Blake & Mortimer: The Cinebook Publications

Hello. I'm a French fan of Blake & Mortimer like Olrik, and I too come from their forum www.marquejaune.com. I'm sorry for the quality of my English.

Indeed, I've noticed that English terms appearing in the original French version are often changed, especially when they have a "bad" religious connotation.
So, for example:
- the terms "Lord!" or "Heaven(s)!" are saved
- but terms like "damned", "hell", and "devil", are systemically replaced: "damned" by "hang it", "devil" by "dickens", and so on.
I first thought that was because the English language of Edgar P. Jacobs (who didn't speak English) was very much different from what a real English-speaker would say, but I'm now asking you here, if there is an intention to sanitise the text, perhaps because it's going to be read by children?
What do you think about that ?

if there is an intention to sanitise the text, perhaps because it's going to be read by children?

I think you've hit the nail on the head with this statement (to use a colloquialism). I would guess it's less to do with the terms being deemed religious than it is to sanitize writing that would possibly be seen by young children. Either sets of terms would work in a British context - although 'What the Dickens' might seem a little archaic to modern ears.

Your English is fine - better than my French!

George

That’s interesting - I wonder if we will see the rest of the series this time?

Cinebook's web site has been updated with information about a second volume - The Mystery of the Great Pyramid to be published later this year.

There are a number of other translations announced, including Yoko Tsuno and something called Papyrus which looks interesting.

George

I see that there's now an Amazon page for Mystery of the Great Pyramid.

I'll be waiting for that then.

The second volume is now up on Amazon as well - to be released on the 3rd January. I haven't even got hold of a copy of The Yellow M yet; there's some catching up to be done!

Cinebook are publishing another Blake & Mortimer book in September. Interestingly they've jumped away from the 'core' books and have announced 'The Francis Blake Affair', a fairly recent volume by Benoit & Van Hamme.

George

..and another one in January, according to Amazon. This is also by Jean van Hamme - there's no name attached (other than volume 5) but I think he only did two anyway, so it must be L'étrange rendez-vous.

Cinebook really like Jean van Hamme!

George

Got my copy of "The Francis Blake Affair" today. Two further volumes have been confirmed as follows:
January 2009: The Strange Encounter
September 2009: S.O.S. Meteors

Back to E P Jacobs at last! Shame it is a year off though.

I can't track it down now, but I read an entry on a blog somewhere where it is stated that Cinebook have the rights to Valerian and will start printing English versions in 2010.

George

Yeah, given that B&M seem to be selling well, I'd hoped they might increase the release rate. At this rate it'll be another 7 years before the whole range is out (not counting any new books that might be produced in the meantime). I'm sure Lucky Luke is coming out a rate of about 4-5 books per year.


If this is true, then you've made my day George!