people so
there is usually no need to translate them and the
translator only adjusted them to the Czech phonetic system,
if needed. Some of these expressions are sounds emitted by
objects – these are replaced by their Czech equivalents.
All of these onomatopoeic expressions are placed in between
breath marks. A similar translating strategy is also
adopted with the exclamations inside the balloons. These
133
are translated or transcribed into a set of signs more
natural for the Czech language: “AAA“ is translated to
“ÁÁÁ”, “pffuh” to “pfúú!, “...uh...” to “...ehm...”,
“owwhh” to “auuuuu” etc.
The pictorial content of The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen Vol. 1 influences the textual content in the usual
way – the translator’s choice of particular expressions and
the choice of the whole register are influenced by the
pictorial content. The pictures complement the text and
vice versa, but there are not many puns or idioms expressed
both by the pictures and the text. This comics is quite
story- and atmosphere-driven and there are not many
wordplays to be found, except for the intertextual plays
with the names:
Moore Janiš
Wilhelmina
Murray
Wilhelmina
Murrayová
Campione Bond Campione Bond
Mycroft Holmes Mycroft Holmes
Allan Quatermain Allan Quatermain
134
Auguste Dupin Auguste Dupin
Captain Nemo Kapitán Nemo
L’Espanay L’Espanayová
Anna Coupeau
(Nana)
Anna Coupeauová
(Nana)
Henry Jekkyl Henry Jekkyl
Edward Hyde Edward Hyde
Donovan Donovan
Plantagenet
Palliser
Plantagenet
Palliser
Lavelle Lavelle
Miss Rosa
Belinda Coote
Slečna Rosa Belinda
Cootová
Hawley Griffin Hawley Griffin
Miss Flaybum Slečna Flaybumová
Olive Chancellor Olive Chancellorová
Miss Carr Slečna Carrová
Miss Becky
Randall
Slečna Becky
Randallová
Polly Whittier Polly Whittierová
Selwyn Cavor Selwyn Cavor135
Mors Mors
Invisible Man Neviditelný
Devil Doctor Ďábelský doktor
Quong Lee Čchiung Li
Ho Ling Che Ling
Shen Yan Šen Jen
Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes
Robur Robur
Moran Moran
Harker Harker
James Moriarty James Moriarty
Dodger Dodger
Mitchell Mitchell
Watts Watts
Ferguson Ferguson
In this extensive list of all names mentioned in the The
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 many literary characters
can be found, starting with the main characters: Wilhelmina
Murray from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Allan Quatermain from H.
R. Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines, Captain Nemo with his136
Nautilus from Jules Verne’s novels, H. G. Wells’s Henry
Griffin alias the Invisible Man, and R. L. Stevenson’s
Jekkyl and Hyde. Even the minor characters are named after
the literary heroes like Auguste Dupin from Edgar Alan
Poe’s Rue Morgue, Mycroft Holmes from A. C. Doyle’s Sherlock
Holmes stories, Anna Coupeau from Émile Zola’s Nana or Miss
Coote, a famous stock character of Victorian erotic
stories.
There are also references to the actual stories of the
famous books: Allan Quattermain is said to be dreaming
about diamond mines, there is a several page long
recapitulation of the scene at Reichenbach waterfalls
depicted exactly as described in A. C. Doyle’s Sherlock
Holmes story, various newspaper titles refer to events of
H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds etc. The author is an expert
on 19th century fictional writers and he refers to their
works throughout the whole comics series. He supports
the story’s atmosphere by that and entertains the
readers20. The translator thus needs to pay a close
20 For the extensive notes on the references and allusions see
Jess Nevin’s annotations at www. enjolrasworld.com.137
attention to every name and event mentioned in order not to
leave out some funny, interesting or important fact. As far
as the translation is concerned, whenever possible, the
names are taken over from the Czech translations of the
said works and/or adapted according to the Czech
conventions: the suffix -ová is added to women’s names, the
Chinese names are correctly transcribed etc.
The linguistic paratext in The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen Vol. 1 expands the background of the story and helps
to establish the world of Victorian England as it is
constructed for this comics/story. This world is based on
the real world of the time, but differs in many aspects
which are carefully thought through by the author.
Therefore the linguistic paratext is fully translated and
extensively graphically adjusted (see fig. 11). For
example, at the beginning of the story there
is an unfinished bridge across La Manche. A plaque with the
explanation why it is unfinished glorifying the Queen is
attached to it. In another picture of the story
a distribution box with the sign “Edison/Teslaton” can be
seen explaining why the technology of this fictional world138
is more advanced. And also the intertextual references such
as the inscription on the tag in the museum: “Adult male
Yahoo Homo Gulliverus” (“Lebka dospělého Jahua: Homo
Gulliverus“) are part of the background.
Fig. 11: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Linguistic
Paratext
Another important aspect of the comics adding to its
uniqueness and atmosphere is the language. The story is set
into the Victorian Era so the language spoken by
the characters is little archaic. Collocations like
“heathen coward” (“zbabělý pohane”), “it would be expedient
for us” (“by bylo na místě”), “deplorable specimens”
(výlupky nectnosti) are used. Question tags and
pleasantries are part of the speech and the characters are139
addressing each other by titles: sir, miss (in England),
monsieur, mademoiselle, madame (in France) and even the
address “memsahib” is used by Captain Nemo. All this is of
course carefully rendered in the translation:
Moore Janiš
Oh please, Miss Murray,
do call me Campion... and
perhaps in return, I
might refer to you as
“Wilhelmina”?
Slečno Murrayová,
udělejte mi prosím tu
radost a říkejte mi
Campione... A mohl bych
vás zase na oplátku
oslovovat „Wilhelmino”?
Simply remarkable, the
view here, isn’t it?
(Moore)
Nevšední výhled,
nemyslíte? (Janiš)
This example shows how the translator retained the
addressing with a title, the polite tone of the speech and
the question tag. In the same time one can also notice that
the differing length of the translated text again was not a
problem in this comics. The first two sentences show a
140
lengthier text, which was fit into the balloon where
originally a shorter text was placed. The third sentence
shows the opposite – a shorter text centred in the balloon
where a longer text was originally placed.
The majority of characters speak formal British
English, but there are exceptions when the formality of
language changes. For example Dr. Hyde is not very friendly
and well behaved creature and thus he uses an informal and
offensive language:
Why, you self important little turd! Unfasten these
confounded straps. I’ll snap your neck in two! (Moore)
Ty nafoukanej hovňousku! Rozvaž mi ty zatracený pouta
a já ti přerazím krk vejpůl! (Janiš)
The translator preserve very well the same level of
offensiveness by using suitable equivalents of the
offensive expressions: “hovňousku” for “little turd”,
“zatracený” for “confounded”. He combines these with the
elements of Common Czech: he uses the unified plural ending
-ý instead -á in “zatracený pouta”, he replaces -ý by -ej141
in “nafoukanej hovňousku” and use the slang expression
“vejpůl”.
The same techniques are used when the main characters
Mina and Allan pretend to be a poor and simple couple
speaking in the colloquial language:
Moore Janiš
Oh! Blimey! You’ve caught
me and the missus at it!
Teda! Safraporte! Vy
jste nás tu přistihla!
It’s just a goodnight
kiss. Be a sport and don’t
let on.
Je to jen pusa na
dobrou noc. Buďte tak
hodná a přivřete nad
náma vočko.
Here not only the colloquial expression “safraporte” is
used, but also the prothetic v- is added to the word
starting with o-: “vočko”, and the unified plural ending -
ma is used instead of -mi: “náma”.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 is rich not only in
the different varieties of the English/Czech language, but
also in other languages. Some speeches/sentences in French,
142
Arabic and Chinese can be found in the comics. In order to
evoke the authentic feeling of foreignness, they are
neither transcribed nor translated neither in the original,
nor in the Czech translation (see fig. 12). As far as the
French is concerned, there is a whole French dialogue in
the story, which is intentionally left untranslated, but
there are also many English/Czech sentences in which only a
few French words are used:
Certainment. You are the catspaws of monsieur Bond,
non? (Moore)
Certainment. Vy jste oba prodloužená ruka monsieura
Bonda, non? (Janiš)
The Chinese and Arabic texts add to the comics the unusual
foreign signs. However, the names, if needed and used, are
transcribed: “Quong Lee” and “Čchiung Li”. Naturally the
translator does not forget to transcribe the name according
to the Czech phonetic rules, which differ from the English
ones.
143
Fig. 12: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Foreign Signs
With such an emphasis on the preservation of cultural
diversity of the original, the translation cannot do
otherwise. Therefore the translator deals with many
cultural aspects and terms like the Indian addressing by
the title “memsahib” (“memsáhib”) or the foreign
expressions like “djinn” (“džin”) – such expressions
appearing in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1 already
have their transcriptions established both in the English
and in the Czech language.
The majority of the text of The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen Vol. 1 one can find within the ordinary balloons. Dr.
Hyde’s speeches, because he is a unique character speaking
144
with a distorted voice, are placed within the wavy balloons
which help to further distinguish his speech. Also the
whispering balloons and the burst balloons are used to
further differentiate various types of speeches. Captions
are used scarcely and appear mostly to define time and
place:
The Birtish Museum, Bloomsbury, London, July 5th,
1898. (Moore)
Britské museum, Bloomsbury, Londýn, 5. Července 1898.
(Janiš)
The narrative captions appear only towards the end of every
issue and include the narrator’s commentaries about the
next part of the story. There are also fragments of Mina’s
letters placed within special captions. These captions help
to signalize the change of mode from the spoken one to the
written one. However, considering the quite high formality
of Mina’s speech in general, there is no big stylistic
difference to be seen either in the original or the
translation. 145
The main specifics of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Vol. 1 are the intertextual references and the extensive use
of linguistic paratexts to support the atmosphere and help
to create little jokes. Actually the whole comics is based
on its unique atmosphere of the unique world which was
constructed solely for this story (and later other
stories). This world is supposed to be believable, rich and
entertaining environment where the stories can take place.
Therefore the translator Viktor Janiš did not need to be
concerned with various newly coined onomatopoeic
expressions, with neologisms and the translations of
superhero nicknames, but he had to deal with a more
difficult task of translating every linguistic paratext, of
looking up every name, and of the careful rendering proper
registers and cultural terms. He not only managed to
preserve the author’s style, but he also retained the
majority of intertextual references and allusions, which is
a great achievement.
146
6. Conclusion
The aims of this thesis were to describe the processes
of comics translation and publication and to introduce the
specifics of comics translation. The information presented
should increase the awareness of the specifics of comics
translation and improve translators’ understanding of
comics. The processes described and the analyses presented
here should also answer the additional questions related to
the specifics of comics translation. Whether this aims were
achieved and the questions answered is summarized in the
following paragraphs.
The processes of comics translation and publication
described in this thesis confirmed that some editorial and
publisher’s decisions influence the translator and his/her
work. Prior to publication of comics, every publisher has
to decide whether to preserve the original format in which
the comics was published. These decisions are based on the
expectations of the intended readership and depend on the
financial possibilities of the publisher. The readership
accustomed to a certain format will not accept the product
147
in a different format. Therefore the publisher conforms to
the readership’s expectations as much as possible.
Further on, the reader could see that matters of
format, such as the type of binding or the size of
publication influence the size of panels, the size of
balloons, the preference of colour and the graphic
techniques used. And these all are very important elements
for the translator: as the analyses of comics translations
presented in this thesis showed, even though, for example,
the size of balloons does not represent any major technical
constraint for the translator, the translator simply cannot
ignore the balloons, because they are the substantial part
of the artistic complexity of comics. Also several other
examples of wordplays appearing in the analysed comics
showed that the pictorial and the verbal parts of comics
are often so intertwined that the translator needs to
perceive these parts as the whole in order to fully grasp
and render all the meanings they present.
The choice of colour also proved to be of a vital
importance for the translator because it greatly influences
which parts of comics s/he is supposed to translate.148
The onomatopoeic expressions placed outside the balloons
were translated in the black and white collection of Calvin
and Hobbes, yet in Batman: Hush the translation of such
expressions was not necessary. The complexity of pictorial
parts of Batman: Hush did not allow the letterer to carry
out the extensive graphical adjustments needed for
the rewriting of the onomatopoeic expressions. The intended
readership, however, accepted both these comics, despite
these different approaches.
The key factor here is the readership’s expectations.
The readership on which Batman: Hush is aimed is
the readership which is interested in superhero comics,
the readership which is aware of the fact that comics are
translated from foreign languages and taken over from
foreign cultures. This readership thus expects to encounter
some foreign aspects in comics. On the other hand Calvin and
Hobbes ore even The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is intended
for a broader readership of people who may not be familiar
with narrative and graphical conventions specific to
comics. Therefore the strategy applied in both Calvin and
Hobbes and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was to adapt the149
comics as much as possible in order to make them more
acceptable for a diverse readership.
Even though the approaches to translations of the
analysed comics differ according to various readerships’
expectations, there are some basic publishing and
translating conventions, which are followed in all three
examined comics. All three comics are collections which
stick to the original format. All three translations follow
the same rules when translating and adapting women’s names,
for example, or when rendering Common Czech. These
approaches are expected by the target culture and as such
they are followed in all three analysed comics.
The translators and the publishers do not domesticate
comics fully and allow some culture-specific and foreign
aspects to remain in the translations, yet only to
a certain extent and to a certain degree.
Finally, the analyses of comics translations presented
here show that the specifics of comics translation do not
differ substantially for various types of comics. The
variety of the specifics exemplified in the analyses
actually shows that the translator can encounter any150
specific introduced here in any kind of comics.
Yet, the translator can encounter some specifics more often
in certain types of comics. For example, if all three
analysed comics are compared from the point of view
of pictures being constraints for the translator, this
comparison reveals that pictures are more often a limiting
constraint for the translator of comics strips (i.e. Calvin
and Hobbes) than for the translator of regular fantastic
comic book stories. The comics strips are shorter and thus
all the jokes, events and points have to be expressed
on a relatively small space and thus are more condensed. As
the result, the pictorial and the verbal parts of comics
are more densely intertwined in comic strips than in comic
book stories.
The specifics of comics translations were successfully
described in this thesis theoretically and then exemplified
in the actual translations. The three translators whose
translations were analysed here, Richard Podaný, Viktor
Janiš and Jiří Pavlovský, were certainly aware of these
specifics as they talked about them in their interviews.
The translations of Richard Podaný and Viktor Janiš were of151
a very good quality and their translating solutions were
extremely thorough especially in cases of more difficult
specifics of comics translation. Jiří Pavlovský’s
translation, on the other hand, has some minor flaws and
does not seem to be as thorough as the other two
translations. Yet, the flaws were not specifically
connected to specifics of comics translation.
The overall good quality of the analysed translations
and the fact that all of the translators dealt with the
specifics very well and paid attention to them may suggest
that the awareness of the specifics of comics translation
can help the translator. However, such suggestion is still
inconclusive, because other factors, such as
the translating experience or the formal education in the
field of translation could influence the analysed
translations. Therefore, all the aims of this thesis were
achieved and the questions answered, except for this last
question which cannot be answered for sure without
additional research of translators’ backgrounds and the
analyses of their other translations.
152
7. Works Cited and Consulted
7.1 Primary Sources
Loeb, Jeph. Batman: Hush, Vol. 1. New York: DC Comics, 2004.
Print.
---. Batman: Ticho 1. Trans. Jiří Pavlovský. Praha: BB Art a
Crew, 2004. Print.
Moore, Alan. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol.1. New York:
America’s Best Comics, 2000. Print.
---. Liga Výjimečných I. Trans. Viktor Janiš. Praha: BB Art a
Crew, 2002. Print.
Watterson, Bill. Calvin and Hobbes. Kansas City: Andrews
McNeel Publishing, 1987. Print.
---. Calvin a Hobbes. Trans. Richard Podaný. Praha: BB Art,
2009. Print.
7.2 Secondary sources
Buchal, Martin. Personal interview. 2010.
153
Celotti, Nadine. “The Translator of Comics as a Semiotic
Investigator.” In Comics in Translation. Manchester: St.
Jerome Publishing, 2008.
“comic strip”. Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
“Č. K. D.”. Crew. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
Danner, Alexander. “Definitions of Comics”. The Elements of
Comics. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
Eisner, Will. Comics and Sequential Art. Tamarac: Poorhouse
Press, 2000. Print.
Garcés, Carmen Valero. “Onomatopoeia and Unarticulated
Language in the Translation of Comic Books. The Case
of Comics in Spanish.” In Comics in Translation.
Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2008.
“graphic novel”. Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica
Online. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 28
Mar. 2012.
Hornby, A. S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. 7th ed. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 2005. Print.
154
Klíčník, Richard. “Podaný, Richard. S Richardem Podaným za
evropským komiksem.” iLiteratura.cz. Sdružení pro
iliteraturu. 16.2.2004. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
Koponen, Maarit. Wordplay in Donald Duck comics and Their Finnish
Translations. Pro Gradu Thesis. U of Helsinki, 2004. Web.
10 Nov. 2011.
Kormosi, Patrik. “Rozhovor s Václavem Dortem”. Kocogel. 21
Jan. 2011. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
Levý, Jiří. The Art of Translation. Trans. Patrick Corness.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing
Company, 2011. Print.
Litoš, Petr. “Kolik stojí vyrobit komiks?” Crew. Web. 28
Mar. 2012.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. New York: Harper
Paperback, 1994. Print.
McVicker, Claudia J. “Comic Strips As A Text Structure For
Learning To Read.” Reading Teacher 61.1 (2007): 85-
88. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
Mičátek, Miloš. “Relettering - chlieb náš každodenný”.
Kocogel. 19 Sept. 2009. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
155
Montgomery, Martin, et al. Ways of Reading: Advanced Reading Skills
for Students of English Literature. London: Routledge, 1992.
Print.
Newmark, Peter. A Textbook of Translation. London: Prentice-Hall,
1988. Print.
--. Paragraphs on Translation. Clavendon: Multilignual Matters,
1993. Print.
Nida, Eugene Albert. “The Role of Contexts in
Translating.” Word, Text, Translation: Liber Amicorum for Peter
Newmark. Eds. Gunilla Anderman and Margaret Rogers.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1999. Print.
Pavlovský, Jiří. “Beseda s Jiřím Pavlovským”. Festival
fantazie 2010. Chotěboř. 10 July 2010. Panel
discussion.
Piekos, Nate. “Comic Book Grammar and Tradition.” Blambot
Comic Fonts & Lettering. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
Rota, Valerio. “Aspects of Adaptation. The Translation of
Comics Formats.” In Comics in Translation. Manchester: St.
Jerome Publishing, 2008.
“The Complete Calvin and Hobbes.” Andrews McMeel Publishing.
Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2011. Web. 156
Venuti, Lawrence. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation.
2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2002. Print.
Wolk, Douglas. Reading Comics. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press,
2007
Zanettin, Federico. “Comics in Translation Studies. An
Overview and Suggestions for Research.” In Traduction et
Interculturalisme. VIIe Seminaire de Traduction Scientifique et Technique
en Langue Portugaise, Lisbonne, 15 novembre 2004, 93 – 98.
Web.
---. “Comics in Translation: An Overview.” In Comics in
Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing, 2008.
---. “The Translation of Comics as Localization. On Three
Italian Translations of La piste des Navajos.” In
Comics in Translation. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing,
2008.
7.3 Framing Sources
Betlachová, Nikola. Comics Between Two Cultural Environments:
Analysis of the Genre and Options for Translation. Brno:
157
Filozofická fakulta Masarykovy univerzity, 2007.
Print.
ComicsDB. Web. 28 Mar. 2012.
Gillár, Martin. Teorie komiksu: současné přístupy a jejich kritické revize.
Brno: Filozofická fakulta Masarykovy univerzity, 2009.
Print.
Tomášek, Ondřej. Translating Comics. Brno: Filozofická fakulta
Masarykovy univerzity, 2009. Print.
158
8. Czech Resumé
Komiks je literární a umělecká forma, v níž je
unikátním způsobem kombinována kresba s textem. Doplňují
se, prolínají a vzájemně se ovlivňují. Krom tohoto je
komiks také zvláštní svou kulturní specifičností – podoba
některých jeho aspektů se mění stát od státu, území od
území. Obojí samozřejmě ovlivňuje snahu o překlad komiksu
do jiného, než zdrojového jazyka. Překlad komiksu pak má
jistá specifika, jichž by si měl být překladatel vědom a
kterým v překladatelské teorii není věnováno mnoho
pozornosti.
Tato diplomová práce se tedy zabývá specifiky
komiksového překladu, popisem procesu komiksového překladu
jako takového a popisem procesu publikace komiksu. Krátce
shrnuje základní definice pojmu komiks, představí různá
rozdělení komiksů podle typů a seznámí se stručnou historií
této umělecké a literární formy jak ve světě, tak v České
republice. Její součástí je i analýza tří českých překladů
různých druhů komiksů, na nichž jsou specifika komiksového
překladu prezentována v praktických příkladech.
159
Cílem práce je rozšířit povědomí o specificích
komiksového překladu, umožnit tak překladatelům lepší
pochopení komiksu a usnadnit a osvětlit proces komiksového
překladu a publikace komiksu.
160
9. English Resumé
Comics is a literary and artistic form which uniquely
combines pictures and writings. The pictorial and the
verbal content of comics complement each other, influence
each other and are intertwined in a complex way. Thanks to
its history and tradition, comics is a very culture-
specific form as well – it differs in every culture and
every state. Both of these facts influence the process of
translation and give it certain specifics of which a
translator intending to translate comics should be aware
and which are not much discussed in translation theory.
This thesis is thus deals with the specifics of comics
translation and describes the processes of comics
translation and publication. It briefly summarizes the
basic definitions of the term “comics”, describes different
types of comics and introduces a short history of comics
both in the world and in the Czech Republic. In this thesis
the analyses of three translations of three different types
of comics are presented. The specifics of comics
translation are exemplified in them.
161
The aims of this thesis are to increase the awareness
of the specifics of comics translation, to improve
translators’ understanding of comics and to enlighten
the processes of comics translation and publication.
162