961 Reggie Both.

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A fan reached out to me recently to ask if I wanted a French translation of the comic. I’ve actually been asked a few times if I would be interested in translations, into various languages, but most people don’t really have a concept of how much work 900 pages of something is. Most of them never got as far as a single page. This French version already has a decent sized script. It just needs to be set into the pages. Usually I would leave that to the translator, and they would have to work with the files from the site, but this time I just took the script. I’ve been meaning to go back and optimize the old pages for the web, so when I do my intention is to make the French version at the same time. I realize for most of you none of this matters in the least, but reaching an audience that is locked off under normal circumstances is neat. My intention is to make a seperate website for the translation. It should be able to pay for its own server costs. If nothing else it will be a fun experiment. Even with my limited knowledge of French I can tell the guy understands the tone of my work. Everyone sounds appropriately sarcastic in French.

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And so begins the viewing of Reggie Booth. Will he turn out to be the cold cad he first seemed to be, or misunderstood jerk who isn’t that bad, who just wants to be seen as anything but a failure.

Or will this reveal more about Nina’s past; a past of a person different that the ray of sunshine we all have come to admire and love.

Also, Reggie’s answer to Nina’d last question “Can he be both?” “CAN he be both.” That answer tells me Reggie views people in one way, a means or friend. He is so obsessed with success and has a deep-seeded fear of failing he has lost all empathy. It’s sad really.

About the French translation… Do you plan on making it universal or on giving it a local feel? What I mean is, the way we talk in Quebec and other parts of Canada has very little to do with the French from overseas. For example, even American movies are translated differently in France and in Quebec, since we use different expressions and a different vocabulary.

I actually tried to do a translation of a webcomic, and i went as far as 30 pages before I gave up.
Now I think the best way to do a translation of a webcomic is to use a wiki site, because if we can’t translate an update for whatever reason, there may be someone else working on it so I think it is more encouraging (I gave up my translation after missing 3 update in a row as I was working in 1 update per day schedule).
For example the site http://www.lirmm.fr/~gambette/xkcd/about.php has an almost complete translation of XKCD and works pretty much like a wiki because users can submit their translations (though it still waits for the website owner’s approval before the translation is set online).

Nina the Librarian.

I’m a henchman. Of course no evil master at the moment, but such is the nature of hench–ism?

I side with Reggie on this one. Why can’t someone be both a friend and a minion? It makes it easier to know who has to defend against usurption and who does the plotting. Then again, I’m borderline paranoid (although as it turns out, there actually WAS a group of people out to get me at one point. They more or less succeeded. It’s part of why I’m no longer allowed to wear my ‘Ask me about my evil plan’ shirt, or visit the state of New Jersey…)

Of course, were I Nina, i would have counted a confused reaction as one of ten possible reactions to my statement and would have eliminated the threat while he was muddling about for an answer. Then again, I am also somewhat cold-hearted. It’s part of why I threaten people for spreading rumours about my being a nice person about. Last time people thought I was nice I had to eat seven kittens. I don’t even like kittens. They are greasy, and taste like undercooked bread. Plus the fur gets stuck in my teeth. Also, it turns out that many places consider eating domesticated animals not of the herd variety to be somewhat illegal. The illegality itself isn’t really a problem, but I am also lazy and poor, and don’t need the hassle…

…

I think I may have diverged from topic there…

Um… Go team evil?

Reggie begins pondering this moral conundrum.

Nina stands byu in respectful silence.

Until he’s completely absorbed … then “Ha! Gotcha, sucker!”

“Everyone sounds appropriately sarcastic in French.”

What is it about Francophones? They always seem snotty and snobbish (I refuse to reference Monty Python on this point, go look it up yourself!) It’s as if everyone else in the world is somehow a failure for not choosing le Français as their primary language. In Québec, where a Czech-born friend of mine grew up, everyone can speak English, but they won’t. They feel they don’t have to, and anyway, it’s more fun to stand around and watch the Outsiders stumble along in appallingly bad French. One can hardly blame my friend for referring to them as the Quebe-swine.

As far as translating Between Failures into French, well that’s just parfait.

Well, I can’t comment on the WHY of snottiness, but I must say, I’ve never gotten a rude reaction out of les Quebecois.

It really depends how deep into the province you go. Although admittedly I may never have a problem, being able to speak the language. With a thick, hick accent (to their ears)

Sadly, I have…I used to work for Blizzard and the Quebecois would call up mad that we didn’t speak French. I don’t understand it – I KNOW not all the French Canadiens are like that (there was a freestyle skier named JP Auclair whom I met once at Breckenridge who was really nice, signed my ski jacket) but I don’t understand why they got so mad over the fact that an American company didn’t have French speaking representatives for them to talk to.

But Nina, apart from “not-minion” (twice) you didn’t say how you think of Brooksie. Friend, colleague, potential slave-girl? ;-)

On the other hand, Wes has only worked there – what – 3 days? Not long to bond, really. Time is a slippery beastie in the comic world. Maybe it’s been longer than I realized. But this entire arc is only a few hours long at most. Perhaps even a few minutes, right?

I like where this is headed. Also I like the idea of the comic translated for more people to read and understand. Best of luck with it!

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