Comics 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 relationships with the verbal messages - for example whether the relationship between them is one of complementarily or dialogue. This article distinguishes between four loci of translation, or different areas of comics where verbal messages appear: balloons, captions, titles and linguistic paratext (verbal content within pictures, e.g. inscriptions, road signs, newspapers and onomatopoeia). It especially focuses on the translation of the linguistic paratext, a locus which shows a high level of variability in terms of whether the verbal message is translated or not. A range of different strategies used by translators are identified and discussed, stressing the need for the translator to pay attention to all kinds of interplay between visual and verbal messages, and to approach the translation of comics as a semiotic experience.