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 !
Yeah, the story is sort of sad, so I put a cute bonus.
Salut Gilles Very good collision of ideas as usual. ;) Thank you very much, I'm sharing it to geeks and my family in USA. Mes cousines en effet apprennent le français, et tes planches traduites sont un super moyen d'apprendre l'autre langue en s'amusant. Justement cela me fait penser à un truc pour le nouveau blog qui manque par rapport à la précédente version (ou bien est ce une fonctionnalité que je n'ai pas encore capté ^^') : Avant il était facile de retrouver le lien vers la version traduite, ici cela ne semble plus possible de passer de l'original à la traduction facilement. Tes super potes guerriers de l'info auraient une idée? Bonnes fêtes bien arrosées en tout cas ;)
I had the idea you ask: you just have to click on the comic and you'll be redirected to the french version of the note !
Quite probably one of my favourite notes ever ! :)))))) And the bonus is cute indeed. For those who haven't noticed, pass your mouse over the pictures and you'll see Boulet's ranting over the fact that mainstream fantasy is invaded by teen heroes. Why is that so? Well... The learned answer might be that these novels or films belong to the old genre of the "initiation tale" (like David Copperfield for instance). The cynic's answer is that it's quite simply because teenagers are a target audience who will identify (and therefore buy the product) more easily if the hero is the same age as them... Last explanation : the cult of youth inherent in our society and the fact that adults who enjoy fantasy may be the ones who are the most nostalgic for their lost childhood? Take your pick or make your peace with it or go read "adult" stuff. Adults always know so much better, don't they? ;) Naaaaaaaaaah! Just re-read Raghnarok #6 by the way and I was wondering which came first? This note or the (grrrrrrrreat) album?
@Vu do &boulet : some others reader asked for it before... What kinda link d'ya want ? As boulet wrote, he can link an english page to the original one but there could be à better way, dont know... Whatever, it's an interesting UI problem. If anyone use both version, tell how you use it !
Salut ! Tu as oublié de fermé les guillemets de "kill the big bad wolf". Bonne journée !
It's smaller on the inside!
Hve you ever seen "Wizards", by Ralph Bakshi? This is actually very similar. :) Also, really great, I love your Dragons.
Well, we have machines that can send messages at the speed of light, devices that can shoot death from your hand, computers that we can make do watever we want - the magic world is already here. :) I think that this magic is somewhat pessimistic though - in worlds of fantasy the concepts of "goodness" and "order" and "balance" are kind of built in, so while there is stuff like world destroying magic, there are also mystical forces that ensure that immoral acts have severe repercussions. So, because of that, things will probably not end this way.
Wow, great comic. And I wish some regular plummer got inside a new magic world. It would be so hilarious! And this is coming from an annoying teenager. The bonus is totally cute, too. Hugs from a brazilian fan! [sorry my comment is useless]
SO GOOD (both comic and react! <3
I think Vu Do Quang was asking for the opposite link, from french to english version. Or maybe he's never read a single comment page, Boulet is asked this question with every single new comic.
All of the books that you're ranting about in the comments are either children's books or "young adult" books (i.e. written for teenagers), so of course their protagonists are young. There's fantasy written for adults, also, in which the heroes tend to be older.
Neil Gaiman has made some great teenager-free fantasy (...well let's call that fantasy) books, where regular people are suddenly confronted to stuff like drunk leprechauns, ancient African gods or a bridge in the dark where something snatches random people when crossed. Though the main characters tend to all be of the loser type, losing his girlfriend, his job, his appartment, learning that his wife cheated on him with his best friend before both died... I don't know if that is specific of the autor, it also reminds me a bit of the guy in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... Maybe it makes it less sad to make the guy leave the real world. Or maybe surnatural and parallel worlds tend to seriously ruin you life.
Neil Gaiman has made some great teenager-free fantasy (...well let's call that fantasy) books, where regular people are suddenly confronted to stuff like drunk leprechauns, ancient African gods or a bridge in the dark where something snatches random people when crossed. Though the main characters tend to all be of the loser type, losing his girlfriend, his job, his appartment, learning that his wife cheated on him with his best friend before both died... I don't know if that is specific of the autor, it also reminds me a bit of the guy in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... Maybe it makes it less sad to see the guy leave the real world. Or maybe surnatural and parallel worlds tend to seriously ruin you life.
A repost for the holidays, huh Boulet? Well is a classic.
http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=19424060&cfilm=175244.html Pas du tout Roal Dahl, ce film...
Loved it! It never occurred to me what horrors would be evident if the real world intersected with fantasy. Dragons, Warlocks, and Magic Medieval Armies all clashing with modern technology and Man's ambition to be the biggest threat/Man with a bigger stick. I certainly do enjoy your musings Mr. Boulet. P.S. In the future will your publications in French be available for purchase in English? If so that would be appreciated (and AWESOME).
I think someone already mentioned the "initiation tale" about why it's always teens in these stories. It's gotta be an over-drawn symbolization of crossing the threshold into adulthood. I think as a kid it made being an adult seem a lot cooler than it actually is. "Go on a grand adventure! Ride dragons and use magic! All in order to....work an under-paid job with no benefits and have a lot of stupid responsibilities." Speaking of which, I think that's another reason why it's never adult in the stories. Teenagers have nothing else to do. An adult goes through the Narnia wardrobe and it's like "Sorry Ice Queen, can't go to war against you today. I have kids to raise and a presentation that needs to be done on Friday."
Another epic adventure in space and time ! With alternate Universes you would just have to take your chances. But eventually there would have to be one that is perfect, where nobody is ever evil or violent, and ALL THE BUNNIES ARE HAPPY ! YAY !
There's a manga about something similar, called "gate : the JSDF fought here" Pretty fun stuff, the hero is a total otaku, not at all like the cliche annoying teenager
The fantasy "Siverlock" by John Meyers Meyers has an adult protagonist (and a very influential group of fans--the Science Fiction community in the USA in the 60's went nuts over it), as does almost anyone in the fantasies by James Branch Caball. Maybe the non-teenager stuff isn't getting translated into French?
The fantasy "Silverlock" by John Meyers Meyers (very popular in the Science Fiction community in the USA in the 1960's) and the fantasies by James Branch Cabell had adult protagonists. Maybe the non-teen stuff isn't being translated into French for some reason.
If your looking for more mature, violent, pragmatic fantasy, try The Witcher books. I actually just played the video games, but from what I heard they're true to the source material, and it's a bloody well built world (bloody world too, lots of blood...). It even involves a bit of politics, like in Game of Thrones. And it's guaranteed 100% annoying teenager free ;).
Well, awesome. Simply awesome. And I think it's true humanity is kinda like that, very well represented. You are blessed sir, keep on being awesomely talented. Good bye.
This "react" comics is so fu%$*ng cute! :D
Have you read the comic "Fables" ? It's just about that : fantasy characters for Fablelands that are forced to emigrate to our world. There is a great battle involving just that : modern technology against magical but archaic creatures.