Blake & Mortimer: English editions

Hi All,
Does anyone know where I can get English translations of Blake & Mortimer books ? Addresses or websites greatly recieved! I've read a few in french & German but it's kinda laborious
Thanks in advance !
Lachlan

Hi, Lachlan! Welcome aboard!

Unfortunately the B&M books have never been comprehensively available in English, and those few which have made it have now gone out of print. Currently nobody is producing English versions.

You either have to strike it lucky, and find them still on the shelf in some back-street comic shop, or try the internet, it seems.

So you could try eBay, or for these or any other books, abebooks.co.uk is a site which offers searches across a wide selection of second-hand book-shops.

An alternative might be to look for the Nelvana cartoons - they are availale on DVD in R2 on the continent, and have both French and English audio; they are well done (in the manner of the Tintin cartoons), and might be close enough to the books to allow you to follow the goings on.

There is a secret cavern where two of the English translations are to be found, and they've been selling them for quite a while...

Try at: http://www.bookpalace.com The best way to find them is to just type 'blake and mortimer' into their search box, though the path seems to be Home: Graphic Novels: European: Blake & Mortimer. They're £5 each.

Also look out at http://www.abebooks.co.uk... oh, as Simon already mentioned.

French editions available from amazon.fr (much nicer quality).

thanks for the leads, I have now bought the DVD versions from Amazon.fr, reasonably priced too !

Thanks again

Lachlan

Glad to have been of service. I’ve only seen two of the cartoons right through, so I’d be interested what you think of them.

Just came across this auction on eBay for an English edition of La Marque Jaune - I was previously unaware of an English translation of this title. Does anyone know which volumes have been produced in all ? To my knowledge there's The Yellow "M" (La Marque Jaune), Atlantis Mystery (L'énigme de l'Atlantide) and Time Trap (Le piège diabolique).

According to an index of European comics in translation that appeared in Panelhouse Magazine (Aug 1995), Editions Blake & Mortimer published The Yellow M, The Secret of the Swordfish 1-3 and the Mystery of the Great Pyramid 1-3. Comcat published less-than-satisfactory editions of The Time Trap and Atlantis Mystery.

I'm not certain how accurate this is, as it depends where the compilers got their information from. It is not unknown for a publisher to list on the back of the book 'Also available...' for books they haven't actually published yet, and then never do (eg. the Comcat Yoko Vic and Paul books, I suspect*). Not to mention the fact that Le Mystere de la Grande Pyramide is only 2 volumes (unless an English language translation converted it to 3..?)

I've got deja-vu... have I said this before somewhere? I couldn't find it on a search...

* Edit: Actually, just checked, the Yoko books say 'coming soon', but I don't think they ever did.

I've a copy of this book. The back of the book indeed says:

_The Adventures of Blake and Mortimer_
The Secret of the Swordfish Part 1
The Secret of the Swordfish Part 2
The Secret of the Swordfish Part 3
The Mystery of the Great Pyramid Part 1
The Mystery of the Great Pyramid Part 2
The Yellow 'M'

_Coming Soon_
The Atlantis Enigma

And the spine is numbered 6, for what that's worth. I've never had so much as a sniff of the other volumes though, and only stumbled across the copy I have by accident.

I've also a copy of an English-language Buck Danny book, which never appears in any list of published volumes anywhere, so who knows what could be out there.

There were two Yoko, Vic & Paul books, published by Comcat weren't there? Still not read them......

George

How faithful is the translation ? I'd imagine, since it comes from the Blake & Mortimer label, that it's fairly close to the original. I wasn't fond of the Comcat editions, the printing seemed rather poor quality and I almost needed a magnifying glass to read the lettering. It's a shame, because the artwork is superb and should be far larger than it ended up as.

Sorry that this is getting a bit off-topic, but how big are the standard French albums - are they the same as a Tintin book ? I've got the Espadon integrale edition, which is larger than a Tintin book and is very clear and easy to read, and beautifully presented. In an effort to bring this back on-topic of the English editions, personally (and I don't know whether it's just me) I'd have preferred Le Secret de l'Espadon to have been titled The Secret of the Espadon, instead of Swordfish - the title doesn't seem to work as well for me in English.

There's one of the Yoko, Vic & Paul books in my local library, but since it's another Comcat one, I don't think I should make my eyes suffer like that again ...

So far as the translation is concerned, it's hard for me to say as I can't speak French. However, it *feels* right, if that's anything to go by. I remember being unhappy with the Americanisms added to the Comcat books, and don' think I noticed anything similar in this one. The overal quality is quite good - and none of those stiff covers that made Comcat's output seem ever weirder.

Physically the book is about a cm taller than a Tintin book (phew, on-topic!) and 1.5cm wider. The art too is similarly expanded. Inside the back cover there are a couple of nice rough sketches for different versions of the cover.

George