AGATHE AND THE LITTLE THINGS
DOMITILLE COLLARDEY
DUSTIN HARBIN
HARK! A WAGRANT!
LES CHAUDS LAPINS
LISA HANAWALT
LITTLE LOVE MONSTER
MATTIAS ADOLFSSON
MUSEUM OF MISTAKES
ORNERYBOY
SARAH GLIDDEN
SATURDAY MORNING BREAKFAST CEREALS
Steve Holfhard
XKCDF.A.Q.
- Q : Who are you and what is this blog ?
- Q : The translation are sometime awkward, how do you work ?
- Q : Can we help you to make it sound better ?
- Q : I am french, but I fluently speak english, can I help anyway ?
- Q : I can’t translate, but is there anything else I can do to help ?
- Q : How did you make this layout ?
- Q : Can I use the same layout for my blog ?
- Q : Where can we buy your work ? Do you have a shop with posters, mugs or T-shirts ?
- Q : Can I use one of your comics to print a shirt / a poster / to put it on my blog / to illustrate my book / magazine ?
- Q : Can I buy you an original artwork ?
- Q : I’m very rich and I want to hire you / I want to publish your work
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Q : Who are you and what is this blog ?
I’m Boulet, a french cartoonist living in Paris. I’ve had about 20 books published, most of them for young readers. I also worked on two books of the “Dungeon” series with Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar (available in English, ask at your local comic shop).
This blog is an attempt to translate my french blog ” bouletcorp.com “. I started in 2004 and have drawn more than 1600 entries. I’m trying to catch up but it’s a huge undertaking! -
Q : The translation are sometime awkward, how do you work ?
The translation is a very delicate subject !
Most of the translations were performed by followers of my french blog, but very few of them are native anglophones, so the accuracy varies a lot.
I tried to find a professional translator but it turned out it was far too much expensive for me alone. So I offered to give an original artwork in exchange of amateur translations (like, for a month or so of comics to translate) but even then it was complicated because just the re-handwriting the texts and posting them alone took a lot of time, and having to do original artworks for it and posting them was a lot of work too. Anyway I can’t manage it like this either.
So for this new version, I’m going to give it a try and translate all by myself.
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Q : Can we help you to make it sound better ?
That would be the idea !
As you can see in this FAQ, I’m not so good in english ! So here’s what I have in mind: if you think you can make the translation sound better, just write your propositions in the comments, and I will gradually update the comics.
The more comments and remarks I’ll get, the more I’ll be happy !
Just be indulgent, I try my best, and translation is not my main job !
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Q : I am french, but I fluently speak english, can I help anyway ?
Yes you can, of course, but must tell I will pay more attention to native anglophone comments !
I had a lot of people trying to translate, and each time, english or american people told me it was still awkward. French people tend to be overconfident with their level in english or at least, with their ability to translate a comic. It’s not just about being accurate, it’s also about making it soud good, you have to feel it, and that’s almost impossible if you are not english or american.
The best help I could help would be from english or US cartoonists !
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Q : I can’t translate, but is there anything else I can do to help ?
Even if it’s written in english, it’s not easy to share this webcomic: in France I can rely on cartoonist friends or specialized reeferers to share, but it’s very difficult to make people discover my work in other countries !
So if you want to help, it’s very easy: you can share with your friends ! If you have friends who don’t speak french, tell them about this page, and use social networks to share the comics you liked !
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Q : How did you make this layout ?
First, this blog was programmed with flash.
But flash is a very heavy format, and very difficult to share. A few months ago, I decided to rebuild it whith a different platform. I discussed about this with Arnold on Twitter. He’s very good with WordPress, so I designed and he made this happen !
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Q : Can I use the same layout for my blog ?
WordPress is supposed to be a free-sharing platform, but we worked a lot on this, and we don’t specially want that anyone could use it without consulting us.
The layout programming is Arnold’s, so you can ask him and he will be the only judge ! If he likes your work, I think he will be happy to authorize you to use this !
His contact is at the bottom of the site, on the main page.
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Q : Where can we buy your work ? Do you have a shop with posters, mugs or T-shirts ?
For now, there’s not such a thing. I try to keep this the less “commercial” I can. But maybe I will change my mind some day !
The only available work I have in english are the two books I drew for the serie “Dungeon” with Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar. Ask for it in any comic book shop ! The more you ask them to order it, the easiest will it get to obtain !
If you want to have a better translation of this webcomic, you just have to harass US and UK publishers, till one of them agrees to publish it in english
For my french work, I drew a lot of books, here’ the entire list:
Glénat Editions:
-Raghnarok
Tome 1 : Dragon Junior
Tome 2 : Fées et Gestes
Tome 3 : Terreurs de la nature
Tome 4 : Légendes urbaines
Tome 5 : Tempus Fugit
Tome 6 : Casus Belli
-La Rubrique Scientifique
Tome 1
Tome 2
Tome 3
-Le Miya (with Reno, Julien Néel and Libon)
-Womoks (only scenario, drawing by Reno)
Tome 1 : Mutant, suspends ton vol…
Tome 2 : Le croiseur s’amuse
Tome 3 : Albon, les brutes et les truands
La boîte à bulles Edition:
-Le vœu de…
Tome 1 : Le vœu de Marc (coscenarist with Nicolas Wild, drawing by Lucie Albon)
Tome 2 : Le vœu de Simon (coscenarist with Lucie Albon, drawing by Lucie Albon)
-Amour et Désir (Collectif, seven pages under the alias Ella Forbin)
-Delcourt Edition:
-Donjon (avec Lewis Trondheim et Joann Sfar au scénario, et Lucie Albon à la couleur)
Tome 5 : Un mariage à part
Tome 6 : Retour en fanfare
-Notes (these are the compilations of all the entries of the french blog)
Tome 1 : Born to be a larve
Tome 2 : Le petit théâtre de la rue
Tome 3 : La viande, c’est la force
Tome 4 : Songe est Mensonge
Tome 5 : Quelques Minutes avant la Fin du Monde
Tome 6 : Debout mes globules ! (à paraître, 23 novembre 2011)
-Chicou-Chicou (under the alias Ella Forbin, with Aude Picault, Domitille Collardey, Lisa Mandel and Erwann Surcouf)
-Boule de neige (collective compilation of works for the 24-hours comics of Angoulême )
-La Maison Close (collective book by Ruppert et Mulot)
-La Page Blanche (scenarist, drawing by Pénélope Bagieu. Release in january 2012)
-Bragelonne Edition:
-Tous malades ! (original title: Now we’re Sick) (illustrations for a collection of adult poems by Neil Gaiman and other authors, with Reno and Mélaka)
-Erik le Viking (illustrations of the french version of Terry Jones’s book)
-L’almanach illustré 2008. (texts by Laurent Genefort and Gudule)
Nekomix :
-Soupir (collectif)
Tome 1, 2008
Tome 2, 2009
-Nekomix 7 spécial cinéma (collectif)
-Barclay-Universal :
-Repenti (Illustrations for Renan Luce’s album, christmas edition)
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Q : Can I use one of your comics to print a shirt / a poster / to put it on my blog / to illustrate my book / magazine ?
No, you can’t !
All this comics ask a lot of time to draw, and I don’t want them to be taken out of this blog, especially if it’s for commercial use.
And most of this blog material is already printed by the french publisher Delcourt, so it would be highly illegal !
They are some exceptions, though:
-You can use one panel or two if you are making a citation (for example: if you write an article about my work or about webcomics in general, you can show a couple of pictures, without asking me. You just have to put the source under it: my name and the blog’s URL, clikable if your article is on internet. You don’t specially have to tell me, but it would be nice)
-If you want to share a story on internet, the way I like better is one panel, clikable, redirecting to my original blog.
-You can use a comic or more for pedagogic use if it’s a non-commercial use: if you’re a teacher and you need a printing from the blog for your class, if you’re a student and need an illustration for an essay or your thesis, I’m totally ok if you respect these two conditions: you have to ask me FIRST (because I wouldn’t like to illustrate something I totally disagree with), and the use must be completely NON-COMMERCIAL (you CAN’T sell it, no matter the format), NON-POLITIC (especially if you are a kind of nationalist NRA douchebag) and NON-RELIGIOUS (I’m an atheist, and I work for no church or cult) -
Q : Can I buy you an original artwork ?
I don’t really need mone for now, so I don’t sell my original works… So no !
And I have a lot of work waiting to be done, so I don’t have time to make special drawings for birthdays, christmas presents or stuff like that ! -
Q : I’m very rich and I want to hire you / I want to publish your work
Ok, send me an email and we’ll see !
I’m not specially looking for work now, but if you have something nice to propose, maybe we can find an arrangement !
If you want to publish material from this blog, my publisher shares the copyrights with me, so you have to contact him ! look for “editions Delcourt” on the web !
I had to mess my theme up a little bit. The ordinary size was too small. I hoped it would be centered but it doesn't seem to work. If Arnold stops by, maybe he will be able to fix that :)
This is so true!!!
J'ai beaucoup ris à la chambre de Trondheim :D par contre, ya une phrase toujours en français dans le première case de "Angoulème (the next year)"
CSS: 'margin:auto' or 'position:absolute; left:0; right:0;' ^^
Typos: "equiste corpes" "holywood" (hollywood) "glénat's diner" (dinner)
"even pavlov" => either
too much people -> too many people ("people" est dénombrable. "Too much" c'est pour le pain, la confiture, l'eau, un sentiment comme la haine ou l'amour, etc).
Oui, c'est "either Pavlov" -> Even = même (Even you couldn't do it. Même toi tu ne pourrais pas le faire. You look happy, over the moon even. Tu as l'air heureux, fou de joie même.) -> Either = ou bien (Either you give it to me or I'll take it from you. Ou bien tu me le donnes ou bien je te le prends.) Non plus (I don't hate her, but I'm not her biggest fan either. Je ne la déteste pas, mais je ne suis pas non plus son plus grand fan.)
I confirm, you've drawn me a stone and it is a beautiful stone !
I guess I should go to a festival some time but I'm not too hot about crowds and I'm a bit afraid of looking like a total fool if I met my favourite authors, like you, o, great one and started talking to them... On the other hand waiting for two hours and not saying more than "hello" sounds a bit, er..., frustrating ! Of course there's the original drawing but still, I think I might be more at ease in more relaxed surroundings like those "bocal" or "memory" things you did. :) Much more at ease spotting mistakes, mind you, ok, "an die Arbeit" as our German neighbors say : - when I come back (no will) - hardLy - jump OFF a cliff - dead boring rather than boring to death, for me (but bored to death is fine) - THE next day - throwing up sounds more common than vomiting - peasanTs - advice (no S, like, ever... ^^) - THERE aren't any - if they saw - not AS if - why did I choOse - shiny - I'll put your name down for Glénat's dinner (a diner is like a cafeteria) - I'd say "You're a pain, guys" rather than "OK you're annoying" - Should I choOse - requests rather than demands (= exigences, revendications) - assembly-line work (no AN) - too elitist (too much + nom indénombrable) - keg is more modern than barrel when it comes to beer, I believe - 24-hour comics contest sounds better - Hate to point it out again but "choOse wisely" - After drawing for 24 hours - authors' faces - suspensE - until you finally reached - A/ONE hell of a nerve - going berserk - playing the bass ... that's "all" I saw. ^^ But it's a long note, sure enough. Thanks again for it !
how come the same authors you meet in the train in 2008 are in the 2007 comics too?
Already read it some months ago during my archive binge, but still so funny. xD Also, you forgot to translate prices: in English, we say "€30", "€4.50", "€6" (a dot, not a comma), and "4.5 euros" (I think). ;)
Hah! I was just about to congratulate you on an epic tale of a comic convention, and then you had to go and cap it all with that last picture when I clicked on 'react'. Sir, you are awesome.
What exactly does the "car" refer to? In the first part of the comic there is a sentence "Damn... this car has compartments". Also in later panels "car" seems to be mentioned, but I don't think that action takes place in one-store-building-sized car... :) My impression is that first panels take place in a train, but maybe there's something I'm missing.
@Boulet : gotcha. @Elena : in french, the term "voiture", which translate to "car" is used both for a car and bogle/railway vehicle.So We used to translate it to "car" but it's probably inadapted... In this panel, car is the bogle
It used to be a "car" in english too, they've just forgotten. You can still see it in the title of the move "A streetcar named desire", where "streetcar" refers to a tram, not a to an automobile. So "car" was used for all kinds of "horseless carriage", including automobiles and trams, as well as for the individual segments of a train. The latter are called "railroad cars".
Oh God, I only recently saw those spraypaint alien landscapes. They are horrible. Really awful. That made me laugh loudly.
Very, very funny Mr Boulet.