Translating Comics: The Ins and Outs
The recent online conference ‘Translation in comics’ was just marvellous. It was organized by Blanca Mayor Serrano and Álvaro Pons for the Aula de Cómic at the Cátedra de Estudios del Cómic Fundación SM-Universitat de València. I was lucky enough to take part in it with this talk about the publishing process seen from the point of view of someone who translates comics, which was a dream to prepare: There was also an interesting round table on teaching comic translation with my colleagues André Höchemer, Esther Cruz Santaella, Raúl Gisbert ...
My Translations from the First Half of 2020
A very complicated semester for the publishing world just ended. There was no Sant Jordi and no Barcelona Comic Fair, and new books published in February and March suffered particularly, since almost nobody was in time to buy them. All in all, I have published six translations: a graphic novel by Giorgia Marras on Empress Elisabeth of Austria for Sapristi and another one by Alessio Surian, Diego di Masi and Silvio Boselli on Maria Montessori for DeBolsillo; two novels, one by Andrea Camilleri for Salamandra and another one by ...
My Translations from the Second Half of 2019
I'm extremely happy at the end of 2019 because the last six months have been once again full of great books. I've published the following translations: a novel by Jesse Ball and a memoir by Andrea Camilleri for :Rata_ and Salamandra; an exhibition catalogue devoted to Takis for MACBA, together with Irene Oliva; three comics by Marjane Satrapi, by Kris and Vincent Bailly adapting Joseph Joffo and by Odyr illustrating George Orwell for Reservoir Books and DeBolsillo, and four illustrated books by Beatrix Potter and Helen Oxenbury, by Marianna Coppo ...
Remember, Remember the 5th of November
This is a year of professional anniversaries for me. Fifteen years ago, several colleagues specialising in art translations and I set up Barcelona Kontext, which changed my working life. And we’re still here, translating exhibition catalogues and art books. Twenty years ago, I started sharing an office, which changed my whole life and led me to some of the most important people in my life. And I’m still here, now in el Born, happier than ever. And thirty years ago (it’s been thirty years since so many things happened) I received ...
My Translations from the First Half of 2019
Here are the translations I have published during the first half of the year: two novels by Andrea Camilleri and Joan-Lluís-Lluís for Salamandra and Navona; two exhibition catalogues about Berenice Abbott and Sergio Prego and Itziar Okariz for Fundación Mapfre and the Venice Biennale-Koenig Books, and five comics by John Carlin and Oriol Malet, by Ray Bradbury and Tim Hamilton, by Zerocalcare, by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius and by Nick Drnaso for DeBolsillo, Reservoir Books and Salamandra ...
Cartoon Philosophy
I’m very excited, because the comic book on the left, the Spanish edition of A Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy by Michael F. Patton and Kevin Cannon, in now in its fifth edition. I translated it last year for Debolsillo, it's a gem and it smells really good. It's all about Heraclitus, who tells the story of philosophy with a lot of humour and great panache. I recommend it. And it reminds me of the comic book on the right, by William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth, which I translated for Ediciones ...
Translation from Within
A couple of weeks ago, Álvaro Macías Rondán published this article about literary translation in the Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos: 'La traducción desde dentro: un oficio invisible que habla alto y claro' (Translation from Within: An Invisible Trade That Speaks Loud and Clear). He interviewed José Luis López Muñoz, Daniel Sancosmed, María Teresa Gallego, Carmen Montes, Ana María Bejarano, Eugenia Vázquez-Nacarino and myself to discuss no less than our profession, the legendary visibility and our favourite books out of all the ones we've worked ...
Ten Great Comics Lined Up
I'm terribly excited because my next translations are ten great comics and graphic novels, some ready to print and some yet to be started. They are by Alejandro Jodorowsky/Moebius, Nick Drnaso, Roberto Saviano/Asaf Hanuka, Georgia Marras, Marjane Satrapi, Greg Pak/Jonathan Coulton, John Carlin/Oriol Malet, Zerocalcare, Ken Krimstein and Odyr, and will be published by the likes of Salamandra, Reservoir Books and Sapristi. Good stuff coming ...
An Afternoon with Tom Gauld
It doesn’t happen everyday. Sometimes translators are in touch with their authors, sometimes we get to meet them in person and sometimes we even have the chance to chat with them for a while. But rarely can we spend a whole afternoon with an author we admire, ask them whatever we want and then hear them speak in public in the evening. That’s what happened to me a few days ago when Tom Gauld came to Barcelona to speak at Primera Persona, a literary festival held at CCCB. He also ...
Anthea Bell, Grande Dame of Translation
If you only read one interview with a translator this year, let it be this one by Claire Armitstead, who speaks to the charming Anthea Bell. It was published in The Guardian in 2013. Thoroughly ...
My Next Translations
I have several wonderful titles lined-up. My third translation of a Gianni Rodari book, Escuela de fantasía, will be published by Blackie Books in September, and the fourth, which will probably be called Inventem els números in Catalan, will be published by Kalandraka with beautiful illustrations by Alessandro Sanna, just like the previous one, Un conte embolicat. Then there’s the third graphic novel by Zerocalcare that I’m lucky enough to translate into Spanish for Reservoir Books, like the two previous ones, La profecía del armadillo and Kobane Calling. And ...
300 Translations
On this new website, which I’m redesigning from scratch, I would like to include the covers of all the books I’ve translated over the years, either on my own or with other colleagues. I already had them on the old site, but they were too little, the animation was made with Flash—so lots of new devices didn’t support it—and I had also stopped updating them a while ago. While I set it all up, blisfully happy, I’m celebrating an important landmark. With the last novel by my revered author Andrea ...
Bisogna cambiare tutto
I have finally found the time to start the long-delayed renovation of my website—it was vital, mostly for technical reasons. The original site dated back to the year 2000 and the design had stood the test of time quite well, but there were search-engine problems and size issues when using portable devices. Also, I hadn’t updated the information for quite a while, always thinking that I should just redo the whole thing from scratch. Which I am doing now. From now on, it will be much faster, more straightforward and ...