Scanlations

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Marionette
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Scanlations

Post by Marionette »

The appearance of Cinebook has meant that at last we are starting to get English translations of european comics, but there is vastly more out there than one company could possibly publish, so we are also getting a similar situation to what has happened with Japanese comics - if it's not being translated officially, fans are doing their own.

I particularly enjoyed one series entitled Seul (Alone) which is about what happens when the children of a big city wake up one day to find all the adults have disappeared. It is not a carefree kids' book.

I also like Marlysa, a heroic fantasy series about a swordswoman who wears a mask. The opening sequence of five books is fairly standard fantasy fare, but the sixth is a fun one-off about a woman who ages backwards.

Anyone else have any euro-favourites?
The Tammy Project: Documenting the classic British girls' comic, one serial at a time.

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Nagorama
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Re: Scanlations

Post by Nagorama »

I didn't know Cinebook but I know most of the series they offer, being an avid reader of them 30 odd years ago :)
They seem to focus on major series that are well-known in their country of origin but, with a few exceptions, they have so far published only a small number of albums for each series: the Bluecoats for example (les Tuniques Bleues) must total about 50 or so albums in the original version. Is there any real demand for European comics in the UK? I saw English translations of 'Canardo' and 'Los Minettos Desperados'* at Gosh for example 10 or so years ago and they seemed to be languishing in their boxes.

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paw broon
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Re: Scanlations

Post by paw broon »

Starting with the Japanese scanlations, having tried some of them, I didn't think they were a very comfortable read and prefer to buy those comics that are available in English. Those that I like that is, as many manga don't appeal.
Cinebooks is a great imprint and I wish their books were available more widely, or that British comics readers who cannot read French were more interested in expanding their horizons. I can read French so buy the original albums, mostly from Izneo for reading on a tablet. The increasing offers from Cinebooks give access to the amazing variety of genres and styles available in French and Belgian comics/G.N.s.
As for favourites, Marionette mentions the masked swordswoman, well, I'm a fan of Masquerouge (Red Mask), another masked swordswoman who appears in historical adventures - hope I haven't shoved in a spoiler there. Have a look here:-
http://www.bedetheque.com/serie-2380-BD ... rouge.html
Agence Hardy:-
http://www.izneo.com/search.html?pattern=agence+hardy
is an excellent series and rather than my gibbering on about the plots etc., have a look for yourselves.
Nagorama questions whether there is a demand for Euro comics and I'd have to say that there isn't. And that's a real shame. One of the earliest translations to English (apart from Tintin and Asterix) was Corto Maltese and despite superb art and story, Corto just didn't sell here.
I have to say that many Euro comics are much better value and of higher quality than many current American offers, not only my opinion, and as we don't have many British comics it is odd that Cinebooks books don't sell more. Perhaps there is a lack of awareness about, or publicity for, Euro books in English, so potential punters don't know about them. There is a whole world of high quality entertainment out there and most of us are not taking advantage of them.
Just remembered that I also enjoyed the first couple of adventures of Lady S. :-
http://www.izneo.com/search.html?pattern=lady+s

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Nagorama
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Re: Scanlations

Post by Nagorama »

paw broon wrote: Nagorama questions whether there is a demand for Euro comics and I'd have to say that there isn't. And that's a real shame.
I thought as much.
A lot of people in the UK simply aren't aware European comics exist. Then lack of awareness is combined with a lack of interest: people in my immediate surroundings are not interested in comics at all for example. There is also some prejudice against European comics, especially when there happens to be a lady in various states of undress on the cover: I have shown a book or two of 'les Passagers du Vent' to work colleagues and from their covers, they thought they were pornographic comics(!) Yet, they don't seem to realize that Spanish or Italian comics go much further than Franco-Belgian comics on that level and are in turn heavily censored in France!

felneymike
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Re: Scanlations

Post by felneymike »

People who "don't like manga" (having probably seen the popular shonen battle series, full of people "powering up" to take on ever-greater enemies in ludicrously overdramatic scenes) ought to check out Monster, a series which is being currently reprinted in "perfect editions", with dark red covers.

The basic story is about a doctor who saves an opera singer, rather than a poor Turkish labourer, other doctors (and his gold-digger girlfriend) don't really care, so later he saves a kid instead of the mayor of the city. Except the kid then grows up to be a serial killer. It's kind of a different take on Frankenstein, only with a very long journey (and lots of side characters) to "track down the monster".

Anyway, scanlations are still technically piracy, so I refused to read them. But eventually caved and started reading two BL series. But, I'm going to memorise the covers and buy new copies of them, when I next go to Japan. Then they will have still "had a sale".

Lew Stringer
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Re: Scanlations

Post by Lew Stringer »

American publisher Humanoids Inc have published numerous European albums in English. Any of these should be available to order through comic book stores and they're available on Amazon:
http://www.humanoids.com/

You can also buy legal digital editions of the books from their website.

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paw broon
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Re: Scanlations

Post by paw broon »

Felneymike is bang on re. Monster. An excellent piece of work. #2 is out now and, having read #1, I will be buying the new book. Just to be clear, I am purchasing manga, not downloading scanlations, and luckily we have a branch of Anime Republic and big Waterstones in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Wouldn't like to offend any sensibilities with misunderstandings. Other superb manga reads, imo, are 20th. Century Boys, Black Lagoon ( for amazing shootouts, seriously bad bad guys, great action) Pluto, DGray Man. While a lot of manga offerings are genres which just don't float my boat, there is such a choice, even in Britain, that there will always be something to tickle your fancy.
Lew mentions Humanoids, and I had forgotten about them, mainly as a lot of the work they published didn't appeal to me. I know it's close to heresy, but I am not a big fan of Moebius and some of the other big Euro creators, preferring, Pratt, Tardi, Jacobs, Allesandrini and others, but, as with manga, there is so much choice. Anyway, as I can read French, I was able to buy the original albums in France and Belgium. Wish I could read Japanese.
Going back to manga for a moment, I have been reading a few other titles, which while not of the same all round quality as Monster and some others, are good, quite fast, entertaining reads. Particularly Hellsing, Psyren, Black Cat, Case Closed. That's just my taste and I'm curious to know what appeals to others.

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Marionette
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Re: Scanlations

Post by Marionette »

Re: piracy. If a comic is not being published in a language I can read and a country I have access to then I do not think my reading a fan translation is hurting them. Quite the opposite, since fan translations often build up a level of interest in the comic (one of the reasons Urusei Yatsura was one of the first manga translated in America). Now, I'd love to get legitimate copies of Mysterious Girlfriend X or Liar Game (neither of which are about giant robots or things with tentacles), but this seems like an unlikely prospect.

I have, in fact, bought translated European volumes when they were published. I even bought the entirely legal and utterly atrocious ibooks translation of three Valerian and Laureline volumes. I'm expecting to buy them again when Cinebooks get to them so I can find out what they were actually about.
The Tammy Project: Documenting the classic British girls' comic, one serial at a time.

Lew Stringer
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Re: Scanlations

Post by Lew Stringer »

There are some books by Druillet and Bilal being published by Titan soon if they're of interest to anyone here:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/interview-we- ... zzie-kaye/

Earl
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Re: Scanlations

Post by Earl »

I like most of what I have purchased from Cinebook. Loved the art in their Wind in the Willows series and was wowed by both the story and art in their Chimpanzee complex series. Wish I could afford to buy and store more of their releases.

Earl.

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