Par Toutatis! C’est Assurancetourix!
Seeing as I’m French Canadian with a love for comics, it should come as no surprise that Axtérix et Obélix were a large part of my childhood; then again, so were many other “bandes dessinées.”
Tintin, Spirou et Fantasio, Gaston Lagaffe, Achille Talon… they all hold a special place in my heart. It’s only later on in life that I found out just how much of a worldwide appeal many of these comics had, and it excited me to no end to know that, even though someone didn’t speak French, that they could still enjoy the adventures of our Gaulish friends.
I was told by my sister not too long ago that her boyfriend happened to like my comic, but wished his English was stronger so he could understand the jokes better. Sometimes I wonder if there would be any interest in reading my strip in French. I am after all French Canadian, and to a certain degree I feel that it is my responsibility to do my part to promote the French language. Translating the comic would certainly make for an interesting challenge, but in the end, might prove to be more time-consuming than I would like.
So what do you guys think? How many of you speak French?
Would anyone out there be interested in reading Les Northern Geeks?
May 19th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Loved the comic man big fan of Asterix too… as a french Canadian I’m thinking that’s a cool idea to do the french thing, but you have to consider your audience if you don’t have the audience would it be worth all the work and effort… most French people can speak English now a days too.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
J’apporte mon soutien total, complet et absolu à cette idée. Ce n’est pas que je ne comprenne pas l’anglais – après tout, je suis arrivé ici par une pub PW sur Real Life. Mais c’est pour le principe, ne serait-ce que parce que cela aurait plus de sens pour Assurancetourix (ou d’autre références de la bande dessinée franco-belge; la prochaine fois, pars dans le méta: fais apparaître Barbe-Rouge tel qu’il apparaît dans Astérix!) de faire une apparition dans un webcomic francophone.
I bring my total, complete and absolute support to that idea. It’s not that I don’t understand English – after all, I came here by following a PW ad on Real Life. But it’s for the principle, if only because it would make better sense for Assurancetourix (or other references from the French-Belgian bande dessinnée; next time, go meta: put a cameo of Barbe-Rouge as he shows up in Astérix!) to make a cameo in a webcomic in the French language.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Well.. I’m afaird I only speak Spanish, Polish, and English. Not Quebeci French. (btw: just found your comic on a website banner. Pretty good so far. Keep up the awesome work.)
May 20th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Hey, thanks NewOrleans! I appreciate the feedback. :)
Don’t worry about not speaking “Quebec French.” Truth be told, I’m an Acadian from New Brunswick, so technically I don’t speak “Quebec French” either. :P
@Pierre J’aime bien ton idée d’inclure Barbe-Rouge dans un prochain épisode. :P
May 20th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I don’t speak French, but I would love to see more web comics in other languages. So, I fully support the idea! You can always think of it as a learning tool for people who are trying to learn French but want something fun to read instead of newspapers and the like. First thing I did when trying to learn Swedish was look for Svensk web comics. Hmmm .. maybe it’s about time I try to learn French. (:
May 20th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Vive les bandes-desinees francaise!
May 21st, 2009 at 9:57 am
Ehh, make an english transcript and then run that through google translate :) Poof instant read-along-subtitles…
May 21st, 2009 at 11:09 am
I’m from Belgium, the northern part, so I basically understand both English and French rather well, however I still love reading comics in English a lot more than reading them in French ;) (I’m afraid that I wouldn’t get all jokes when it’s written in French. My French is decent, but not super-brilliant)
Anyhew, maybe some of your fans (I’m thinking of Pierre Lebeaupin since he already did this with his own comment) could just translate the English comic to French for you. That way you’d still fullfil your honourable mission to bring French to the people and you wouldn’t really have a lot more work to do either.
Anyways, you do what you like. It’s your comic. But I’m afraid some jokes won’t be as funny in French as they are in English (just thinking about the titles of your comics now. they’re often hilarious, but also language-jokes, which you’d lose when translating to French).
Also, wouldn’t the French title be ‘Les Geeks du Nord’ instead of ‘Les Northern Geeks’? ;)
May 26th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Maybe you could post comics in English and in French (one after the other) in good Canadian cereal box style.
May 27th, 2009 at 10:39 am
you should get carlos to translate them to spanish for you
May 28th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Je suis également un aspirant bédéiste et illustrateur. Malheureusement, j’ai dû mettre ma BD sur la glace pour le moment, faute de budget pour le site web (je publie sur DA en attendant). Par contre, je dois dire que faire une BD bilingue est plus compliqué qu’on pense. Éventuellement, la pression de trouver des tournures de phrases et des punch marchant dans les deux langues fait qu’on reste souvent bloqué.
Peu importe ce que tu décides, par contre, tu fais du très bon travail jusqu’à date et je vais suivre ta BD avec plaisir!
May 28th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Ya im a french canadian,but i think if you choose to publish in both language your gonna touch only a small portion of the people who read your webcomic regulary. Im no webcomic artist but i think in the long term your gonna only have more trouble and your work will only pill up. Im not saying to never translate your comic, ‘quelle québécois je serais, si je ne promouvais pas un peu la langue française’, but for next few years stick only with english.
Good Luck in your project
May 28th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
I’m all for it, assuming it’s actually in French and not that twisted effin’ Quebecois gobbledegook …
May 28th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
@ Dave
Nope. It wouldn’t be Quebecois gobbledegook…
It would be Acadian gobbledegook… :P
June 17th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
I grew up reading Axtérix et Obélix, Tintin and Les Schtroumpfs! Although I haven’t read any of them in 10 years, I am just now rediscovering them as I have started buying them for my 17 month old son (yeah right! hehe I just love them! But I am glad he’ll be able to enjoy them later!).
I think an Acadian version of Northen Geeks would be great. I’m sure I would enjoy it as much as the English version (and as a French Canadian translator, I feel a little obligated to promote the idea! ;) hehe). But, I’m not sure if all the extra work would be worth it… that’s up to you to decide! ;)
Keep up the good work!! :D