The Off Topic Topic

[dist]

Yes, Uderzo died in 2020.

I wish the publishers would have the decency of letting the big comic series die instead of keeping them alive, like Spirou and Fantasio, Luky Luke and so many others. Arguably, as Syt mentioned, the late Uderzo Asterix were rather bad and the series could already have done without them.

I did enjoy some of Spirou not by Frankin, but it still irks me to see new albums being published almost 60 years after Frankin stopped. I'm sure the authors paid to continue these franchises could do their own thing and create their own world.

[Grey Fox]

I've read all of them and I still enjoy them all. I like sharing them with my son.

[frunk]

As with any physical books you get nowadays be careful of from where and what you are buying.  We bought a couple of Asterixes around Christmas and one of them was a more recent edition with what looked like a cheapo AI translation job.  Instead of the classic white background cover it was blue and had smaller dimensions.

[Sheilbh]

Especially as the English translations by Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge are legendary as works of translation.

A famous example that AI will not get:


Both are playing on Gericault's The Raft of the Medusa, which the French text draws attention to through médusé - but that doesn't work in English as it would be translated as "dumbfounded". So instead we get "we've been framed, by Jericho!"

So you get the literal meaning that they've been duped or set up, but you still get the verbal reference to the painting from médusé translated into Gericault/Jericho (made clear with the caption "Ancient Gaulish artist".

The actual proper translations are so, so smart - and AI translation I think would not get changing every single word to make the gag. There are so many examples from all the books they worked on - Bell also translated Kafka and Sebald but I think her work on Asterix is genuinely considered some of the greatest translations into English.

[Josquius]

I'm bemused the pirates would do AI translations.
Surely it's easier just to copy the officials.