A couple of years ago, I decided to start reading comics again. I told myself that I'll somehow make up for the money spent and the time spent reading books that aren't on my ever-large read-for-work pile by making it pay down the road. Frankly, even I barely believed it. I've pitched comics series to both the publishers I worked for as editor, but neither bit.
And now, for the second time in the last few months, I can announce the fruits of my quest to become a comics maven, as the good folks at Comikaza announce the upcoming hebrew publication of the first issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, translated by yours truly.
I'm very happy to be involved in this endeavor. As readers of the Hebrew segments of the site already know, I'm a big fan of Bendis' work, and I feel that Ultimate Spider-Man has been the best Spidey series in the last few years, as well as the best series set in Marvel's Ultimate Universe. And it's nice to see that crazy plans can come to fruition.
Sunday, August 08, 2004
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2 comments:
Do you really think this thing is going to fly? Not wanting to sound too pesimistic here, but I would like to point that the previous two attempts at translating comics to Hebrew and selling it in comic-book format (Kevin Comics back in the 80s and Contact-Point in the 90s) both fell flat, and I somehow feel the current attempt will be met with the same result. Don't get me wrong - hooray to anyone trying (and the Kevin Comics translations actually got me into comics as a kid), but truth is, fans around here got used to reading comics in English. Do you really think they'll substitute it with Hebrew translations?*
I did see the preview of the translated book in Comikaza's site, BTW. Nice work.
-Raz
* On the purely educational side: comics are a great way to learn a language. I read comic books in English back in elementary school loooong time before I could handle books in English, and in fact I consider "Maus" to be the first novel I read in English (and in fact it's still better than most). And the translation of Japanese comics I do now - with all the pains it gives me - is a far more pleasant experience than the endless lessons I took during my BA years. :-)
I certainly hope it will, and I have several reasons to believe things wil lbe different. The 3 major ones are these:
1. The movies.
2. The specific book selected. Ultimate Spider-Man was created to bring new readers in. It isn't awash in continuity, and it's an updated version that new readers today can enjoy without needing the nostalgia factor that helps one enjoy the original.
3. Comikaza. They're smart, they do what they do very well.
It's all about getting NEW fans, as existing fans have certainly been aware of this series, which is one of the best all-ages (well, nearly all-ages. SOme of the content is a little more mature, but Bendis walks this line much better than Millar did in Ultimate X-Men) series out there. Israeli readers who are curious about Spidey can pick up the books, and get right in to the story. The infamously uncompressed nature of the stories also has a slow build up that can actually help people who are uninitiated in superhero fiction get comfortable.
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