Federico Zanettin: Comics in Translation

Manchester (UK) and Kinderhook (NY): St. Jerome. 2008, 322 pp. ISBN 978-1-
905763-07-8
For some, the translation of comics might be perceived as a field of lesser interest. The book
entitled Comics in Translation defies this notion. The book not only provides an insight into
the question of translation and cultural adaptation and clarifies numerous linguistic terms of
general interest with reference to Translation Studies, but also features a valuable collection
of references on the translation of comics and is complete with inviting illustrations.
The volume has been edited by Associate Professor of English Language and
Translation Federico Zanettin, currently with the University of Perugia. Apart from the
translation of comics, Zanettin specialises in corpus-based translation studies, intercultural
communication and computer assisted translation and is co-editor of Corpora in Translator
Education and several periodicals including the Bibliography of Translation Studies.
On the whole, Comics in Translation investigates comics broadly defined as “self-
contained” (p. 7) “graphic narrative expressions” (p. 1) and explores the following issues
connected with comics: globalisation and localisation, editorial and publishing practices,
translation strategies and interplay between the visual and verbal (i.e. textual) messages of
comics. The volume is composed of two parts: Part 1 features general issues with relation to
the translation of comics while Part 2 comprises case studies. The book is complete with short
introductions to the contributors and is made reader-friendly through the inclusion of an
index. The source and/or target languages of the translations surveyed include a wide range of
tongues: English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese.
The four studies in Part 1 discuss general issues. Study 1 by Zanettin, entitled Comics
in Translation, describes the history of comics, certain semiotic aspects of translation, the
language of comics and classifies the studies that have been written on this topic. From
Zanettin we learn that the history of comics is closely connected to the emergence of mass
media and printed media. Different regions of the world saw the flourishing of comics at
different times: in the USA there was a great boom in the 1930s and 40s, while in Europe and
Japan in the 1950s. Today the publication of comics is undoubtedly big business worldwide.

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According to Zanettin, the following factors influence choices in the translation of comics:
change in the genre (different types of fictional and narrative genres in the source and target
languages), change in the readership (e.g. switch from adults to children) and changes in the
publication format (from a supplement in a newspaper to a separate book, etc.). It is claimed
(and the claim is supported by the research reported on in this volume), that these factors all
call for different translation strategies. Based on Jakobson’s (1992) and Eco’s (2003) theories
on semiotics, Zanettin concludes that the translation of comics may call for transforming
visual information into verbal signs in the target language, the translation of the source text
verbal signs into target language verbal signs as well as the adaptation of the comic into other
art forms (e.g. cinematic adaptation of a cartoon, etc.). Actually, the translation of comics is
made complex and unique by the fact that comics present a visual narration based on both
pictures and words. Very often comics feature iconic signs and present images, and the reader
is expected to figure out the events happening between successive images. This fact has great
relevance for the translation of comics.
Reviewing the literature on the translation of comics, Zanettin argues that most studies
describe and analyse puns and wordplays in comics and ignore the visual nature of comics.
Some scholars categorise the translation of comics as the rendering of a certain type of
multimedia text into another (a target language), and describe it as constrained translation,
where the visual nature of the genre limits translation choices. Yet other studies perceive
comics as a polysemiotic system in the case of which the visual channels are used together
with verbal communication, which greatly affects the translation of this genre. It can also
happen, and in fact it does, that the visual signs are altered in the process of translation.
Another group of studies on the translation of comics relates linguistic analysis to
sociocultural and semiotic aspects. This volume adopts an alternative approach, claiming that
the translation of comics is in no way constrained by the nature of the genre, but quite to the
contrary: it affords translation choices that no other genre can offer.
Study 2, entitled The Translator of Comics as a Semiotic Investigator by Celotti,
discusses verbal and visual messages, focusing on their interrelatedness. In comics, verbal
messages are found in speech balloons, captions (third person texts marking changes in time,

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space, etc.), titles and the linguistic paratext (verbal signs outside the speech balloons but
within the drawings of the comics, such as road signs, inscriptions, etc.).
The paratext is an intriguing part of comics as it has both visual and verbal functions
and, as a result, calls for creative translation strategies. Based on empirical analysis, Celotti
identifies 6 translation strategies: translation, translation with a footnote, cultural adaptation,
leaving the paratext untranslated, deletion or a mix of the above. Highlighting the importance
of the interplay and interrelatedness between verbal and visual messages, the writer believes
that mistranslations in comics are often caused by translators’ failure to observe the link
between verbal and visual messages. Celotti asserts that a successful translation strategy of
comics achieves “harmony and coherence between the iconic [visual] message and the verbal
message” (p. 47) and attests that the visual language of comics is in fact a resource for
translators rather than a constraint and allows for translators’ semiotic investigations as part of
the translation process.
In Study 3, entitled Translating Manga, Jüngst deals with the translation of a 20th century
Japanese comics genre and surveys reader expectations and translation practices. Based on
Nida’s (1964) distinction between formal and dynamic equivalence, the author claims that
contemporary readers prefer to read formally equivalent translations that retain their Japanese
character both linguistically and visually: the translated texts occasionally imitate Japanese
syntax and phrasing, and use the original Japanese pictures without any change.
Surveying translation strategies of manga from Japanese into English and German,
Jüngst shows that translators go out of their way to make their texts sound foreign, i.e.
Japanese. Originally English or German words in the Japanese source text are either footnoted
or are purposefully altered (i.e. foreignised) in the target text to give them a Japanese flavour.
For example, the originally English name of a cartoon character, “Howl” ends up as “Hauro”
in the English target text to sound Japanese.
Similarly, Japanese onomatopoeic words also remain unchanged: partly as an attempt
to make the cartoons Japanese in the target language environment and partly because of
financial considerations (it would be too costly to alter the images). Likewise, Japanese words
for realia are predominantly retained along with the description of the item, or less frequently,
are translated or omitted. As a rule, the pictorial content of the cartoons is also left unchanged

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in another attempt to preserve the Japaneseness of manga. However, taking the intended
target audiences into consideration, even the pictorial content may even be edited, with
images occasionally added or deleted. To imitate Japanese editions, the format of manga
books is retained in the target language pocket size editions. All this points towards the
conclusion that manga remains predominantly Japanese even in translation: translators, in
Nida’s (1964) terminology, seek formal rather than dynamic equivalence.
Study 4, entitled Aspects of Adaptation: The Translation of Comics Formats by Rota,
starting from the assumption that each comic producing culture has its own favourite comic
layout format, engages in exploring editing strategies in the translation of comics in
different countries. Basically two editing strategies can be distinguished: foreignisation and
domestication. The foreignising strategy aims at maintaining a taste of foreignness, partly by
retaining the original cultural and editorial characteristics such as the original size, title,
onomatopoeia, etc. of the source language publication. The domesticating strategy, on the
other hand, alters comics so that their format and colouring are adjusted to the tastes of target
culture readers, and the original text may be shortened or altered in the target language
edition, panels may be omitted, and even political and/or cultural censorship may be
practised. Based on a survey of the editing strategies followed in several European countries,
it can be concluded that European countries adapt the domesticating strategy in publishing
cartoons originating from other European countries, while in publishing Japanese comics they
tend to adopt a foreignising strategy. This means that European readers are in fact ready to
accept “imported” comics and do not necessarily expect domesticated translations under all
conditions.
Study 5, entitled The Language of Trauma: Art Spiegelman’s Maus and its
Translations by Baccolini and Zanettin, addresses the issues of the representability and
translatability of the Holocaust trauma. The Yiddish and Italian translations of Spiegelman’s
Maus, a chronological narrative using flashback technique, are analysed in terms of how well
they are capable of retaining the sociolinguistic characterisation of some of the important
characters of the comic and to what extent they are able to recreate the reading experience
associated with the original work.

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From this study we learn that the Yiddish translation of Maus posed a serious challenge to the
translator, since Hebrew does not have enough sociolects to distinguish the characters
linguistically. The problems of translation provoked a debate connected with issues of cultural
and linguistic identity in Israel, and as a result, Maus was not published in Israel.
Italy, on the other hand, can boast of two translations. The translations by Carano and
Previtali are analysed and compared in terms of how well they can cope with the foreign-
sounding, broken English of the main character Vladek and how the two translations
approach the two timelines in the narration: the timeline of the events narrated and that of the
narration itself. While Carano reproduces the foreign-sounding language through stylistic
choices and retains most of the originally Yiddish words, Previlali observes regularities of
foreign-sounding language in the source text and reproduces the same effect by creating a
foreign-sounding Italian text as well as retains all of the Yiddish words of the source text.
This gives Previtali’s target text an exotic character. The authors claim that in Carano’s
version, the time of the events narrated and that of the narration mix, which, in Italian readers,
results in a perception of the Holocaust story different from that offered by the original comic.
In this respect Previtali’s translation is acknowledged by Italian readers. It is concluded that
the success of the translator’s choices may very well influence the reception of translated
comics.
Study 6, ‘Slime Hero from the Swamp’: The Italian Editions of Alan Moore’s Horror
Saga by D’Arcangelo examines the publishing strategies of the Italian publishing house
Magic Press. According to the study, Magis Press publishes wide circulation popular comics
for the general public and select comics for select readerships. In its publishing policy, Magic
Press makes every attempt to localise non-Italian comics, and, as part of this, has introduced
the comic book format, a special Italian edition format.
In an effort to move towards localisation, Magic Press and the translator (Rizzi) did
their best to make an Italian comic out of Swamp Thing. Apart from changing the original
colouring into black and white, the Italian version struggled to reproduce the rhyming iambic
pentameter and assonances of the original and to retain the distinctive features in the target
text between the different varieties of English found in the source text. The result was a huge
success: the localised text and format suited to readers’ expectations both linguistically and

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culturally. All this seems to prove that, contrary to expectations, quality literature can also
become extremely popular if it is localised with the help of careful translation and appropriate
marketing strategies.
Study 7, entitled Disney Comics in the Arab Culture(s). A Pragmatic Perspective by
Zitawi, is a pilot study based on Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness Theory. It
examines face threatening texts in the English source and Arabic target texts of Disney
cartoons. The study describes and analyses how Arab translators manage to maintain the face
of Arab readers of Disney comics, which contain some potentially face threatening texts. It
appears that face threatening texts are not translated, but are modified or replaced (e.g.,
euphemisms are used) to indicate that in fact no face threatening is meant or, as an alternative,
are retained in those cases where they seem acceptable in the target culture, or when it is
exactly these segments that provide a comic effect. The study concludes that Politeness
Theory can be extended to suit the translation of comics by developing a means for dealing
with subtle ways of expressing threat, and proposes that in addition to positive and negative
face, an ideal face should be posited. The notion of ideal face would describe the face
normative projects in the translation of comics wish to attain: they, on the one hand, respect
the target reader and community and, on the other hand, retain the comic effects of the source
language text.
Study 8, Translating Educational Comics by Jüngst, deals with the typical situations
in which educational comics are translated and provides a classification of such comics and
the associated translation strategies. Educational comics are defined as informative in content
and narrative in structure, meant for narrow target groups and “written to inform, change
readers’ behaviour, or instruct readers in how to do something” (p. 173).
Educational comics may be designed for translation and in that case they do not
display culture-specific elements and are globalised in style. Based on social decisions and
considerations, certain educational comics may be translated and thus get localised
linguistically and format-wise. For this, a local publication format, localised names or pictures
may be used and there could be localisation-motivated textual alterations.
Jüngst provides two classifications of educational comics (by type of publisher and
target language) and describes associated translation strategies. It is claimed that in the case of

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educational comics published by the EU, political movements and companies, adaptation and
localisation are used. In the case of translation into the surveyed minority languages (e.g.
Spanish in the USA or Inuit in Canada), adaptation is used, while partial adaptation is the
practice when translating from Japanese into European languages. In conclusion, it seems
that, in the translation of educational comics, varied practices are selected to match the
intended target readers.
In study 9, entitled The Translation of Comics as Localisation. On Three Italian
Translations of La piste des Navajos, Zanettin examines localisation strategies and product
update practices in Disney comics and in different editions of three Italian and one French
cartoon series. Interestingly enough, the localisation of comics series usually starts with the
globalisation of the text of the comics. Both in the case of Disney comics and the Italian
Bonelli comics series, globalisation of text is carried out in the following way: an
internationalised and preliminary English text is provided, which is consequently revised and
adapted (sometimes along explicit guidelines on adaptation) to the taste of local readers in an
attempt to adjust the translated comics to local comics conventions. Textual adaptation is
usually accompanied by the retouching of the images.
Product update practices, on the other hand, involve smaller-scale linguistic (and
possibly image) changes from one publication to subsequent publications. Two Italian
comics, Tex and Paperinik, are used to show that, due to differences in reader expectations
and as a result of diachronic linguistic changes, stylistic alterations (including the use of PC
expressions) are effected from one edition to the other. This is seen as an instance of
localising translation strategy. Through the analysis of the different editions of the episode La
piste des Navajos of the French Blueberry cartoon series, it is demonstrated that publishers
adjust the words of the cartoons to the envisaged readership and apply different translation
strategies. The colours of the different editions of the said episode are dissimilar, different
registers and styles are used for different audiences and while mostly domesticating strategies
are used, one edition deliberately opts for the foreignising strategy to document the source
language features for the sake of collectors.
It is concluded that different audiences require different translation strategies on the
part of publishers, which may result in diverse localisation strategies. It is proposed that to

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understand and explain translation practices one needs to contextualise research with
reference to the contemporary audience, reader expectations, editorial practice and other
characteristics of the reception of the comic in question. It is also suggested that the scope of
the term product update could be extended to include localisation for different readerships
both diachronically and geographically.
Study 10, The Winx Club a Challenge to Globalisation by Di Giovanni, with the help
of the originally Italian cartoon and comics The Winx Club, translated into thirty languages,
wishes to show that cultural exchange and the dissemination of cultural products in today's
globalised mass media are not unidirectional. Analysing the success of The Winx Club, it is
claimed that translation has largely contributed to the worldwide success of this Italian
cultural product. The cartoon and the comics contain culture-neutral, fictional stories;
however, the selling, marketing, the related media activity and the text of both the cartoon and
the comics are localised.
While the cartoon is almost perfectly translated into English with only occasional
traces of the source text, the rendering of the comics is less successful. The study claims that
the English translation is awkward and unusual, sometimes even literal, and that very often
the Italian source text shines through. Given this, the author suggests that linguistic and
cultural hegemony, which very often goes hand in hand with media hegemony, may be
successfully combated through translation: languages and cultures perceived to be on the
periphery of global culture rather than in the mainstream can have their effect on globalised
culture and the English language through translation.
Study 11, entitled Onomatopoeia and Unarticulated Language in the Translation of
Comic Books. The Case of Comics in Spanish by Valero Garcés, examines the translation
from English into Spanish of onomatopoeic expressions in US comics. The study aims to
establish, partly with the help of a comparable monolingual corpus, what happens to English
onomatopoeic expressions in Spanish target texts and how the tendencies obtained relate to
the use of such words in original Spanish comics. The article works with three sources of
data: (1) US comic books translated into Spanish, (2) comic books originally written in
Spanish and (3) the results of a questionnaire about the use of onomatopoeic expressions
distributed among Spanish cartoonists and comic writers.

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 A review of Spanish translation strategies of English onomatopoeic expressions
supports the view that from the 1950s on there has been a tendency to retain English
onomatopoeia in Spanish target texts. This is explained by the following three reasons: (1)
Spanish is less dynamic in inventing onomatopoeic expressions, (2) onomatopoeic
expressions outside the speech balloons would have been/would be too costly to translate and
(3) English has a greater variety of lexical items for onomatopoeia than Spanish. Intriguingly,
some types of onomatopoeic expressions (e.g. those representing unarticulated sounds
produced by humans and sounds showing feelings or attitudes such as yummy-yummy) are, as
a rule, translated if they have Spanish equivalents, whereas there seems to be a tendency to
retain sounds produced by objects and actions (e.g. bang-bang) in their English original. The
translation norm seems to be to retain English onomatopoeic expressions in the Spanish
translation of comics.
On the other hand, the analysis of comic books originally written in Spanish shows
that, besides Spanish onomatopoeic expressions, English onomatopoeia is quite common
either as loan words retaining their English spelling or as new creations featuring English
sounds and Spanish spelling. With reference to the third source of data for the study, the
results of the questionnaire distributed among Spanish cartoonists and comic writers show
that the authors of comics predominantly use existing onomatopoeic expressions and usually
rely on their own collections of words of this kind. Besides, they also invent and introduce
new words, mainly using American comics as a resource. As for their attitude to the
translation of English onomatopoeic expressions, the cartoonists and comic writers involved
claim that they do not see the need to always translate English onomatopoeia. The study
concludes that borrowing is the most common practice in terms of onomatopoeic expressions
in Spanish comics and that the English-speaking countries are the dominant source of
representing onomatopoeia in Spanish cartoons.
Study 12, Proper Names, Onomastic Puns and Spoonerisms: Some Aspects of the
Translation of the Astérix and Tintin Comics Series, with Special Reference to English by
Delesse examines the translation of two French comics based on verbal humour, Tintin and
Astérix. The author examines the translation strategies used in the translation of proper names,
onomastic puns and spoonerisms. In five different target language texts of Tintin, proper

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names are translated so that the target names differ from the source names only in one or only
a few phonemes with the alliterations of the source names retained, or alternatively, the
translated names evoke target language words describing the character. In Astérix, on the
other hand, the linguistic features of the original names of the source cartoon characters is
observed by the translator and there is an attempt to retain such a naming practice in the
English target text. For instance, the Romans in the original French text have Roman-
sounding names, and this is mirrored by the English target text. The translation of telling
names similarly mirrors the notions exhibited by the source text names and thus preserves the
comic effect.
Onomastic puns are reproduced as puns in the English target text if possible. Where
this is not feasible, the joke is retained but it is linked to other contextual cues in the target
text than in the source text. Certainly, spoonerisms have proved to be the most difficult to
translate: a change in the sequence of syllables in the target text is offered as a translation, and
in case the spoonerism is untranslatable, a new spoonerism is included in the target text.
The study concludes by claiming that compensation strategies like the ones
described above are vital in the translation of humour for the preservation of the comic
elements included in the source text. It is noted that such compensation may extend to the
entire target text rather than to exclusively some phrases in the source text. This, in turn, can
also increase coherence in the target text, thereby ensuring easier comprehension.
Study 13, Comics in Translation. An Annotated Bibliography by Zanettin, presents an
up-to-date 149-item bibliography of studies dealing with the translation of comics. The
bibliography is made user-friendly by including short and informative descriptions of the
articles concerned.
As a conclusion, the reader of Comics in Translation has the impression that the
volume under scrutiny provides very entertaining reading. At the same time, this academically
stimulating collection of studies is made highly valuable by presenting unique findings in a
somewhat neglected area of translation research. The major advantage of the book is that it
focuses on several languages and describes research data very meticulously and in a way that
allows for the adaptation of both the research results and the research methods introduced.

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 References

Jakobson, R. 1992 [1959]. On linguistic aspects of translation. In: Rainer, S. and Biguenet, J. (eds.). Theories of
Translation. An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago
Press. 144−151.
Eco, U. 2003. Dire quasi la stressa cosa. Esperienze di traduzione. Milano: RCS Libri.
Nida, E. 1964. Towards a Science of Translation. Leiden: Brill.
Brown P. and Levinson, S. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Mátyás Bánhegyi
Budapest, Hungary
https://sites.google.com/site/matyasbanhegyi/english

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