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Studies in Translatology
1. Introduction
The article investigates the translation of comic books in the context of their multimodal
nature, demonstrating how the interplay between the verbal and the visual may be
exploited in the process of translation. It is illustrated with examples from a selected
album of a classic, Franco-Belgian comic book series, Thorgal, entitled Les trois
vieillards du pays dAran (originally published in 1981) and the two widely differing
Polish translations of it, one of them relatively free (1989), the other literal (2008). The
primary focus of the article is on the strategy adopted by one of the Polish translators,
whose transformations of the original text were related to or conditioned by the existence
of the visual mode. These transformations include condensing the original text through
exploiting the meaning overlap between the verbal and the visual as well as modifying
and elaborating upon the original, e.g. to eliminate the instances of incongruence between
text and pictures observable in the original and to explicate or reinterpret certain panels.
Regarding the structure of the present paper, it initially focuses on the concept of
multimodality and intersemiotic relationships between modes, and then discusses the
relevance of the multimodal nature of comic books for translation. Further on, after
briefly presenting the extra-textual context in which the Polish translations were created,
the article demonstrates how the multimodal character of the comic book may be
exploited in the process of translation. The present article partly fills the gap in translation
*Email: mborodo@gmail.com
2014 Taylor & Francis
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and linguistic research, which has so far been concerned with the multimodal character of
comic books only to a limited degree.
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M. Borodo
overlap between the two modes will be high, as it is the same or similar meanings that are
repeated, only through a different mode. If the relationship is that of extension or
enhancement, on the other hand, the degree of meaning overlap will be lower, as in this
case meanings are added rather than repeated.
Another noteworthy descriptive framework for studying intersemiotic semantic
relationships in a multimodal text was proposed by Royce (2007). In his analysis of an
illustrated article in The Economist magazine, he demonstrates how the verbal and the
visual modes interact and complement each other on a page, frequently being intertwined
in complex ways and resulting in a coherent multimodal whole. Employing Hallidays
three metafunctions of language, Royce argues that such intersemiotic complementarity
may be investigated on the ideational, interpersonal and textual levels, the latter being
renamed by him, in the context of the visualverbal interactions, as compositional (2007,
p. 67). On the ideational level, Royce distinguishes what he refers to as Visual Message
Elements, which include such categories as participants, i.e. both animate and inanimate
entities appearing in the visual, as well as the processes, circumstances and attributes of
the participants represented on a page (2007, p. 70). Identifying these elements constitutes
the first stage in a multimodal analysis. The second stage involves tracing the lexical
items semantically related to these visual elements on a verbal plane and establishing the
nature of these relationships. Royce classified such relationships as: repetition, which
refers to an identical experiential meaning; synonymy, referring to a similar experiential
meaning; antonymy, for an opposite meaning; hyponymy, expressing the relation of a
general class and its subclasses; meronymy, referring to a partwhole relationship; and the
more general category of collocation for words likely to appear in certain subject areas
(2007, p. 70). Royce also distinguishes various types of relationships for the other
metafunctions. In the case of the compositional metafunction, which refers to how
elements work together on a page to achieve a structural coherence, he proposes such
categories as visual salience, framing and reading paths (2007, p. 73). In the case of
comics, for instance, images within panels are unquestionably more salient than speech
balloons, whereas the culturally-established reading path in Europe or in the Americas is
from left to right.
Finally, what should also be taken into account in a multimodal analysis of translated
comic books are characters body movements, referred to by Allwood as a major source
of the multimodal and multidimensional nature of face-to-face communication (2002,
p. 15). Comic book characters do not merely interact and communicate meanings through
speech balloons but, equally importantly, through gesture, posture, eye gaze or facial
expression. Protagonists are also positioned in specific ways within panels and both their
positioning and body movements may be revealing with regard to the nature of their
relationship, be it friendliness, indifference, superiority, suspicion, tension, irritation or
hostility. These nonverbal interactions are thus a crucial component of communication,
possessing a considerable meaning-making potential activated by the reader/viewer in the
process of interpreting comic book panels. Following Allwoods classification of body
movements (2002, pp. 1516), one may point to a number of categories that are of
potential relevance in a multimodal analysis of a comic book, including facial gestures,
direction of gaze, movements of hands and arms, body posture, distance between
communicators and their spatial orientation. The categories introduced in this section will
be further employed in the analysis of the two translations investigated in this article. In
the following section, we will focus on selected approaches concerning multimodality
and the translation of comics.
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M. Borodo
characters (e.g. Kaindl, 1999, p. 279) or even whole panels (ibid., p. 283), as well as
erasing a variety of visual signs (e.g. DArcangelo, 2004, p. 197; Zanettin, 2008a, p. 206)
or substituting them with others (Kaindl, 2004, p. 185). It is in this sense that Zanettin
(2008a) compares the translation of comics to the process of localization, highlighting
that the visual mode, especially in subsequent retranslations of the same comic book, may
be adjusted to different conventions and age groups at different moments in time.
Regarding the transformations of the verbal mode, on the other hand, it is also not
uncommon that text within speech balloons may be translated in a liberal way, being
condensed (e.g. Rota, 2008, pp. 8889) or expanded (e.g. Grun & Dollerup, 2003, p. 212)
by the translator. Both these types of transformations, relating either to the verbal or to the
visual, might in turn influence the relation between words and pictures and the manner in
which meaning is distributed across the two modes in translated texts.
The relationship between the verbal and the visual modes may also be investigated in
the context of comic book formats, which are sometimes transformed in the process of
adaptation for a new readership in a different culture. Be it an American superhero comic
book, a French album, the Italian Bonelli format or a Japanese manga, comic book
formats are firmly grounded in the traditions of particular cultures, which pertains to their
size, reading direction, font and the use of colours. All these aspects may be modified for
a new target readership, which may in turn have consequences for how a particular text is
perceived and interpreted. The above appears to be particularly relevant in the context of
translating manga. Read from right to left in the original Japanese formats, the first manga
comic books imported to the USA and Europe were initially adjusted to a Western
reading convention and published with inverted pagination from left to right. In time, this
publication method was abandoned by some publishers and many manga comics
currently published in Europe retain the original, right-to-left reading direction. It might
be noted that both these strategies may change the relationship between words and
images from the perspective of the comic book reader. As Rota, citing Barbieri, observes:
Western readership is accustomed to scanning all kind of images from left to right;
therefore, non-inverted panels in Japanese comics convey a different meaning if observed by
a Western eye. A quick movement, for instance, is perceived as slow by a European reader if
not inverted in a mirror-fashion; or a violent kick may turn into a simple trip. (Rota, 2008,
p. 94)
However, mirror inversion might also have profound consequences for how the meaning
expressed by the two modes is interpreted. As Rota notices, the direction of the depicted
actions is modified in this process and right-handed protagonists are automatically
transformed into left-handed characters, which may lead to the following situation:
[I]t is known that samurai followed a strict code of honour called bushido, whose rules
obliged them never to hold their sword with their left hand. Unfortunately, inversion
transforms what for samurai was a profound source of shame (i.e., swords held in left hands)
into a rule. (Rota, 2008, p. 94)
The consequences of both mirror inversion and non-inversion of pagination may thus
influence the way in which certain actions, scenes and movements are interpreted by
readers accustomed to different cultural conventions with regard to gesture, gaze and
directionality of written language. Such transformations may thus lead to a gain but also a
loss in translation.
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The concepts of loss and gain, in turn, were in some detail dealt with in the context of
comic translation by Grun and Dollerup (2003) in their analysis of the Danish translations
of Donald Duck as well as Calvin and Hobbes. Comparing the translations in focus with
their originals, Dollerup and Grun suggest that a liberal translation departing from the
original comics is not necessarily automatically an instance of loss, as it may bring gains
to the text, enriching it in the context of the new target audience. This reasoning appears
to be particularly relevant in the context of one of the translations investigated further on
in the present article, which at times appears to be excessively free with regard to the
original text, but also brings certain gains to the comic book album in the new target
situation. Before investigating the instances of such translation transformations, however,
let us briefly describe the context in which the Polish translations were published.
4. The publishing history of the album
Thorgal is a popular Franco-Belgian comic book series originally written in French by
Jean Van Hamme and drawn by the Polish graphic artist Grzegorz Rosiski. It was
initially serialized in the Tintin magazine in 1977 and since then around 40 volumes of
Thorgal have been released by Le Lombard publishing house, including several spin-offs
that have been produced in recent years by other authors and illustrators as part of the
same series. With regard to its genre, the series may be classified as fantasy adventure
with elements of science-fiction and Norse mythology. It tells the story of the turbulent
life of Thorgal Aegirsson, who is a bard raised among Vikings, but also a star child, i.e.
one of the last descendants of a powerful race that arrived on Earth from outer space.
Thorgal is a righteous, courageous and modest man, using violence only as a last resort,
an excellent archer, as well as an outsider and an outcast, never fully accepted by Vikings
as one of them. As the series progresses, Thorgal and his wife Aaricia start a family and
have two children, a son, Jolan, and a daughter, Louve, and the main protagonist
continually strives to find a safe place where his family could lead a peaceful life, but,
mostly against his will, he repeatedly becomes involved in serious trouble. The vast
universe created by Van Hamme and Rosiski in the series is inhabited by Vikings in the
north and Indian tribes in the south, as well as by gods, magical creatures, dwarfs, giants,
ruthless rulers, marauders, merchants, warriors and adventurers, in addition to being filled
with many magical artifacts and mysterious locations. With regard to its formal
characteristics, Thorgal has a classic French album format. It is a 48-page A4 comic
book printed in full colour, as a rule published once or twice a year, and directed at both
young and adult readers.
The series has been translated into around 15 languages so far and, since its creation,
it has enjoyed great popularity in Poland among younger and older readers alike. It was
initially serialized in a Polish comic book magazine, Relax, and then, since the late 1980s,
published in the form of comic book albums. These albums were published by various
ephemeral publishing houses and translated by different Polish translators until the mid1990s, when the translation of the series was taken over by Egmont Polska publishing
house and assigned to just one single translator, Wojciech Birek. The new translator not
only continued to translate the subsequent volumes, but he also retranslated all of
the previously published albums. This resulted in a situation, certainly desirable from the
point of view of a translation researcher, in which there exist differing translations of
the same albums produced by different translators. The album selected for analysis in the
present article, Les trois vieillards du pays dAran (The three elders from the country of
Aran), was originally published in 1981. It was first rendered into Polish by Joanna
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M. Borodo
Lamprecht in 1989 under the title Nad jeziorem bez dna (At the bottomless lake) and
issued by Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza publishing house. In the year 2000 the album
was retranslated by the abovementioned Wojciech Birek, this time bearing a more
accurate title, Trzech starcw z krainy Aran (The three elders from the land of Aran).
Finally, in 2008, the second, further modified edition of the 2000 translation by Wojciech
Birek was released under a slightly different title, Trzej starcy z kraju Aran (The three
elders from the country of Aran). It is the earliest 1989 Polish translation and the most
recent 2008 version of the album that will be investigated in this article.
There exist numerous differences between the two translations in focus regarding
their accuracy and equivalence towards the original text. As will be demonstrated in the
analytical part of this paper, the 1989 text is less exact, while the 2008 translation may be
characterized as more accurate. However, what does this actually mean? By what criteria
are the two translations being judged in terms of accuracy and equivalence? By
condensing or shortening the original text, is the translator necessarily becoming less
accurate, and the translation less equivalent? For example, it is sometimes possible to
achieve the same effect in shorter sentences or transmit the same meanings in a more
concise manner. Then, equivalence might be interpreted as being formal when accuracy
is aligned with literal translation, or dynamic, attempting to partly recreate a similar
effect on the addressee (Nida, 1964), or it could be investigated on a variety of planes: at
word or sentence level, or on the level of a text as a whole (e.g. Baker, 1992), etc.
Furthermore, in the context of a multimodal text, condensing the original may not
necessarily mean that a given translation is less accurate or appropriate, as images may at
times compensate for omissions or reformulations. It could be argued that in the latter,
holistic, and more nuanced sense, accuracy and equivalence may be achieved even if the
original text is shortened or condensed in terms of language. Thus, to be more specific,
the 2008 translation may be characterized as fairly accurate and the earlier 1989
translation as far less accurate in terms of linguistic fidelity (in the 1989 text this is
especially due to the shortening of a number of dialogues in speech balloons, with some
of these modifications bringing to mind the condensation techniques commonly
employed in subtitling, such as deleting repetitions, phatic expressions, or addressative
forms). However, if we adopt a more nuanced, multimodal perspective on accuracy,
comic book images may in some cases, just as in the case of subtitling, compensate for
the translators omissions and shortenings.
Several questions appear with regard to the reasons that led to such differences in
accuracy between the two Polish translations: what was the underlying rationale for
translation strategy in the 1989 text; what was the 1989 translators background in terms
of her training and previous experience; and is the text we read as a translation the result
of the translators autonomous decisions or was it influenced by other decision-makers,
e.g. the editors responsible for the publication of the translation, who may have
established some guidelines that the translator had to respect? From todays perspective,
this is difficult to establish. Just as the Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza publishing house
responsible for releasing the first Polish translation ceased to exist, so is the first Polish
translator of the album difficult to trace. However, though obtaining reliable information
about the decisions observable in the 1989 translation did not turn out to be feasible, we
can hypothesize about the reasons behind the differences between the liberal 1989
translation and the literal 2008 rendering of the original text. One of them could be
related to the translators differing views with regard to the status of the text, which was
most probably lower when the album was translated for the first time, in 1989, and higher
in 2008 after the series had already become well-established. It is also possible that the
29
first Polish translator had mainly young readers in mind, while the translator of the 2008
version addressed the text also (or primarily) to, older and more sophisticated readers,
including fans of the series who grew up with it as well as connoisseurs of comic book
art. Finally, it might also be hypothesized that some instances of condensation from the
first Polish translation could be related to lettering, which in 1989 appears to have been
inserted manually, which could in turn lead to certain condensation decisions due to the
spatial constraints of speech balloons, and which was computerized in the most recent
2008 translation.
Having briefly sketched the context in which the texts in focus were created, we will
now concentrate on the ways in which the multimodal potential of the comic book was
exploited and modified in the process of translation.
Moreover, although it was absent from the original album, a qualifier terrible was added
in the 1989 translation. Apparently, the translator felt it desirable to further dramatize this
panel, though, as was mentioned before, additions are relatively rare in this predominantly condensed translation. Both these decisions, to change the plural into singular and
to add a qualifier, modified the meaning of the original speech balloon, and yet it should
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M. Borodo
Figure 1. (a) Les trois vieillards du pays dAran (1981/2000, p. 29), reproduced with kind
permission of Editions du Lombard by Rosiski Van Hamme; (b) Trzej starcy z kraju Aran
(2008, p. 29), reproduced with kind permission of Egmont Polska Editions du Lombard by
Rosiski Van Hamme; (c) Nad jeziorem bez dna (1989, p. 29), published by Krajowa Agencja
Wydawnicza.
be noted that this transformation is not only entirely congruent with the visual mode, but
it also cleared up some confusion observable in the original text.
5.2. How about you Thorgal?
In the two comic book panels presented in Figure 2a, apart from identifying the major
Visual Message Elements, we also need to pay attention to body movement with regard to
gaze, posture, distance and spatial orientation. The left panel shows three characters
travelling in a boat, including Thorgal, who is positioned in the background with his back
turned on the other two characters, as well as the Viking and the green knight, who are in
the foreground. The Viking, wearing a helmet, appears in a central position in this panel,
31
Figure 2. (a) Les trois vieillards du pays dAran (1981/2000, p. 28), reproduced with kind
permission of Editions du Lombard by Rosiski Van Hamme; (b) Trzej starcy z kraju Aran
(2008, p. 28), reproduced with kind permission of Egmont Polska Editions du Lombard by
Rosiski Van Hamme; (c) Nad jeziorem bez dna (1989, p. 28), published by Krajowa Agencja
Wydawnicza.
while the green knight is positioned on the right. As regards the content of the speech
balloons in this panel, the green knight first addresses the Viking, observing that it is a
strange voyage and that he cannot see any island around. The Viking replies that he
cannot notice anything either and then he addresses Thorgal saying: And you, can you
see anything? This is a crucial point in the conversation, at which the translator decided
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M. Borodo
to intervene. Let us examine the body language of the characters as well as the sequence
of speech balloons in greater detail. The Viking is not looking at Thorgal, but ahead, with
his hand shading his eyes from the sun, which may contribute to the impression that he is
not addressing Thorgal and that the conversation is only taking place between the two
characters in the foreground, who are standing close to each other. Then, Thorgal is standing
at some distance with his back turned on the other two, which strengthens the impression
that he is not in any way involved in the conversation. Moreover, the reading direction of
speech balloons in European comic books, in contrast to Japanese manga, for instance, is
from left to right and from top to bottom, which implies that the protagonist in the middle is
in all probability addressing the character on the right, rather than talking back to the
character on the left. It is only the subsequent panel that clarifies who addresses whom in the
first panel. How did the Polish translators cope with this potentially confusing scene?
English translation of Figure 2b:
THE LEFT PANEL
Green knight: Its strange to travel in a boat which steers by itself Apart from this, the lake
is not that large, but I cant see any island.
Viking: Me neither. And you, can you see anything?
THE RIGHT PANEL
Green knight: Leave him If I were you, Id be wary of this Thorgal.
Viking: You think so?
Green knight: Im sure of it. Hes ambitious, capable of the worst betrayal to achieve
his goal.
English translation of Figure 2c:
THE LEFT PANEL
Green knight: It is a strange boat which steers by itself. The lake isnt large, but I cant see
any island here.
Viking: Me neither. Hey, Thorgal, how about you?
THE RIGHT PANEL
Green knight: Leave him. I dont trust this Thorgal.
Viking: Why?
Green knight: Hes a daredevil capable of anything to achieve his goal.
While in the 2008 version the translators primary objective appears to have been
retaining accuracy with regard to the verbal mode, in her 1989 translation, Joanna
Lamprecht decided to give precedence to the visual mode, making this scene more
explicit. Lamprecht did not only introduce the addressative form Thorgal into the
speech balloon, thus indicating who is being addressed by whom, but also preceded it by
the interjection hey to signal that the two protagonists are at a distance from each other,
thus making the interaction clearer. The translator thus actively intervened in the text,
creating a translation less accurate in purely linguistic terms, but arguably more coherent
and intelligible in the context of the multimodal nature of the comic book as a whole.
33
Figure 3. (a) Les trois vieillards du pays dAran (1981/2000, p. 17), reproduced with kind
permission of Editions du Lombard by Rosiski Van Hamme; (b) Trzej starcy z kraju Aran
(2008, p. 17), reproduced with kind permission of Egmont Polska Editions du Lombard by
Rosiski Van Hamme; (c) Nad jeziorem bez dna (1989, p. 17), published by Krajowa Agencja
Wydawnicza.
in the right panel, he tosses the gnome at his opponents. How did the Polish translators
treat this seemingly straightforward scene in translation?
English translation of Figure 3b:
Again?!
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M. Borodo
English translation of Figure 3c:
Catch!
While the 2008 Polish translation is once again accurate in terms of language, the
translator of the 1989 version departs from the original text considerably. Consequently,
although in both Polish translations the verbal mode plays a complementary role,
elaborating on the visual mode, it does so in markedly different ways. From a purely
linguistic point of view, rendering the main characters exclamation in the 1989
translation as catch is most inaccurate. On the other hand, this liberal and jocular
translational transformation is entirely congruent with the visual mode.
35
Figure 4. (a) Les trois vieillards du pays dAran (1981/2000, p. 20), reproduced with kind
permission of Editions du Lombard by Rosiski Van Hamme; (b) Trzej starcy z kraju Aran
(2008, p. 20), reproduced with kind permission of Egmont Polska Editions du Lombard by
Rosiski Van Hamme; (c) Nad jeziorem bez dna (1989, p. 20), published by Krajowa Agencja
Wydawnicza.
While the 2008 translation may be described as rather accurate, in the earlier 1989
version the final sentence (Dans ce jeu tous les coups sont permis) was omitted.
Nevertheless, thanks to the multimodal nature of the comic book and the subsequent
panel, which presents another contestant shooting at one of the two characters from
behind, the degree of meaning loss does not seem significant here. In fact, what the next
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M. Borodo
Figure 4 (Continued)
37
Figure 5. (a) Les trois vieillards du pays dAran (1981/2000, p. 22), reproduced with kind
permission of Editions du Lombard by Rosiski Van Hamme; (b) Trzej starcy z kraju Aran
(2008, p. 22), reproduced with kind permission of Egmont Polska Editions du Lombard by
Rosiski Van Hamme; (c) Nad jeziorem bez dna (1989, p. 22), published by Krajowa Agencja
Wydawnicza.
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M. Borodo
While the 2008 Polish translation is again relatively accurate, in the 1989 text the
sentence Stand on my hand was omitted by the Polish translator. This information,
however, is already expressed by the visual mode, in which the contestant reaching
the edge of the cliff clearly stands on the other participants hand while pulling
himself up. Thanks to the verbalvisual overlap this deletion did not result in any
significant meaning loss. The reader of the translation might almost have the
impression that the more literal translation is overly explicit, being characterized by
a certain textual redundancy in comparison with the 1989 version condensed in
translation. This is not to say, however, that a more linguistically accurate rendition
ought to be avoided if the translator is able to exploit the overlap and complementarity between the verbal and the visual. It is rather claimed that, thanks to the specificity
of the comic book medium, it is a possibility. As was argued before, condensing the
original text does not necessarily mean that the translation is less appropriate,
especially in the case of a multimodal text in which the visual may compensate for
omissions or reformulations. To sum up, the interplay between the two modes in the
example presented in Figure 5c once again minimized meaning loss in the 1989
translation of the comic book.
In the 1989 translation, the middle line, i.e. the question Where are you hiding?, was
deleted from the text in the speech balloon, which now appears in bold type and is written
with enlarged characters. However, as in the previously discussed examples, this deletion
does not result in a high degree of meaning loss, due to the visual mode. Judging by the
direction of both protagonists gaze and the background visible in the panel, which is a
forest, it might be deduced that the hiding place is a branch of a tree, which turns out to
be the case in the subsequent panel. The hiding place, being already embedded in the
visual mode, is thus self-evident and the meaning loss is slight.
39
Figure 6. (a) Les trois vieillards du pays dAran (1981/2000, p. 3), reproduced with kind
permission of Editions du Lombard by Rosiski Van Hamme; (b) Trzej starcy z kraju Aran
(2008, p. 3), reproduced with kind permission of Egmont Polska Editions du Lombard by
Rosiski Van Hamme; (c) Nad jeziorem bez dna (1989, p. 3), published by Krajowa Agencja
Wydawnicza.
Conclusion
In his pioneering study, Kaindl (1999) introduces a comprehensive theoretical framework
for investigating translated comic books. The proposed framework encompasses both the
translation of comics as a social practice, grounded in concrete sociocultural circumstances and conditioned by a translators agency, as well as the anatomy of comics, in
which language is only one component, with the pictorial and typographical elements
foregrounded as equally significant. This framework could be supplemented with the
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M. Borodo
approach focusing in even greater detail on the interaction between the verbal and
the visual modes on a multimodal page. The interplay between the two modes may be
potentially relevant for translation for various reasons. As it was demonstrated in the
present paper, the translator may decide to recreate the original text verbatim, but s/he
may also decide to divert from the textual, exploiting the relationship between the verbal
and the visual in a number of ways. This may be done in order to condense the original
text, for instance due to spatial constraints, to eliminate instances of incongruence
between the two modes or even to propose a new, liberal interpretation of a particular
panel within a speech balloon. The multimodal approach provides certain useful concepts
concerning the nature of the relationship between the verbal and the visual, and draws
attention to gaze, body posture or the spatial orientation and distance between characters.
Investigating comics from a multimodal perspective may be another step towards a more
complete understanding of the nature of this still largely unexplored sphere within
Translation Studies.
Notes on contributor
Micha Borodo is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Kazimierz Wielki University,
Bydgoszcz, Poland, where he is also the Head of Postgraduate Studies for Translators and
Interpreters. He has published on various topics in Translation Studies and his main research
interests include translation and language in the context of globalization, the translation of
childrens literature and comics, and translator training. In 2012, he co-edited Global Trends in
Translator and Interpreter Training: Mediation and Culture (published by Continuum).
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