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 !
Déjà en anglais ! On perd pas de temps. En tout cas félicitations c'est encore très très bien et tellement bluffant.
I really enjoyed the time travel plot, and the dodging of loopholes :) Knowing that you came up with these 24 pages in less than 24 hours is an astonishing feat.! Congrats (and thanks for the wot?wot? bonus :)
Beautiful, as always! Thank you sharing your imagination and talent!
Flashbacks of that movie Primer...so confusing.
Les réferences sont plus classes en anglais ! Retour vers le futur vs les bronzés quand même ...
Toujours aussi bon, même si je l'ai déjà lue en français. :) Par contre, juste pour signaler : - 21e case le "Je..." n'est pas traduit (quand le jeune Thomas essaie de répondre au téléphone) - à la fin (j'ai arrêté de compter à la 70e case, j'avoue...) quand la mère de Paola trouve le jeune Thomas, "On va te ramener chez toi" n'a pas été traduit non plus.
eh... *thumbs up* and \o/ yeah. love this one!
I like your comics, and this is one of my favourites! Brilliant!
@ Anonymous5 "Le père noel est une ordure". Plus classe en effet. Par contre pour les "pseudo-incorruptibles" contre "le magnifique", je suis pas sûr que ce soit mieux.
Wow, such a great story. Sometimes the best time to live in is the right now. And now I understand why you took so long for this post ;)
This is insane! Great job.
Time travel done right!
Brilliantly scripted, brilliantly drawn. Thank you.
Hi Boulet, Have you read a book called 'The Time Traveller's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger? I'm not sure if it's in French, or how much you can be bothered with English books, but it's kind of the extended idea of this comic. And, for the record: I like this comic better! Was this a 24 hour comic job? The last one was what brought me here (from BoingBoing). Interesting that they are both insightful stories about enjoying relationships ...
Super! Merci.
Brilliant! Bravo!
Bloody brill. I recommend Ben Affleck for the movie version, and a 20 year old Marilyn Monroe as the girl.
This comic is absolutely brilliant. I've already told some of my friends about it. It was very kind of you to publish it in English, as well as French. I have not spoken French in some time and it was nice to have your translation to give some context to the few phrases I had some trouble with.
Tell me if I am wrong but... aren't the two quotes from Back to the future reversed ? I mean the "you're gonna see some serious shit" is supposed to come before the "you built a time machine out of a Delorean?" THIS IS A TIME PARADOX, RUN !
Franzy: no I didn't! But I saw the movie, and I think it inspired me a bit here :)
I must have missed the part where Bones and Kirk show up and Bones injects everybody with the Anti-Chronos serum, which keeps them all from getting Time-sick and restoring the Dynamic balance of the 4th dimension... or, it could all be due to Paola!
It's a movie?!? Top comic, anyway.
Phew! Had to read it twice to get the story.
Wow I've read the comics in english from start. You are one of the rare gems of the internet. Ones about your two dreams are my absolute favorite. First about waking up in a water -bacta?- tank in an alien time/space and the one with the sun exploding and your dream turning against you. guess i loved the inception too much. carry on with the great work!
Man, this is genious.
Absolutely brilliant story and execution! This might well be the best of your longer stories I have read so far -- it's a masterpiece. And you have a way of drawing girls that makes me fall in love with them right away. Also, thanks for publishing it in English: the story was already pretty complex, so there would have been no chance for me to understand it if it had been in French.
These 24-hour comics are where your talent shines the most -- seeing what high quality work you can do in such little time. I suppose you don't know a webcomic called Narbonic, do you? There's a storyline in it based essentially on the same premise, but in a different context. If you've never read it I advise you to do it as soon as possible, because it's one of the best comics out there on the Net, alongside with yours.
My original comment seems to be lost -- reposting. These 24-hour comics are where your talent shines the most -- seeing what quality work you could do in such a short time is what convinced me you're *really* good. Do you happen to know a webcomic called Narbonic? There's a storyline in it based essentially on the same idea, but in a different context. If you've never read it I advise you to do so as soon as possible, because it's one of the best comics out there on the Net, alongside with yours.
Jesus, Boulet, that is beautiful! Jésus, Boulet, ce qui est beau!
Thank you very much for this blog! I discovered it a few days ago and I'm in awe! I'm thinking seriously to learn to speak french only to read your comics, like I learned (sort of) english to read Terry Pratchett.
Simply Awesome! I love anything time travel, and you did this in spectacular fashion. Bravo! - Jeff
The only error that I saw was when Thomas goes back to his 23 year old self he thinks "I haven't draw for ten years." It should be "I haven't drawn in ten years" Great comic I really enjoyed it.
That was crazy awesome and hilarious, congratulations ! You mastered a complicated time travel story !
Très attendrissant cette petite note supplémentaire...
So I just finished looking at every single comic you've uploaded on the English version of your site, and I have two words for you my dear sir: "Fucking. WONDERFUL." That is all.
oh my god my brain
... aren't you kind of late with english publication :) ? Troy
Hi Boulet. I'm your big fan. I'm korean. Your cartoon is very funny! I love this story. Beautiful.
Bravo!! Masterpiece.
Boulet, I just found your English language site. Brilliant! So witty and human. I hope you publish more in English soon. Thank you.
HAHA! I love your bonus ending; this has to be one of my favorite short stories! Really wonderfully done, the story, the illustrations... how you've composed everything is just fantastic (and yes, I forwarded it to my friends and collegues)- and thank you for translating it in English :)