Dark Horse: An Introduction
This is the next in a series of articles introducing our Pacific Dreams Bookstore customers to some of the publishing houses we work closely with. Today we will take a closer look at Dark Horse Comics, Inc., which has brought us the graphic novels Lady Snowblood, Lone Wolf and Cub, and Samurai Executioner, with more titles on the way this year.
Dark Horse is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Starting locally in Oregon in 1986, Dark Horse has grown steadily into one of the largest and most respected independent publishing houses and media centers in the world. Founder Mike Richardson now splits his time between the Dark Horse main offices in Milwaukie, Oregon, and the film production branch in Los Angeles, Dark Horse Entertainment, which was established in 1992.
Dark Horse’s ever expanding library includes a growing number of manga titles from Japan. Many of these are classic Japanese comics seen for the first time in English. We recently spoke with Michael Gombos, Dark Horse’s Japanese Licensing Manager about Dark Horse’s Japanese titles and their approach to translating and bringing these titles to an English-speaking audience.
Michael Gombos handles all the correspondence with Japan, on-site translations, and basically finding and bringing in many of the manga titles Dark Horse will translate and publish. He also helps editors correct mistranslations and identify cultural references which appear in the afterword sections of many Dark Horse manga. Mike has been studying Japanese for over fifteen years, six of which were spent in Japan as a translator, a student at Waseda University, a teacher, and as an FM DJ in Osaka.
Overall, Dark Horse publishes over 350 volumes per year. In 2005, 39 of those were manga, in 2006, that number will more than double to over 80, and in 2007, we can expect even more. The most popular titles include Lone Wolf and Cub, as well as Trigun, Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D, and AKIRA, which are some very recognizable titles for anyone with even a fleeting interest in Japanese comics. Lone Wolf and Cub alone has sold nearly a million volumes! Dark Horse is also home to the second (soon to be #1) longest-running manga, Oh! My Goddess, which started publication in 1994.
So what has spurred such an interest in Japanese comics in recent years? Gombos attributes it to both Dark Horse leading the fans, as well as the fans telling Dark Horse what they’d like to be able to read. Adding Gombos, a Japanese-speaking staff member was something that was considered a big help; this opened doors to access more of the Japanese artists and publishers. Gombos tells us that he listens closely to what the fans tell them at trade shows, as well as through the website’s forums and email. Dark Horse has surely had a great impact in bringing manga to the English-speaking world.
Readers of the Koike Kazuo titles PDI offers appreciate the care given to the translation of these more historical titles set during feudal Japan (Lone Wolf, Samurai Executioner) and the Meiji Restoration (Lady Snowblood). Many of the words used are not easily translated in English, and to maintain accuracy, the words are left in Japanese (romaji) and then explained in the appendix. (For example, “sanpin” is a derogatory term for a lower-ranked samurai.) For these titles, Dark Horse uses specialist translators who are experts in the culture and language of these eras. Although they both may be fluent in Japanese, a translator of science fiction may not be best suited for a historical fiction translation, and vice versa.
An issue all translators of graphic novels have to consider is the spatial concerns – something that we don’t have to think about when doing a document without graphics. English often requires more character space than Japanese, so this can cause issues. After a translation is proofed, an editor will examine the translation and space available. If necessary, the size of the word balloon will be expanded to fit the translation sacrificing as little of the original art as possible. These changes are then sent back to Japan for licensor approval before proceeding with the next step toward publication.
More recently, things like signposts and or snack food labels are left in their original Japanese, and a note is added so readers interested in Japanese culture can see the original Japanese characters and investigate further into its context. What to leave and what to change can depend on the editor, the contract and the creator’s wishes.
All of the actual translation work for each title is done by out-of-house contractors. All of the negotiations, contracts and deal communications translations are done in-house by Gombos. Native English speakers translate most of the titles, but we were surprised to hear Lady Snowblood, Katsuya Terada’s Monkey King, and the upcoming Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service were translated by native Japanese speakers. One step, according to Gombos, is hiring the best translators and editors available. Dark Horse has five full-time manga editors, including Carl Horn, one of the foremost experts on manga and anime in the English-speaking world. Another secret is that every person in the process of bringing a Japanese title to English loves what he or she is doing. The sheer joy of seeing a title everyone worked on finally arrive on American bookshelves can make the staff easily forget some of the problems they ran into along the way. (Note: The translators for the aforementioned books are true bilinguals).
We were excited to hear many of Dark Horse’s translators are local Oregon talent, including Camellia Nieh, who did 2005’s Blood the Last Vampire: Night of the Beasts, and the brand-new Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex novel, which we will be offering you soon. Dark Horse has always made an effort to hire local whenever possible.
We asked Gombos how he deals with translating culturally specific phrases into English. Gombos responded telling us that they run into puns quite a bit, as they are integral to Japanese humor. He told us an interesting example of a joke where “mushi” (ignore) was mixed with “mushi-pan” (a steam-baked bread). The humor is preserved in the English translation, and a note explaining the original Japanese joke is added at the bottom, as manga readers are often interested in Japanese culture and language.
We look forward to bringing you more Dark Horse titles over the coming months, and invite you to take a look at what we have available now:
Lone Wolf and Cub
Samurai Executioner
Lady Snowblood
Dark Horse is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Starting locally in Oregon in 1986, Dark Horse has grown steadily into one of the largest and most respected independent publishing houses and media centers in the world. Founder Mike Richardson now splits his time between the Dark Horse main offices in Milwaukie, Oregon, and the film production branch in Los Angeles, Dark Horse Entertainment, which was established in 1992.Dark Horse’s ever expanding library includes a growing number of manga titles from Japan. Many of these are classic Japanese comics seen for the first time in English. We recently spoke with Michael Gombos, Dark Horse’s Japanese Licensing Manager about Dark Horse’s Japanese titles and their approach to translating and bringing these titles to an English-speaking audience.
Michael Gombos handles all the correspondence with Japan, on-site translations, and basically finding and bringing in many of the manga titles Dark Horse will translate and publish. He also helps editors correct mistranslations and identify cultural references which appear in the afterword sections of many Dark Horse manga. Mike has been studying Japanese for over fifteen years, six of which were spent in Japan as a translator, a student at Waseda University, a teacher, and as an FM DJ in Osaka.
Overall, Dark Horse publishes over 350 volumes per year. In 2005, 39 of those were manga, in 2006, that number will more than double to over 80, and in 2007, we can expect even more. The most popular titles include Lone Wolf and Cub, as well as Trigun, Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D, and AKIRA, which are some very recognizable titles for anyone with even a fleeting interest in Japanese comics. Lone Wolf and Cub alone has sold nearly a million volumes! Dark Horse is also home to the second (soon to be #1) longest-running manga, Oh! My Goddess, which started publication in 1994.
So what has spurred such an interest in Japanese comics in recent years? Gombos attributes it to both Dark Horse leading the fans, as well as the fans telling Dark Horse what they’d like to be able to read. Adding Gombos, a Japanese-speaking staff member was something that was considered a big help; this opened doors to access more of the Japanese artists and publishers. Gombos tells us that he listens closely to what the fans tell them at trade shows, as well as through the website’s forums and email. Dark Horse has surely had a great impact in bringing manga to the English-speaking world.
Readers of the Koike Kazuo titles PDI offers appreciate the care given to the translation of these more historical titles set during feudal Japan (Lone Wolf, Samurai Executioner) and the Meiji Restoration (Lady Snowblood). Many of the words used are not easily translated in English, and to maintain accuracy, the words are left in Japanese (romaji) and then explained in the appendix. (For example, “sanpin” is a derogatory term for a lower-ranked samurai.) For these titles, Dark Horse uses specialist translators who are experts in the culture and language of these eras. Although they both may be fluent in Japanese, a translator of science fiction may not be best suited for a historical fiction translation, and vice versa.An issue all translators of graphic novels have to consider is the spatial concerns – something that we don’t have to think about when doing a document without graphics. English often requires more character space than Japanese, so this can cause issues. After a translation is proofed, an editor will examine the translation and space available. If necessary, the size of the word balloon will be expanded to fit the translation sacrificing as little of the original art as possible. These changes are then sent back to Japan for licensor approval before proceeding with the next step toward publication.
More recently, things like signposts and or snack food labels are left in their original Japanese, and a note is added so readers interested in Japanese culture can see the original Japanese characters and investigate further into its context. What to leave and what to change can depend on the editor, the contract and the creator’s wishes.
All of the actual translation work for each title is done by out-of-house contractors. All of the negotiations, contracts and deal communications translations are done in-house by Gombos. Native English speakers translate most of the titles, but we were surprised to hear Lady Snowblood, Katsuya Terada’s Monkey King, and the upcoming Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service were translated by native Japanese speakers. One step, according to Gombos, is hiring the best translators and editors available. Dark Horse has five full-time manga editors, including Carl Horn, one of the foremost experts on manga and anime in the English-speaking world. Another secret is that every person in the process of bringing a Japanese title to English loves what he or she is doing. The sheer joy of seeing a title everyone worked on finally arrive on American bookshelves can make the staff easily forget some of the problems they ran into along the way. (Note: The translators for the aforementioned books are true bilinguals).
We were excited to hear many of Dark Horse’s translators are local Oregon talent, including Camellia Nieh, who did 2005’s Blood the Last Vampire: Night of the Beasts, and the brand-new Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex novel, which we will be offering you soon. Dark Horse has always made an effort to hire local whenever possible.
We asked Gombos how he deals with translating culturally specific phrases into English. Gombos responded telling us that they run into puns quite a bit, as they are integral to Japanese humor. He told us an interesting example of a joke where “mushi” (ignore) was mixed with “mushi-pan” (a steam-baked bread). The humor is preserved in the English translation, and a note explaining the original Japanese joke is added at the bottom, as manga readers are often interested in Japanese culture and language.
We look forward to bringing you more Dark Horse titles over the coming months, and invite you to take a look at what we have available now:
Lone Wolf and Cub
Samurai Executioner
Lady Snowblood
posted by John T at 3:17 PM
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