Hmpf

Finder: The Rescuers (Finder TPB #7) - hopefully out soon! (Should have been out by now)

20th Century Boys #13 - out in Germany in September

And Hellblazer. ;-)

The simple answer to all your questions is: a lot of the John-in-America stuff doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the context of the series as a whole. It's all a little bit out of character, really. Well, a lot of it is, anyway - not all of it.

My solution to the problem was quite simply to read it once and then sort of try to ignore most of it, except for the most central bits which were kept around by Mike Carey, the next writer after Azzarello. I never tried too hard to make sense of it.

This is not intended as criticism, but this practice of transcribing names to your own language that seems to happen in Serbia is still weird to me...

Come on, for a comic title, how can you beat Propovednik? :D

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Oh, I didn't mean translations - those are fine with me. It's just the practice of transcribing titles and names in another language into your own language's 'sound system' (I have no idea what the correct English word for that would be - I mean the total complex of sounds that exists in a language) that strikes me as strange. That is, keeping the name John Constantine, but spelling it Dzon Konstantin or Dschon Konstentein (that would be the German version if we did that kind of thing here) or whatever, or spelling Neil Gaiman differently etc. If you did that in English, Heinrich Böll, to use my earlier example again, would be something like Hynerich Boll (though of course that's only partially right, as the sounds 'ch' and 'ö' simply do not exist at all in English, hence cannot be transcribed properly - just as it would be impossible to transcribe 'th' into German. Actually, I think the closed approximation to 'ö' in English would be the 'ur' in 'turn', and even that doesn't really work. 'ch' at least exists in Scottish, it's more or less pronounced as in 'Loch Ness', so I left it in).

Heh. Sorry for hijacking the thread. ;-)

No, this doesn't mean anything about Vertigo, as you can say the same thing about every comic book company. Marvel, DC, Image (eeeww), DH, the indies. It's the same with all of them. They have a few good titles in a line filled with junk.

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And it's true of other areas of cultural production, too. Sturgeon's Law.

Thanks everyone, very much, for your help. I'm a complete newbie when it comes to Hellblazer comic books, having only discovered them a couple of years ago. Obviously, I knew they were around but I'm a girl so I instantly dismissed them. Stupid of me.

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Don't forget to check out other writers' runs on the title, as well. Unfortunately some of the best stuff isn't available in trade paperback, though. *forces herself to abort impending trade rant*

This is not intended as criticism, but this practice of transcribing names to your own language that seems to happen in Serbia is still weird to me...

Hehe... just for fun: If we did that for comic titles and creators in Germany, this or something like it would be the result:

Sändmän

Nihl Gäimän

Hellbläiser

Dschon Constentein

Bätmän

Spaidermän

Prietscher (That one cracks me up...)

Wotschmen (That also looks quite funny.)

Of course some comic titles that aren't names are translated, though most are left in English. Book titles are usually translated.

Odd. Why translate the titles of novels but not the titles of comics? Maybe because often the title of the comic is also the name of its hero, and 'Fledermausmann' just doesn't have the same ring as Batman... *g* nor does 'Spinnenmann' sound as cool as Spider-man. Sandman, on the other hand, could have been translated easily, just by adding an 'n': 'Sandmann'. But they chose to keep the English title even there.

Maybe they just keep the English titles because comics readers are more open to English and perhaps even find English titles more attractive than German ones...

Since Rogan is not here at the moment, I'll give you short answer.

Dzon Konstantin is Serbian transcryption of John Constantine. When you read it, it sounds same.

Even the 'tine'? Or do you subscribe to the 'ConstanTEEN' pronunciation of the movie?

If we'd like to serb-a-lize John he would be Jovan, I guess, or something like that. And Constantine would be Konstantinovic. So, there you are - Jovan Konstantinovic! 

That sounds rather cool. *g*

Yeah, we got some books by 'Carlos Dickens', 'Arturo Conan Doyle', 'Germán Mellville', etc but that was loong time ago, during the dictatorship and just before, when everything should be 'spanished'... But now we don't translate authors' names!

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Well, that incident with the book I saw being sold under the name of 'Carlos Dickens' was about 10-15 years ago, when I was travelling with my parents. To be fair, I haven't seen any examples of that practice during my more recent stays in Spain, though if it still happened occasionally 10-15 years ago, long after the end of the dictatorship, who knows, maybe there's still the occasional publisher who does it even now? It was definitely a new book I saw at that time...

Congrats!

But... Dzon Konstantin? I guess it's like in Spain, where I once saw a novel by 'Carlos Dickens' being sold. Still, this strikes me as a funny practice. I mean, a name is a name, isn't it?

In Germany Charles Dickens is Charles Dickens, and John Constantine is John Constantine. If we wanted to germanise them, they would be Karl Dickens and Johann(es) Konstantin. Or possibly Johann(es) Constantin, as that spelling also exists. Or perhaps Hans Constantin. (Hans being short for Johann or Johannes.)

Actually, a Johannes Constantin exists, apparently: http://sandprint.de/kunst.php - He has a second name (Andreas), though.

EDIT: How's it in England and America with foreign names for which equivalents exist in English? Is Heinrich Böll Heinrich Böll or Henry Böll for you? Or perhaps Henry Boll? *g* Just curious! I think he said something somewhere about being 'just Henry' in Ireland... but then, that may just have been his neighbours having trouble with his name...

(Heinrich Böll, for those who perhaps don't know it, is a fairly well known German author of (mostly) the 1950s and 1960s. He was given the Nobel Prize for Literature in the 70s.)

Look at the portrait. It's definetly Batgirl.

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I know. I'm just not sure if the reviewer knew. But, as I said, maybe he was just trying to be ironic.

His portrait of Batgirl made my cry with joy.

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I just googled for news articles about Lauren, and one of them claimed that was a picture of 'Batman in drag'. Not sure if it was an attempt at irony or an incredibly clueless reviewer... *g*

Well, 'some covers' implies that it's more than one. And I can't see them changing artists *too* often, so my bet would be he'll stay around for the projected Mina run which is, I understand, supposed to last about a year at the moment. Either that, or just for the first story of that run. Can't really see them changing cover artists in the middle of a story. How long was that first story supposed to be again? Six issues, was it?

It seems I forgot to reply to this earlier. Shame on me.

Lovely page - lots of truly great examples of your art there! (I really like it in b&w, too!)

doesn't bother me really - i'll just carry on downloading all the issues i cant buy.

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Well, yes, that's a way to read them, for the really dedicated. But a) trades in bookshops would get us more new readers, and b) I just want a Jenkins/Phillips book to put on my bookshelf, dammit! ;-)

Here's an old interview with Irving from a couple of years ago, which includes quite a few samples of his 2000AD art:

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Thanks. Some nice samples there.

Well, I must say I really like what I can see of his comics-related work on his website, and I can see it fitting HB just fine. If it will draw any new readers - I dunno. Certainly not 'typical' comics readers, but then, HB never was a title for those, and would only disappoint many if they did pick it up, I'd guess. And from what I have read so far about Denise Mina's take on the series that won't change. In fact, I can see the new covers fitting her version of HB very well. And, maybe it's good to have covers that don't pretend it's anything but what it is?

Heh. Is that a picture of Batman taking off or putting on his costume or is he scratching his back/bum? (Damn, can't link to it... it's on page three of the 'Hero' sample images.)

Anyway. Really like his take on superheroes. Kind of sad, ironical, and oddly sexy, all at the same time.

As a relative newbie to comics I'd be grateful if someone could post some examples of his art...

I looked at your url and well, I cant say for sure.  There is no denying that the B&W was fine, with its shades of black and grey but I would still prefer it in color.

But viewing it second hand aint fair as they say down in the ....

 

If that makes me a Philistine in your eyes, well....

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Hey... you're a bit touchy, aren't you? I meant no harm... didn't say anything about philistines. I just really like black and white comics, that's all! :-)

And I don't mind some of the colours in HB - I like HB in colour from the nineties onwards. It's just the 80s stuff that somehow... grates. Very loud colours, and applied rather indiscriminately, it sometimes seems. Destroys more atmosphere than it creates. It sometimes seems to me as if colourists had contests in the eighties who could cram the most disharmonic colours onto one page. ;-) So, with that in mind, I really wouldn't mind a black and white edition of the early years, as in my ever so humble opinion, in those years the colour didn't really help make the comic more attractive.

  Sorry to hear that many of the trade paperbacks are not printed in German.

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On the other hand, there are two trades available in German that aren't available in English - the Royal Blood story from Ennis' run, and a compilation of single issue stories called London Streets. Also, the publisher is working on catching up with the American trades. So, unless they go broke before they're done with their epic task of publishing HB in German, we may end up with more HB trades than are available in English.

I still prefer to buy the English originals, though. I don't particularly like the translations. There's some very silly errors in them sometimes, e.g. mistaking 'braces' - the piece of clothing - for 'braces' - the things an orthodontist puts on your teeth. Sure, it's the same word, but it's still pretty obvious from the context which of the two is meant! Arrgh.

Am new to this and have always been bad with titles so I dont have your facility and capability and knowledge to throw in which eps/issues are so-and-so.  But those that I have seen really need to be in color.

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Take a look at this double page of early HB and then tell me it looks better in shitty 80s colouring:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...tegory=972&rd=1

(keeping in mind I've yet to read Jenkins or Azzarello, who I've heard are considerably more terrible than Ennis).

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Just jumping in to defend Paul Jenkins a bit (this is quickly turning into something of a hobby... *g*) who IMO was frequently, though not consistently, brilliant. *insert rant about Vertigo's incapability to release a Jenkins TPB*

I like asterisks*

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I like Asterix.

http://www.asterix.tm.fr/

Are your fingers really sweaty or something, Mark? I've never had that problem with my new comics! It does happen with 1960s and 70s era back-issues that I buy in rougher condition.

Well, I have the same problem as Mark, but only in summer. I really hate touching my shiny new HB issues (especially the older ones I got from ebay) when temperatures in my room are over 30 degrees Celsius.

Well, considering the prices of many of Vertigo's Trades, I'm guessing we wouldn't be able to afford them if they put them on better paper!

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They used to be on better paper, though. My Sandman trades, which are around 4 years old, are on better paper. Though that's yellowing pretty rapidly, too.

Or perhaps 'gurkh'?

Nah, I think 'shwooom' it is. Closely followed by 'vlouff', which is from French comics and means 'something just went up in flames'.

'Shwooom' is from Spider-man.

'Gurkh' is a sound dying people make in Usagi Yojimbo.

I'd be PackingWoman!!! I can pack insane amounts of stuff into one small backpack! I can also pack myself to mail myself to Russia.

My sidekick is called the Prussian and is from Wales. Her superpower is... uhm... being Prussian. Despite being from Wales.

[No, you don't have to understand this, and the only person likely to understand it doesn't visit this forum (yet), but I'll infect her with Hellblazer soon, so maybe she will...]

Sorry. Go on. ;-)