This article deals with the English translations of two famous comic series, Tintin (by Hergé, Belgium) and Astérix (by Goscinny and Uderzo, France), both of which amuse the reader and are based to a large extent on verbal humour. After introducing the two series and their translators, this study examines the specificity of the language of the original texts. Given that the large number of books in the series makes an exhaustive analysis impossible in the space of a single article, only the translation of some proper names, onomastic puns and spoonerisms is examined. The selected examples are analyzed in some detail: first the author discusses the linguistic devices used by the author of the French original texts, and second, the choices made by the translators, which depend both on the nature of the target language (English) and on the relationship between image and text, and which lie between formal equivalence and total adaptation. The British editions are the result of the work of a single set of translators for each of the two series, and often show greater coherence than their original counterparts. The translators, especially those of the Astérix series, used different types of compensation strategies and successfully achieved 'generalized compensation' throughout the text.