Keskustelujen arkisto

Whew! I was busy this weekend taking a trip to another state to increase my
localized population of Bassett Hounds, and I could not send a message to
the ML. But I was dismayed by how "Eta Beta" reacted to Stefan Dios'
comments about his philosophy of translating stories!!! However, I see that
he later simmered down and sent a less "passionate" response to the ML, and
Stefan reacted in a spendid manner, employing a bit of humor to disarm the
situation. I thought we were gonna have our first typical Intenet flamewar,
but I was happy to see we still maintain the friendliest group of people
that I've ever heard of being together on a newsgroup! You just meet a
better class a' people here, eh?

Me, I still probably fall somewhere between Stefan and "Eta", that's why I
say I agree with them both. Of course, you gotta realize also that I am a
different sort, myself. As we were discussing earlier, I am not as another
writer here describes himself, making the reader the boss and doing what
ever it is that makes the reader happy. I came to this line of work from a
successful career elsewhere, so I am here to do stories that please *me*. I
very much HOPE I please enough of the readers that the publisher will
continue to buy my stories, and if that's not the case I will be soon enough
unemployed, but I don't change my stories to fit what the readers want or
what the publisher thinks they want. I am a freelancer and I work for
myself. Besides, when the publisher buys the story, he can do whatever he
wants to it and change it to suit himself, even though I know that to change
it *too* much would be more trouble for him than it's worth. But *he* will
need to do the changing... I won't change it for him, unless, of course, it
is some tiny correction of an actual error or whatever (as we also were
saying).
Anyway, what about this "Lydia" song deal? What would *I* liked to have seen
Stefan do? I regard Stefan as possibly the best translator of these stories,
the perfect blend of the comics fan and the publisher's employee, and I
don't think we can do better. I would never double-guess one of Stefan's
decisions on a translation... maybe I'd see if it might be done differently
if they planned some reprint edition if I thought it was important enough
(or if I ever found out about it in the first place... I can't read any of
these translations, y'know!). But how would *I* have translated that "Lydia"
tune? No, not with footnotes... but the Italian idea seemed to be
half-right. I would have used the original Groucho Marx lyrics, translated
into Swedish, but used the name as "Lydien" (or whatever it is in Swedish).
This way the older/smarter readers who know of the famous tune will get a
kick out of seeing it, and even an extra laugh at how Donald misunderstood
the name. Meanwhile the kiddies would never know or be bothered by what they
were missing, but still be treated to funny lyrics.
As to that other instance we mentioned where the names of Taliaferro and
Osbourne were removed from the HD&L 60th Anniversary story -- of course I
don't expect everyone to know those two people... but I do *fully* expect
the editor of the comic to know them! How far "out of the loop" does Egmont
keep these folks? The whole point of the story was to commemorate
Taliaferro/Osbourne's creation of these characters. It's inconceivable that
the editor would not be told this. How could an editor be doing a good job
on such a modicum of information? I know the editors of the Disney comics
are sometimes not hired because of any particular knowledge or interest they
have in the material, but they should still know what's going on in their
own special editions and commemorative stories, eh? And if their translators
don't know, then it was the editor's job to catch the goof. But... my
biggest irk in that situation was the Germans (I think it was, so I was
told, can't read it myself) who apparently *did* recognize that those two
names were of the old writer/artist, but decided to change the names to some
editor and translator! Auugh!
The sort of "sabotage" that used to bother me the most (but which I'm told
happens more and more rarely nowadays) is the taking of well-researched,
highly authentic names and facts, and changing it to childish gibberish
cutesy-funny names. If there are traditions in these comics that say that
all names should be trifled with like that, well, it's too bad that someone
wants to treat every story in every issue as if it were for the same reader.
That's the 1990's American style of "lowest common denominator" that I see
the European cultures as rising above. I hope. There can be stories in these
weeklies where this sort of thing is done, and other stories that treat the
readers otherwise, eh? Why not? It's better to give people variety
(Euro-style) than to do everything one way and try to convince everyone to
like it the way that lowest group does (American style). That's why in
America we have more and more McDonald's, and fewer and fewer Joe's Chop
House or Melrose Diners (names pulled outta thin air).
Anyway, Stefan -- yes, I think you know that I don't object to all the signs
in a wild west story being written in Swedish. That's okay... especially if
I need the readers to know what the signs say. My problem with that
rock-carving was *not* that it would be in Swedish, but that it would
probably be *type-set* in Swedish. But fear not -- I did NOT draw a
footnote box into the panel... I simply left a blank spot at the top. This
way, even if the publisher still whites out my lettering and type-sets
Swedish (or whatever) onto the stone (as I expect will be the case), there
will be no empty caption box hovering in the panel. And, perhaps, some
editor somewhere will white out my carving and still have enough interest to
take the time to have the translated version "carved" into the stone by
hand-made lettering. It could happen!

> From His fortress up there in the clouds HE poured the honey of his
> omniscience over us, who now cower trembling, dazzled and confused by
the
> revelations...

When you yourself know what you are talking about,
could you please enlighten the rest of us?

Steamboat Willie

JEFF CONNER:

> Unlike the
> Mercurycenter comics page, this one does not require registration, or a
> password. And it doesn't toss cookies on your computer.

Um, the Micke Mouse link in merely a link to the Mercurycenter page, and
hitting it brings up their registration page. :-(

Kriton (e-mail: (Email removed))
(WWW: http://cti.gr/~kyrimis
-----
"The end result had to be what we abstract theoreticians call `kerbang'."
-----

Bror:

>> I recently spotted the Mickey Mouse strip on the Comics Cornucopia
>site.
>> http://www.sdsc.edu/~jeff/comics

>I don't know how you managed it, but I still need to be logged on and
>registred to access the MM-strip., even thru cornucopia.

I managed to get the strip without logging in: I didn't follow the link,
but I selected the strip by checking the square box, and pushed on the
button on the bottom of that page ("Create personalized....").

--Harry.

Darrell:
> It's great to know that
> the cover was a tribute to Barks.

You could also call it a rip-off...

> Does anyone on the list have any idea
> how I might find out the identity of the artist who did the Daisy and
> Donald #9 cover for Gold Key??

Maybe you (or someone else) can make a scan of it and publish it on the
Web. Then maybe one of us can recognise the art style.

--Harry.

Hello
Is this phenomena only seen in Scandinavia in the 70'es?:
The sky of Duckburg has many colours, blue (for one), purple,
yellow, green, red and sometimes orange. I know some of
them are normal, but did you ever see a green sky???
Maybe Gutenberghus (I think they were the "sinners") just thought
it was funny that they could put so many different colours in those
panels?!
All for now
Anders Chr.
(Email removed)

Bror Hellman/Steamboat Willie
> We all know about the "very common Berglund"

Sorry, as a "new" meber (july) I don't! please enlighten me!

About the axe-murdering of the Gilded Man, they did that in DK too, luckily
I have the whole story in a Goldbook, but in that book they still call the
country
Courovia (instead of Bocombia) and I could give you lots of examples... I
have about 30
stamps on a danish disney worldmap, which shows kiddy-names (e.g.
Latinia=Italiy)

Stefan and Eta
Your discussion: I read it and thought you were unfriendly (flamewar as Don
said), but
when my brain, told me to think it was for fun, I, hope not to insult you
both!, laughed.
hmm...

Anders Chr.
(Email removed)

BROR HELLMAN wrote:

>If anyone is interested, I'll scan my most horrid example,
>how the Gilded Man was mistreated and literally axe-murdered by
>Swedish editors.
At least I want to see it.

Kalle

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