Detail from Francois Schuiten's poster art for the Brussels Comic Strip Festival 2019

Pipeline and Sundry: Translators, French Culture, and Schuiten’s Smurf

Welcome back to the too-long-missing “Pipeline and Sundry” feature. Sorry it’s been so long, but so many interesting links have popped up recently that I had to bring it back:

Who Translates the Translators?

Valerian and Laureline v14 The Living Weapons cover detail by Jean Claude Mezieres

We start with this interview with Cinebook translators Erica Olson Jeffrey and Jerome Saincantin, two names I know all too well from typing them into credits boxes for reviews here. They cover everything from what they’re job entails to the realities of translating to the state of the industry.

Saintcantin mentions that he wants to translate “Soda.” Count me in for that! I want to see more of that great Bruno (“Alone“) Gazzotti art!

Learning About France (Video Edition)

I’ve recently fallen deep into the YouTube rabbit hole for videos about French culture and language. I want to learn more French to make all those Instagram and Twitter posts I’m constantly translating quicker to read.

I discovered France 24, a network set up by the French government to bring French culture and news to other countries. This includes English programming and a particularly fun set of videos called “French Connections.” That link leads to the full play list of videos in the series.

It covers everything from “Are the French really rude?” to “Baguettes! We love baguettes. Don’t @ Us, Bro!” (I may have taken artistic license with those titles, but I bet it would increase their hits.)

And, yes, there’s even one about BD that I’ve included above.

A Brief Valerian Stop

Valerian and Laureline: The Future is Waiting cover by Mezieres

There’s another Christin/Mezieres “Valerian and Laureline” book I haven’t reviewed. It just came out at the beginning of the year. I didn’t realize it until just this week. Whoops. Cinebook is scheduled to have it in the fall. Titled “The Future Is Waiting,” it’s set after the events of the final album — and I don’t want to spoil that.

I learned of this from this recent interview with Jean-Claude Mezieres. Perhaps of greatest interest is this answer:

With Pierre, we have thought a lot about possible successions, but nothing is currently stopped. As for me to raise my age in a new adventure of 54 or 60 boards, it represents three years of work if all goes well!

The story seemed to have a solid enough ending, but this IS comics. We know how these things go. I thought Dorison and Lauffray did a great job with their book

A Couple Last Things

The Corto Maltese movie may be dead. Sad.

The new Asterix album will be out in just over 100 days. Keep counting those days down!

Francois Schuiten draws the poster for the Brussels Comic Strip Festival.  In the upper left corner, he draws a Smurf!

Have you ever wondered what a Francois Schuiten-drawn Smurf would look like? Wonder no more, as there’s one included in Schuiten’s poster for the Brussels Comic Strip Expo. Looks like a fun event — they even have balloon version of comic book characters for parade during the Expo.


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8 Comments

  1. Wasn’t there a Corto Maltese movie before? I have a faint memory of seeing one in a movie theater, ages ago

    1. Oh my gosh, I went to IMDB and there are SEVEN entries on there! Corto in Siberia is the one I’ve seen, so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do

      1. And some of the movies as well, in both languages

        Famous french actor Richard Berry does the voice in Franch, not sure who’s dubbing the english version

  2. Well, I just watched the first couple of movies and the experience is very disappointing, no wonder I forgot seeing it in a theater before. Despite being good actors, the voice work is incredibly flat and dull, and the animation is uninspired at best. Maybe Pratt’s art, in all its atmospheric genius, does not lend itself well to being put in motion on a screen.
    It makes me feel a bit like the Lord of the Rings movies, the interest of the books is not in the story per se but in the way they are written and they develop the universe and the characters of middle earth, something you can’t really translate on the big screen. Maybe also the reason why the watchmen movie was a failure.