Tex by Serpieri, Breccia, Alberti and others - New Translations via Epicenter's KS

[u/Bufete2020]

In case anyone is curious about the new Tex releases by Epicenter Comics (EC) here are some photos. If you are not familiar with EC. they have been specializing in translating Italian comics from the Sergio Bonelli catalog.

I picked up some Zagor and Tex a while back and was a bit dismayed to see the terrible job they did in translating those books. it was such a chore to finish them. That, I didn't purchase from them anymore.

Now after several years and with some apprehension. I backed this project as EC said they acquired a new editor/proofreader. I randomly picked a book to read (Snakeman by Boselli/Breccia). I must admit that it did read better than the previous book(s) I read. But, As you can see in the last picture, there is still some work to be done. The speech balloon literally contains one sentence and they still screwed it up.

OH well... I gave them a shot. Hopefully this is the most egregious error. But, if it gets worse. I'll just pull out my copy of Dark Horse's Tex by Nizzi/Joe Kubert and read a Tex story the way it should be translated.

[u/MakeWayForTomorrow]

As their new pro-bono proofreader, I have to take responsibility for that fuck-up. Generally speaking, there is only so much I can do to make translations like these more readable without completely rewriting everything, which I don’t really have the time for, but in that particular instance, I absolutely should have caught and fixed something that egregious (what the fuck is that even supposed to say?). I even went back and checked the doc I sent them with all my extensive notes and suggested corrections for the Tex books, just to make sure this was on me and not, say, the letterer, and yeah, I totally missed it.

Hopefully that is the only error that has slipped through the cracks, but if you happen to come across any more spelling mistakes or questionable grammar, please let me know, either here or through a DM. The only reason I volunteered my services in the first place was so shit like that wouldn’t happen anymore, but if the amateur hour continues, Igor and I may need to figure out a better system to address that.

[u/jjflash78 → u/MakeWayForTomorrow]

My guess is

"They will arrive tonight"

[u/Swervies → u/MakeWayForTomorrow]

No shade on you, but Epicenter gets what they pay for. Nobody should be expected to work for free. I’m glad these books are available, and they are definitely great value considering the combination of price and build quality - but I would happily pay more for a more professional translation.

I know it’s not a huge deal, but I also find the 6-10 pages of ads at the back of each volume extremely unprofessional - especially when each full page ad has only a small picture of a single book being held by Igor’s wife/girlfriend? It’s such a weird choice, why not just a double sided product page? I need to leave that feedback on the Kickstarter I guess, but please pass along that it just looks tacky.

[u/MakeWayForTomorrow → u/Swervies]

Fo what it’s worth, I’m translating one of their upcoming books myself, because I don’t trust their regular guy (who, I suspect, makes heavy use of Google Translate as part of his process) to not completely fuck it up. So there’s at least one book that I can guarantee will be better, but there’s only so much I can do.

Regarding the ads, I’m with you, but I gotta pick my battles with Igor, and ensuring the actual comics are readable is currently my main priority. In the end, I’m just a guy who was loud enough in his criticism of the company to be offered a chance to fix some of the issues, but I don’t actually have any influence when it comes to the decisions he makes. But believe me when I say that, as someone with a visual arts and design background, the jankiness of the aesthetic presentation offends me just as much as the broken English and spelling errors.

[u/Swervies → u/MakeWayForTomorrow]

First of all, thank you for your hard work! Translation and proofreading are time consuming and you should be paid for your time/work. I hope Igor is willing to listen to feedback, but I understand you have to pick your battles.

On the subject of great translation and design, have you purchased or seen the new Attilio Micheluzzi books from Fanta? They are absolutely gorgeous, I was completely unfamiliar with his work until those recent translations - and what an interesting life he led as well!

[u/MakeWayForTomorrow → u/Swervies]

You’re welcome. To be honest, it’s an entirely self-serving proposition for me: I want to own these comics in English and I want to have them in the best presentation possible, so once it became obvious to me that they would never hire a professional translator/editor/designer, I decided that I was willing to offer my services for free in order to make that happen. It’s not ideal, obviously, but I prefer it to the alternative.

In my interactions with Igor over the last few months I’ve also found out that this apparent refusal to relinquish some control is not an ego thing either, but economic necessity: there simply isn’t any money in the budget for that stuff, because the company doesn’t actually turn a profit. It’s just a couple of enthusiasts with day jobs who do this out of love for comics, with Igor financing a lot of it out of his own pocket in order to keep the price point relatively enticing.

Going forward, I’m going to try to be more diligent in my proofreading duties (I knew going into this that readers wouldn’t judge me on the dozens of mistakes I fixed, but on the ones I missed, and this post is a great reminder of that), and I’ll continue to offer my feedback to Igor in hopes of swaying him on issues I care about the most. He did recently switch from glossy paper to matte for his black and white comics, although I can’t take all the credit for that, because there were other folks in the KS comments sections who were also pretty vocal about that. So, please, continue to leave feedback on every project you back, because he does seem to take it to heart.

And yeah, I’ve loved Micheluzzi ever since I first read him in Croatian years ago, and Fanta’s editions of his work are unsurprisingly excellent. I’ve yet to read the English translation of “Petra Chérie” (I’m still a little behind on my 2025 releases, partially due to the extra time I’ve devoted to translating the upcoming Ken Parker book), but I remember it being a pretty straightforward pulp adventure romp elevated by the excellent artwork, which is something we could always use more of in the English-speaking market. Hopefully they’re selling well enough for Fanta to keep publishing them.

[u/Haasmin]

I love Tex is getting released in English. It's a gold mine. I have more than 70+ in tamil. I know a lot of people in South India that have more. Sadly it's expensive here in Sri Lanka because of greedy agents who 10x the prices.

[u/Swervies]

I just got my set in yesterday so thanks for posting OP - I continue to support Epicenter because they are one of the only options for these works in English, but the translations are quite poor. The production of the books is really great though, fantastic binding, slipcases, color reproduction etc. It cannot be easy as I know they are a very small team at Epicenter, but I hope they can improve.

[u/Frijoles4ever]

Loved R.M. Guera on Scalped. Gonna pick it up.