Being from Sweden when I was 15 years old I had finally obtained a complete swedish Disney comics collection. At that time around 1970 I realized that there were a lot of comics e g by Carl Barks that were unpublished in our country. So I started buying these also from american dealers eager to read more good comics, and soon found out that the american edition was superior since you lose a lot with the translation to swedish and therefore in a few years I aquired a (nearly) complete Barks comics collection. I have read them several times and am still doing so now and then.
What do you from other countries outside USA feel about this ? Similarly the Italian comics by Rota, Scarpa etc ought to be read in Italian if possible :-) But that may be going too far for most of us. I find it convenient to specialize in American Disney comics especially from 1940-1960 with art by Barks, Murry, Wright, Strobl etc. I rarely open my swedish comic books.
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Topic: The originals are the best (?)
(6 messages)
Runner
The originals are the best (?)
Message 1 -
2010-08-17 at 14:04:25
Coolwater
The originals are the best (?)
Message 2 -
2010-08-17 at 15:30:45
In Germany, the classic translations of Barks story by Erika Fuchs are generally regarded as being of an own worth and right; and there is always an uproar if even one word of that translation is changed in the ambitious work collections.
Rather than retinkering a translation slavishly word by word from the English, Fuchs allowed herself some artist liberties and adapted the sound of Duckburg to German lingual and cultural habits and traditions.
Fuchs' method only causes then a bit problems when the factual substance becomes actually different than that of the English original. For instance, Neighbor Jones has in every German story a different name (and don't think that the editors would dare to change that in the Barks work collections). Another example is that in the German translation of "Only a Poor Old Man", Scrooge was, in his reminiscense, a cowboy not in 1882 in Montana but, in a quite arbitrary alteration, in 1892 in Argentine.--All in all, however, such real differences and inconsistencies are only minor and marginal.
But you are very right that it is by all means necessary for the connoisseur to get to know Barks' original spirit and humour. So here, for reference and comparison one must have and study at least the Barks comics in both versions, in the Barksian original and in the Fuchsian adaption. Of course, it's too much hassle and too much moola for average Fritz to get the original American comic books from the 40s and 50s, so one is very thankful for editions like the Carl Barks Library and the CBL in Color.
The skills of the translator make really quite much. As far as I've heard Sonja Rindom of Denmark was also very good. It could be that you just weren't lucky enough in Sweden that the right person for that job turned out. In the 70s there were these big white books with long Barks adventures published not by Ehapa in Germany and translated by someone different than Fuchs: Not only is the text there primitive and reduced, but the translator did not even translate from Barks' original but from the Italian. This translation is unanimously seen as complete junk, the difference to Fuchs is really that from hell to heaven.
Scarpa and colleagues should probably indeed be enjoyed ideally in their original Italian, but I also lack with respect to my language skills the possibilty to draw comparisons and to see how much is changed or "lost" with the translation. The translation of the Italian material in the pocket books here always seemed good and fine at least.
Rather than retinkering a translation slavishly word by word from the English, Fuchs allowed herself some artist liberties and adapted the sound of Duckburg to German lingual and cultural habits and traditions.
Fuchs' method only causes then a bit problems when the factual substance becomes actually different than that of the English original. For instance, Neighbor Jones has in every German story a different name (and don't think that the editors would dare to change that in the Barks work collections). Another example is that in the German translation of "Only a Poor Old Man", Scrooge was, in his reminiscense, a cowboy not in 1882 in Montana but, in a quite arbitrary alteration, in 1892 in Argentine.--All in all, however, such real differences and inconsistencies are only minor and marginal.
But you are very right that it is by all means necessary for the connoisseur to get to know Barks' original spirit and humour. So here, for reference and comparison one must have and study at least the Barks comics in both versions, in the Barksian original and in the Fuchsian adaption. Of course, it's too much hassle and too much moola for average Fritz to get the original American comic books from the 40s and 50s, so one is very thankful for editions like the Carl Barks Library and the CBL in Color.
The skills of the translator make really quite much. As far as I've heard Sonja Rindom of Denmark was also very good. It could be that you just weren't lucky enough in Sweden that the right person for that job turned out. In the 70s there were these big white books with long Barks adventures published not by Ehapa in Germany and translated by someone different than Fuchs: Not only is the text there primitive and reduced, but the translator did not even translate from Barks' original but from the Italian. This translation is unanimously seen as complete junk, the difference to Fuchs is really that from hell to heaven.
Scarpa and colleagues should probably indeed be enjoyed ideally in their original Italian, but I also lack with respect to my language skills the possibilty to draw comparisons and to see how much is changed or "lost" with the translation. The translation of the Italian material in the pocket books here always seemed good and fine at least.
Runner
The originals are the best (?)
Message 3 -
2010-08-17 at 15:43:58
Quote from user: Coolwater...so one is very thankfully for editions like the Carl Barks Library and the CBL in Color...
Yes indeed, I live in Spain part of the year and there I dare to take my sets of the CBL in color for further education etc :) . (Its a pity though they "destroyed" Voodoo Hoodoo, Darkest Africa and possibly some other story by the horrible redrawing... I have to read the originals only in Sweden :) )
The Swedish translators probably are and have been quite good but even just "estetically" the early Barks lettering is a vital part of the drawings IMO not considering its vital importance otherwise !
Yes indeed, I live in Spain part of the year and there I dare to take my sets of the CBL in color for further education etc :) . (Its a pity though they "destroyed" Voodoo Hoodoo, Darkest Africa and possibly some other story by the horrible redrawing... I have to read the originals only in Sweden :) )
The Swedish translators probably are and have been quite good but even just "estetically" the early Barks lettering is a vital part of the drawings IMO not considering its vital importance otherwise !
Dia-Dia
The originals are the best (?)
Message 4 -
2010-08-17 at 15:58:47
Quote from user: CoolwaterAll in all, however, such real differences and inconsistencies are only minor and marginal.
Well, no, for what it is worth the more I re-read Fuchs' Barks, the more I notice what an awful job she has done and how much she has destroyed. The classic example is "Lost in the Andes". The name of the original discoverer of the lost town was Rhutt Betlah, a take on Rhett Butler (funny), Fuchs makes a professor Pustelstein or a similiar sounding name of it (not funny). The name this discoverer gave to the city was Plain Awful (witty because of the double meaning of "plain"), and in Fuchs' translation it becomes Eckenhausen ("egde hamlet" - not funny). For all her good wordplays elsewhere, Fuchs was a pompous pedant sometimes, and it shows in that special and very German (and Austrian) reverence for Professoren and all that.
Moreover, as I said in another thread, as the supervisor of the first LTB translations, she is responsible for the fact that all the Italian stories that are set in Topolinia, Mousecity, are set in Entenhausen (Duckburg), regardless of the fact that Scarpa and the others made painful differences between Topoplinia and Paperopoli.
Well, no, for what it is worth the more I re-read Fuchs' Barks, the more I notice what an awful job she has done and how much she has destroyed. The classic example is "Lost in the Andes". The name of the original discoverer of the lost town was Rhutt Betlah, a take on Rhett Butler (funny), Fuchs makes a professor Pustelstein or a similiar sounding name of it (not funny). The name this discoverer gave to the city was Plain Awful (witty because of the double meaning of "plain"), and in Fuchs' translation it becomes Eckenhausen ("egde hamlet" - not funny). For all her good wordplays elsewhere, Fuchs was a pompous pedant sometimes, and it shows in that special and very German (and Austrian) reverence for Professoren and all that.
Moreover, as I said in another thread, as the supervisor of the first LTB translations, she is responsible for the fact that all the Italian stories that are set in Topolinia, Mousecity, are set in Entenhausen (Duckburg), regardless of the fact that Scarpa and the others made painful differences between Topoplinia and Paperopoli.
Coolwater
The originals are the best (?)
Message 5 -
2010-08-17 at 16:25:47
Quote from user: RunnerThe Swedish translators probably are and have been quite good but even just "estetically" the early Barks lettering is a vital part of the drawings IMO not considering its vital importance otherwise !
The "lettering question" is a good point that is often ignored or neglected!
In the German version of the CBL in Color (1992-2004) a very thin, fine, characterful hand lettering was used which looks as such quite nice but which could be seen as a bit foreign to the drawings. The lettering of the Carl Barks Collection (2005-2009) then is in its thickness closer to Barks' original, but looks somehow sterile on the other side (as the speech balloons were not really lettered by hand, but is made of standardized hand letters).
Anyway, concerning the lettering there are only good solutions but not perfect ones, I guess. Even if some wunderkind showed up who could perfectly imitate Barks' lettering, it would be hardly suitable for the translations here: Barks' characters are so broad that in many cases the German text probably wouldn't fit in the speech balloons. Also, for those two German editions of Barks' works the decision was made, fortunately, to use upper and lower case letters because German is much better and smoother to read that way--so the lettering here looks different already in the basics.
At least the letterings in both Barks editions here are much better and more considered than what one can see elsewhere. What they presented in the Don Rosa albums here is already levels beneath ...
The "lettering question" is a good point that is often ignored or neglected!
In the German version of the CBL in Color (1992-2004) a very thin, fine, characterful hand lettering was used which looks as such quite nice but which could be seen as a bit foreign to the drawings. The lettering of the Carl Barks Collection (2005-2009) then is in its thickness closer to Barks' original, but looks somehow sterile on the other side (as the speech balloons were not really lettered by hand, but is made of standardized hand letters).
Anyway, concerning the lettering there are only good solutions but not perfect ones, I guess. Even if some wunderkind showed up who could perfectly imitate Barks' lettering, it would be hardly suitable for the translations here: Barks' characters are so broad that in many cases the German text probably wouldn't fit in the speech balloons. Also, for those two German editions of Barks' works the decision was made, fortunately, to use upper and lower case letters because German is much better and smoother to read that way--so the lettering here looks different already in the basics.
At least the letterings in both Barks editions here are much better and more considered than what one can see elsewhere. What they presented in the Don Rosa albums here is already levels beneath ...
Runner
The originals are the best (?)
Message 6 -
2010-08-17 at 18:08:34
A small but interesting thing touching the lettering is that some of the Barks originals, i e the USA editions were censored and "relettered" by the editors(or someone).
You can see that for example in one of my, artwise, Barks favorites The Old Castle´s Secret (FC 189). Without looking after I do not recall exactly what was changed in that case but it concerned the grave yard and/or the tomb stones when they were dealt with.
There are I think a handful of other examples of this kind of censorship in rather early Barks stories.
I have not so far read any analising articles about this little topic.
You can see that for example in one of my, artwise, Barks favorites The Old Castle´s Secret (FC 189). Without looking after I do not recall exactly what was changed in that case but it concerned the grave yard and/or the tomb stones when they were dealt with.
There are I think a handful of other examples of this kind of censorship in rather early Barks stories.
I have not so far read any analising articles about this little topic.
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