Your webcomic in other languages

[Lego M]

Recently I had a fan email me asking for permission to translate Half Death into Italian. I was wondering if anyone here has any experience on the subject of allowing others to translate your work into different languages?

Providing they can do a good job of it (as well as link back to the original and boldly state that the comic does NOT belong to them and that they have my permission to post the translation) I wouldn't mind it; it would open a door for me to broaden my horizons beyond just the English speaking people of the world. The individual who's offered to do the translation has asked if I can build the website for it though since they don't have any webdesign experience, which doesn't seem right to me. Firstly, I don't know the language and wouldn't be able to create a site that's navigated in Italian. Secondly, shouldn't the website be part of their project? To me it feels like a fan project, which means it's something that they do all of.

I could be wrong though, the thing is I don't know anything about the way this usually works. I've been looking at various webcomic sites trying to find examples of others having done this; aside from a German translation of Something Positive that hasn't been updated in years, I haven't had much luck.

[Cary]

Interesting. I saw something in the documentation of the Webcomic plugin mentioning ease of website translation, but I'm pretty sure that's an on the fly thing for the website itself and wouldn't be able to handle the actual comic. I guess it would be nice for people in other countries to navigate the site and all in their native language, but they'd still have to read English to really get the comic portion.

As far as you doing any of it...I'd say if they want it translated that's their deal. Most folks barely have the time to do it once let alone in multiple languages.

[Rob]

The Abominable Charles Christopher appears to be translated into seven different languages.

http://www.abominable.cc/

The language controls are on the right next to the blog.

This is the only comic I know of that successfully does this on a repeatable basis and I suspect it probably has a lot to do with Karl Kerschl taking ownership of the work and making sure it gets done regardless of whether or not he speaks the language.

It looks like he uses volunteers but he probably rides herd over them pretty hard.

In every instance, every other big webcomic creator I've heard talk about translations has warned me off of it. The stories are all about volunteers getting bored, updates getting missed (remember how important those timely updates are) and even languages not really being fluently understood.

A real litany of tragedies.

I would say avoid it. But as far as saying that the fan should do everything...? I can't get on board with that. If you are going to do it you should support it or it will get away from you even faster. If you are getting a vibe from this guy that he's strong out of the gate but fades in the stretch I wouldn't even get into it.

To be honest, either way I would say no until I was in a position to pay someone to do it. And once I can pay someone to do it you're darn right the website will be mine. Along with the ad revenue and product sales.  ;)

[JR]

It's flattering to have someone want to translate your work, but I wouldn't hand over my stuff to someone unless I was in control.  Unless this person is offering to translate your writing so you can cut-and-paste your dialogue/captions onto an alternate-language version of your comic and onto a website which you handle, then I'd say "HELL'S NO!"  Make sure that you say it in all-caps, too.

[Gibson]

I'm with Rob about not making the fan do it all. They're doing a favour for you by offering to translate the work, not you doing them a favour by allowing them. They're willing to open your work up to a whole new audience, that's no small effort and some people get paid a lot of money to do that. If anything, you should be jumping up and down at the chance to make a new website. Make the site, put ads on it and work with this fan as much as possible to make it grow. Really, I can't stress enough how this opportunity is yours, not theirs, and you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and ask for more.

On top of that, it is your work and you should want to keep as much control over it as possible, and in my mind that includes setting up the website and maintaining it. Since I assume the fan will be doing the translating for free, the translating should be the only thing you're not doing. I'd be pretty freaked out if someone didn't want me involved, honestly. If you're not in control of it, you have no control over it.

That said, unless you had some frame of reference as to the level of this person's competency, you should be wary of letting their paws get on you work. It could be someone who has a poetic understanding of both original and translated languages, or it could be some 15 year old with Naruto posters and just thinks your comic is keen! Or, you know, anywhere in between. When someone is translating your work, they're a collaborator with you on it, and you shouldn't invite just anyone to help you on it.

If you do want to proceed in the way you're describing, meaning you have nothing to do with it other than providing the original material, then you should option it to him/her. Charge them money, either up front or on royalty. If you straight up let them do it for free, you're undervaluing your work...basically, you're saying your work is nothing. You might, as many do, say that you just enjoy doing it, but true as that may be, you're still saying your work is worth nothing.

[Lego M]

Thanks for the responses. I have to say I agree with the points you've made, and I'm glad I made the topic about it - it's always good to get input from others, especially when you have no idea what you're doing. XD

I am a little wary of it, since I don't know this person and I DO know that he's indeed a teenager. I'm also still uncomfortable with managing the site myself just because I don't know the language; even an extremely barebones website would still need navigation in Italian. A language plugin would probably work for that though... I'll have to look into that more and discuss it with him.

[Novil]

Someone wanted to translate "Sandra and Woo" to Spanish recently. I made a small website for the first 10 strips, but another reader who speaks Spanish has said that the translation is not very good so I axed it.

No fan translations of "Sandra and Woo" in the future for me. I explicitly disallow it now in the FAQ on our website.