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Word Balloons on OA not Same as Published, does it matter?
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15 posts in this topic

There's the question, here's the backstory....

 

So recently got to know and chat with a French collector who turned me on to the works of Merwan and his book Mécanique Céleste. I enjoyed the art enough that I picked the book up on Kindle, got through it in French and then found there was a kickstarter to publish the book in English!!

I just picked up a page from the book and am so happy that it was actually available!

Now here is the question: The art has word balloons/dialogue on the page, it's in French. However, the French dialogue on the OA is not the same French dialogue as what was published for the French book! Do you think it matters? Buying one of the best pages out of a 200 page book - all this time after it was published - I thought myself very lucky. But now I am left to wonder, do people frown upon this sort of thing? That it's not the "published" page?

I love the page. The art, all done in watercolor, is fabulous. To my mind having the dialogue on the OA not agree with what was published is just a glimpse into the artists process and doesn't diminish the work. 

 

Curious to know what you all think . Here is a link to the Kickstarter if you have interest:

 

 

 

 

Edited by Stefanomjr
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Nah. I’d think of that as overthinking it. Plenty of OA was altered during the production process over the years. How many old Marvel pages had pasteovers made of printed stats covering beautiful art underneath? Or the occasional cover that is all stat covering the original drawn art underneath? I don’t think anyone prefers the enlarged stat over seeing the drawing, do they?

Be jazzed with your piece. Don’t sweat the small production edits. Chances are the writer or editor made the changes after the art was done. Part of making comics. Post it up if/when you can.

Edited by ESeffinga
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It should not impact value of the art. 

In the modern era, I'm surprised there are word balloons still being pasted onto the art.  Digital lettering is obviously cleaner, faster and publishers can translate into different languages immediately for publication in foreign markets.  Sometimes cultural differences require changing the dialogue.  You do not want to insult an entire country because something got lost in translation.

 

 

Edited by NelsonAI
Typos
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Compared to redrawn stats covering faces, etc., this wouldn't bother me one bit.  Just out of curiosity, I might like to know the story behind the changes, but the difference itself wouldn't be a concern at all.

I've been trying to get my hands on some nice examples of Enrique Romero's AXA strip.  Those are interesting in that much of the series was originally published in English, but later republished in Spanish-language newspapers.  Some have the original English word balloons, while others have the Spanish.  As NelsonAI says, this is one of those things that is undoubtedly much simpler to handle in the digital era.

And that's a very pretty page, by the way.  I'm sure it looks great in person. 

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13 minutes ago, ShallowDan said:

Compared to redrawn stats covering faces, etc., this wouldn't bother me one bit.  Just out of curiosity, I might like to know the story behind the changes, but the difference itself wouldn't be a concern at all.

I've been trying to get my hands on some nice examples of Enrique Romero's AXA strip.  Those are interesting in that much of the series was originally published in English, but later republished in Spanish-language newspapers.  Some have the original English word balloons, while others have the Spanish.  As NelsonAI says, this is one of those things that is undoubtedly much simpler to handle in the digital era.

And that's a very pretty page, by the way.  I'm sure it looks great in person. 

I agree with ShalowDan about wanting to know the story behind the change, and with everyone about it not affecting value. Nice page!

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Why should it devalue the art? It's part of the creation process, Merwan is a complete artist, he probably created the dialogs himself and they have been (slightly) reviewed later, but there you get a part of this evolving process. The balloons are quite "equivalent" in terms of meaning, just some rewording and yes, maybe the published version is better... but you bought the original art (and a very nice one), not a published page :)

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In this case, I would say no, and that would be true in most cases. But, if the changed dialog affected the flow of the story on the page, or didn't "jell" properly, that would affect my interest regardless as to what others might feel.

I think the impact of dialog isn't given its due, and I sorely miss it from artwork. Here is an example of what I mean. I just bought a few pages from Shane Davis on the Metal Men maxi-series, a splash page, and what is below. Now when I bought it, the book was not yet out, and I did not know how it related to the story. I did know, however, that it immediately reminded me of an old movie Western staredown before two gunslingers draw (or not) on each other. Each one looks the other in the eyes to see if the other one is going to give away an intent to draw, and then "boom", or not. So, I thought I was getting a clever homage page. Well, I was wrong. The page turned out to just be PS and the Nth Metal Man talking. While I still like the art, and I am happy I bought it, the difference in dialog definitely affects the page's desireabliity to me regardless as to the art.

ShaneDavisMM3panel.thumb.jpg.ca1a485aaff47e82ed7c0171aa520191.jpg

 

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Got to talk to the artist, Merwan, and ask about the difference in dialogue between the OA and published...here is what he had to say:

Eh!
Yes the first change is importante!
« Alors tu te ramènes » means « come on! »
« Alors tu prends racines? » is an expression that means « will you stay there like if you were a plant? »
And that’s Wallis problem, he is not moving in his life and at the end he is trying to suicide him by planting his legs in the toxic solution like a tree.
The difference is that Aster is always in motion.
The second change is not so important but it shows that Wallis is very accurate with the model of the bomb that reenforce there recycling way of life.
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57 minutes ago, Stefanomjr said:

Got to talk to the artist, Merwan, and ask about the difference in dialogue between the OA and published...here is what he had to say:

Eh!
Yes the first change is importante!
« Alors tu te ramènes » means « come on! »
« Alors tu prends racines? » is an expression that means « will you stay there like if you were a plant? »
And that’s Wallis problem, he is not moving in his life and at the end he is trying to suicide him by planting his legs in the toxic solution like a tree.
The difference is that Aster is always in motion.
The second change is not so important but it shows that Wallis is very accurate with the model of the bomb that reenforce there recycling way of life.

I understand the artist’s point of view, but I agree with the change. The speaker’s sense of exasperation is fine when people are actually talking, but in print, that meaning may not come out and leave some readers confused. So, I still don’t think value would be affected. 

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