the comic is dead, long live the comic!

Hey!

The comic book translation job is over, and wow am I glad. I never thought I'd see the day when I cursed any job related to comics, but wow, this was a hum-zinger! Warning to people starting out in the translation biz or even old hands getting their first "manga" job: It takes a lot longer to read a simple shonen manga (comics for boys) and translate one page than you would think! This blog is my take on how long it takes to translate comics, and what you should watch out for when considering what price you are willing to take on a comic translation project.

It took me about one and a half days to read the thing, which was a scant 363 pages long. Usually I like to take my time and really let comic book imagery sink in while I read, so I was surprised that it took so long with all the engines running. I imagine it would take a lot longer to read if I stopped to admire the pictures along the way...

As for the translation, I supposed I averaged about 20 pages per day. That was after reading it once through. And to think, I started the project thinking I could do the thing in a week! A month and a half would be closer to the truth. In the end, it wound up eating up my weekends and most of my weekday hours. It was worth it in some ways, because the story was interesting. But if you are still wondering how much you should be charging for translation, beware. Most people old enough to have developed the skills required to translate a manga professionally will probably need somewhere between USD 1,500 to USD 2,500 a month to live, so if it takes you a month or more to read and translate one, make sure that is your budget for the project.

Of course everyone has a different pace. If you have worked through any business or legal documents, you can compare your general speed to mine: I average between 3000 and 4000 Japanese characters per work day (depending on content and how focused I am that day). If you are averaging anywhere similar to me, expect to spend at least one very full month on a 365 page shonen comic. And I imagine comics for adults take even longer...Ok, well, I am back in the flow this week with some contract jobs, so I will get back to you with some interesting legal terms later.

Oh, by the way, my first baby is due any day now!! If I take a horribly long and extended break from blogging, you can guess that I have probably become a sleepless but incredibly loving pop!

memes

The comic book translation project is on hold for a week while I work on an essay about using memes to describe art history. Memes. I have always meant to read up on memes, because it seems to be a very interesting concept, whether memes can actually be said to "exist" or not. Basically, they are units of information which replicate and propagate within a culture, as genes replicate and propagate within the environment. Just as genes "use" humans (and other living creatures) as vessels to carry them on their reproducing path, memes "use" people as vessels in the same way. I do not fully understand the concept yet, but I am having fun learning about it.

Incidentally, meme is written in katakana like so: ミーム. And the Japanese for gene is: 遺伝子 (idenshi). Natural selection, a word you should always seek to know in any foreign language you become proficient in, is 自然淘汰 (shizen touta).

This essay is about 16,000 characters long, so I should be working on it for a few days yet... I will post updates when I run across interesting concepts and language related tid bits.