Approach to the translation of sound in comic books

Igareda, Paula

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/babel.63.3.03iga

Approach to the translation of sound in comic books

Citation

Igareda P. Approach to the translation of sound in comic books. Babel. 2017 Jan;63(3):343-63. DOI: 10.1075/babel.63.3.03iga

Abstract

The relationship between texts and images in comics is essential from the graphic point of view and for the understanding of the story. Hence, the translation of comics has certain peculiarities that other literature genres do not have, partly due to its combination of iconic language and literary language. Among the wide array of interesting topics within this field, we are going to focus on a great challenge for translators: the graphic and phonetic values of the sounds in comics. Technical advances have improved comic books translation: nowadays modifying an element of the vignette no longer involves redrawing the whole animation. Thus, the translation of this literature genre can now focus on other problematic issues, such as the translation of sounds. Taking into account the lack of categorization of these sounds, this article deals with the translation of inarticulate sounds, interjections and onomatopoeias from English comic books into Spanish in order to observe the existing trends in these issues and to confirm if the new technologies have changed the translators' task in the last 25 years.