Sapristi!

I finally struck comedic gold. As all zero of my readers can tell you, I've never been more than a mildly funny guy writing sparsely about comics. Until now.

I have found a nifty tool called Lost in Translation. Its whole point is translating and back-translating a line TEN TIMES through Babel Fish. The result is incomprehensible. But goddamn funny (pun intended, you'll see). Especially when applied to something that ALREADY is pretty f'in funny. Yes, I'm talking about All-Star Goddamn Batman.

So I took these two panels, which set up the best line of the series so far (followed closely by "Jerk off, sperm bank -- which translates as "The function, battery excludes the clear one from the sperm batteries." SPERM BATTERIES!) and grinded them through the translator. So, if you wish, I invite you to follow me into the wild world of translation.



This tool, folks, takes Sin City with a cape-like dialogue and twists it to Shakespearean grandeurs. "Exactly if this idiot does know, can fly". This is only a set-up for what comes next, thought, as nothing can withstand the wrath of Babel Fish. Not even the word "Batmobile", which, I think is pretty much untranslatable. With a simple click of the mouse, the Batmobile becomes the "Battery-he-part of furniture". Jack Kirby on crack couldn't come up with a better name for Batman's vehicle.


Now this almost warrants a redesign of Church's wallpaper. Batman commands you people to stop this "examination of him" that evaluates the "sapristi extreme of the his" and to stop calling his "chied-part of furniture (read: batmobile)" an automatic rifle. Okay, man. If you say so. It must be the sex with Black Canary that wrecked his brains. But wait. It comes. The one line that can shatter the Internet in half. For real. "I am BATMAN sapristi and I can my auto sapristi with that designate, which HELL I REQUIRE!".

Someone please call Frank Miller and show that to him. Because I would give anything... ANYTHING to see the next issue of ASGDB written in Babelized dialogue. And if they don't want to, then at least replace all the goddamns by sapristis. Because Batman is never badass enough if he doesn't speak like Batroc ze lepair.

Post-Scriptum: Did you notice that most of the time, the lines end up talking about batteries or furniture? Weird.

Inflation, Shminflation

I am a management student. Therefore, I can understand social issues like inflation. From 1950 to 2000, inflation has stayed between 0 and 10% annually. This is a fact. Look it up on wikipedia. And these are perfectly normal numbers.

But not in the DC Universe. The following comes from Batman and the Outsiders #5, from 1983. This is from the original.



For those who can't bother clicking: "Are YOU in luck! For only 75¢, you have a ringside seat for the deaths of Batman and the Outsiders AND The New Teen Titans... Now is that a BARGAIN or what?" If I were a kid purchasing a comic at that time, I would definitely believe that I was in luck. This is a perfectly reasonable price for the deaths of 14 characters. This is a little bit over 5¢ per character, or, if you would like to break it down differently, 75¢ for the death of Batman and 13 bonus free deaths.

Now, here's what happens in the new Showcase Presents : Batman and the Outsiders.



Again, for you lazy asses: "Are YOU in luck! For only $16.99, you have a ringside seat for the deaths of Batman and the outsiders AND The New Teen Titans... Now is that a BARGAIN or what?" Frankly? No, it isn't. Notwithstanding the fact that your smart-ass editor decided to deliberately change a classic, there are FIFTEEN issues after this one in the collection. A kid could make the math in his head by noticing that his right hand holds much more paper than his left hand, and that if there is still that many paper in his right hand, then surely Batman won't die. And $16.99 for a reprint of Batman + 13 other people's deaths is a bit pricey, if you ask me. And if they think the readers are stupid enough to call them up and complain that, contrary to what they've read, they have paid much more than ¢75 for the complete volume, then why don't they change the prices on each original cover so that they make equal parts of $16.99? Hey, it's gotta be adapted, or else no one's going to understand!

Phew. Okay, now, back to the subject at hand. If a comic that cost 75¢ in 1983 now costs $2.99, that makes about 300% inflation since 1983. Wow, pretty crazy huh? Now consider the mighty wonders of the DC Universe economics. A comic that cost 75¢ in 1983 costs $16.99 right now. That makes about 1700% inflation.

No wonder the people of Gotham City are so poor (it was really the point I was trying to make all along).

Concerning the Vampire Hunter D novels

I have recently finished reading Vampire Hunter D : The Stuff of Dreams, the fifth in a series of (so far) eight english books, of a total of seveteen in japanese.

And everytime I decide to read one of those, I have to kick myself in the butt to do so. Why? Shouldn'reading about the half-human, half-vampire (or dhampir) son of Dracula that has a talking left hand and that battles monsters on the Frontier be the best thing ever? In theory, yes. In practice, not so much.

I have read five Vampire Hunter D novels. And not one single time have I understood the resolution of the story. Not ONE single time. In five books. I am ready to acknowledge that I might be stupid, but after more than 1000 pages, I really don't think it's my fault anymore. At least not entirely.

Each and everytime, I understand everything until the last 20 or so pages, where D does things that have no sense whatsoever, and leaves on his cyborg horse (Come on! Cyborg Horse! CYBORG!). And everytime I hope that it's going to be clear, that I'm going to understand, this time. Uh uh. Not this time, bro. And not the one after that either.

The real question here is: is it the author's fault or the translator's fault? Who knows? I don't speak japanese , so I have no way of knowing. Either one of them, or heck, maybe even both, get fed up within the last 20 pages and start rambling about ethereal essences and dark fates, and then I close the book with puzzled eyes and vow never to read one again.

Except I still have two more to read. And I can assure you that one of these days I'm gonna say to myself : "But what if THIS one is actually comprehensible?". And then you'll see another article like this one.

Bottom line, don't buy these books. Unless you have a very high functoning, MODOK-like brain. Then please buy them and e-mail me. Pretty please.

Pop quiz

Who cut this poor man's fingers?


Answer.

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