"I dun goofed (now how do I fix it?)", 10th May 2012, 7:21 PM #1
Ok, part of my comic relies on certain characters not being able to communicate effectively enough to realise that the others know things they'd have interest in knowing.
The city people and a small minority of island tribes speak one language, and the rest of the island tribes speak a family of dialects close enough to sound alike. (there are other countries in that world but the story doesn't reach very far geographically)
What I did so far was to have the main characters' language rendered in English only, and when there's enough non-english speech to be frustrating to read, write a translation below; I expected this not to happen too often and so be tolerable.
Well it turns out that it was a stupid idea.
I meant not to give the reader too much information that the characters don't have so they can find out together, but it doesn't work. There are scenes that the main characters don't see, but are still part of the chain of events that will lead to the ending and have to be shown not to end up looking like a lame plot hole. And if they're shown, why the characters in them act the way they do also needs to make sense, and hearing what they say is pretty much the most efficient way to show what's in their head.
The comic is still short enough that creeping up the archive and changing the faulty episodes is reasonable, but I'm not sure how I should change it.
I have been given suggestions on how to represent foreign text, but I've read many comics in my day and I never met a form that I liked. I still have to pick one:
A- I know for certain that I won't write gibberish in the balloons and a translation in a box at the bottom of the panel. That's just atrocious. If it was TV, then a subtitle would be acceptable, but this isn't TV. My translation under the comic is sort of a variant on this but I only put up with it because it was supposed to be rare.
B- With how many authors use different fonts just for different types of voice, characters or tones, I think the different font option is burned by now.
C- I think the use of brackets works, <This is reminding that there's something up with that text enough to remember oh yeah he speaks a funny dialect> but it's also unsightly, breaks the rythm and if a character is murdering a second language "Je aime you beaucoup -> <I love> you <a lot>" it's outright bizarre.
D- Text a different colour. I think it would look off on a black and white comic, but for now that's the solution I dislike least. I'd pick it dark and not too saturated, not to clash with the rest.
E- Is there another way?
So, there's none of those that I really like. I hate D least, but "the option I hate least" is a rather weak preference. I'd like opinions on this; I may or may not go with the majority, but knowing what said majority prefers certainly can't hurt.
Please, I'd like enough responses to get a feel of what people think about it in general, so if you don't feel like typing a whole answer, just posting the letter matching your favourite solution would be enough to help. (but you CAN tell more if that's what you want!)
Thank you!
The city people and a small minority of island tribes speak one language, and the rest of the island tribes speak a family of dialects close enough to sound alike. (there are other countries in that world but the story doesn't reach very far geographically)
What I did so far was to have the main characters' language rendered in English only, and when there's enough non-english speech to be frustrating to read, write a translation below; I expected this not to happen too often and so be tolerable.
Well it turns out that it was a stupid idea.
I meant not to give the reader too much information that the characters don't have so they can find out together, but it doesn't work. There are scenes that the main characters don't see, but are still part of the chain of events that will lead to the ending and have to be shown not to end up looking like a lame plot hole. And if they're shown, why the characters in them act the way they do also needs to make sense, and hearing what they say is pretty much the most efficient way to show what's in their head.
The comic is still short enough that creeping up the archive and changing the faulty episodes is reasonable, but I'm not sure how I should change it.
I have been given suggestions on how to represent foreign text, but I've read many comics in my day and I never met a form that I liked. I still have to pick one:
A- I know for certain that I won't write gibberish in the balloons and a translation in a box at the bottom of the panel. That's just atrocious. If it was TV, then a subtitle would be acceptable, but this isn't TV. My translation under the comic is sort of a variant on this but I only put up with it because it was supposed to be rare.
B- With how many authors use different fonts just for different types of voice, characters or tones, I think the different font option is burned by now.
C- I think the use of brackets works, <This is reminding that there's something up with that text enough to remember oh yeah he speaks a funny dialect> but it's also unsightly, breaks the rythm and if a character is murdering a second language "Je aime you beaucoup -> <I love> you <a lot>" it's outright bizarre.
D- Text a different colour. I think it would look off on a black and white comic, but for now that's the solution I dislike least. I'd pick it dark and not too saturated, not to clash with the rest.
E- Is there another way?
So, there's none of those that I really like. I hate D least, but "the option I hate least" is a rather weak preference. I'd like opinions on this; I may or may not go with the majority, but knowing what said majority prefers certainly can't hurt.
Please, I'd like enough responses to get a feel of what people think about it in general, so if you don't feel like typing a whole answer, just posting the letter matching your favourite solution would be enough to help. (but you CAN tell more if that's what you want!)
Thank you!
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