ABSTRACT
Comics are a global phenomenon of popular culture and seem to be ubiquitous in many contexts and media. They can be found in newspapers, bookstores, on the web as well as in US Army brochures; companies are selling their products with comics as manuals, the film industry adapts them to the screen, and comics are even used for opera performances, such as the production of Tosca at the Berlin State Opera in 2014, where a projection screen was used to illustrate the plot in the form of a graphic novel. Scott McCloud accurately summarizes the omnipresence of the comic in an interview: “Comics are being used for more things, read by more people, and have more of an essential importance to the culture, relevance to the culture, and effect on the culture than they ever had” (Irving 2010). Translation plays a central part in the global spread of this medium. First, comics were imported into cultural areas that did not have their own comic book traditions. Moreover, translations influenced the national production of comics in countries that imported them, both in content and form. Due to their global presence, comics thus represent a transcultural phenomenon, which, however, has long been ignored by translation studies or which has been investigated only to a limited extent. This article aims to provide a holistic view from the perspective of translation studies. It begins by offering a brief historical summary of its development and discusses possible definitions, through which we can establish its essential translation-relevant characteristics. This is followed by a discussion of the central questions and issues based on research in the field of comic translation and an outline of future developments.
