Vol. 63:3 (2017) ► pp.343–363
Approach to the translation of sound in comic books
The relationship between texts and images in comics is essential from the graphic point of view and for the understanding of the story. Hence, the translation of comics has certain peculiarities that other literature genres do not have, partly due to its combination of iconic language and literary language.
Among the wide array of interesting topics within this field, we are going to focus on a great challenge for translators: the graphic and phonetic values of the sounds in comics. Technical advances have improved comic books translation: nowadays modifying an element of the vignette no longer involves redrawing the whole animation. Thus, the translation of this literature genre can now focus on other problematic issues, such as the translation of sounds. Taking into account the lack of categorization of these sounds, this article deals with the translation of inarticulate sounds, interjections and onomatopoeias from English comic books into Spanish in order to observe the existing trends in these issues and to confirm if the new technologies have changed the translators’ task in the last 25 years.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Sound in comic books
- 3.The translation of sound in comic books and translation proposals
- 3.1The translation of sound in comic books
- 3.2Translation proposals
- 4.Analysis of the sounds in comic books and their translation
- 4.1Localization and basic translation techniques
- 4.2Analysis
- 4.3Distinctive characteristics of each comic
- 4.3.1The ordinary translations and use of loans in Maus, Kick Ass, Palestine, Ghost World and V for Vendetta
- 4.3.2The translation of violence sounds in 300 and Sin City
- 4.3.3The special case of Hate
- 5.Conclusions
- Notes
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References
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.63.3.03iga