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The Concept of Fidelity in Comics Translation

Érico Gonçalves de Assis1

Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brasil

Brief History of Translation Fidelity

In the nineteenth century, Friedrich Schleiermacher proposed a distinction between translations
that carry the reader towards the author—trying to create “the same image, the same impression
that [the translator], who knows the original language, obtained through the work he now seeks
to communicate to his readers”2—and translations that carry the author towards the reader—so
that “the translation of a Latin author into German, for example, would speak as a German
would have spoken or written to Germans”3 (56). These are different translation strategies that
lead to different concepts of fidelity and correspondence to the meaning of the source text.
Schleiermacher preferred the first option: to be faithful to the author and lead the reader toward
the foreign.

In the twentieth century, Walter Benjamin stated once again that word-for-word
translations affect how meaning is understood, but also that sense-for-sense translations demand
further provisions, as they may encourage “the unrestrained license of bad translators.” His
solution is presented in a metaphor:

Fragments of a vessel that are to be glued together must match one another in the smallest
details, although they need not be like one another. In the same way a translation, instead
of imitating the sense of the original, must lovingly and in detail incorporate the original's
way of meaning, thus making both the original and the translation recognizable as
fragments of a greater language, just as fragments are part of a vessel. (260)

Antoine Berman, proposing that faithfulness is an element that wrestles with

ethnocentrism—“capturing a sense always affirms the primacy of one language”4 (45)—advocates
a translator’s ethics that consists in “recognizing and accepting the Other as an Other” (95) or
“[the] desire to open the Foreigner as Foreigner to his language space” (97). Faithful translators
would be those who acknowledge and brand the text as a foreign experience, presenting this
1 The author would like to thank Jeffrey Longard for the expert proof-reading of this text.
2“ Das nämliche Bild, den nämlichen Eindruck, welchen er selbst durch die Kenntniß der Ursprache von dem Werke, wie es ist, gewonnen,
sucht er den Lesern mitzutheilen.” (Translations into English in this article, except where noted in the text or references, are
my own.)
3“… aber die Übersetzung ihren römischen Autor zum Beispiel reden lassen will wie er als Deutscher zu Deutschen würde geredet und

geschrieben haben.”
4 “a captação do sentido afirma sempre a primazia de uma língua.”

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foreign aspect to the reader. Berman’s stance is very close to Schleiermacher’s.

Eugene Nida takes an opposing position in the fidelity debate and opts to highlight his
notion of “equivalence.” The concept is broken into two tendencies: formal equivalence or being
respectful of the form of the source language, and dynamic equivalence, in which “the relationship
between receptor and message should be substantially the same as that which existed between
the original receptors and the message” (Munday 1814-1818). As tendencies, the different modes
of equivalence are not in opposition—they represent a spectrum ranging from a fidelity to the
form of the source text (particularly applicable to Bible translation) to a fluency of the target text in
the target language. George Steiner, in After Babel, proposed degrees of fidelity to be stipulated for
each and every translation project—there could not be one and only one concept of fidelity for
literary texts, business documents and church dogma.

Brazilian author Francis Henrik Aubert approaches fidelity in translation from a

pragmatic standpoint, drawing on the ideas of “pursuit”—fidelity as a vector, as an ideal the
translator should strive for—and of “(unstable) commitment” between translator and source text
author:

If not for the pursuit of fidelity, the systematic and stubborn search to fathom—even
though in vain—what the original author “meant”, to find means to express this supposed
communicative intent, there would be no translation, no dialogue, no intertextuality, no
intersubjectivity, but only several intercrossed, unconnected, mutually incompatible
speeches. Fidelity in translation is, therefore, characterized by the merging of a certain
degree of diversity and a certain degree of identity; it will be, not by any intrinsic or
random incapacity, but by definition, by essence, an (unstable) commitment between these
two seemingly antagonistic tendencies, which achieves its completeness in this
commitment and this instability.5 (77)

Lastly, Mathieu Guidère advocates that the balance between these types of fidelity depends
on the translator’s objective in each translation project:

The central issue of loyalty is “polarity”: the text to be translated is incorrectly perceived as
a combination of “background” and “form”, or even of “words” and “sense”, when it is
actually a whole that must be apprehended in relation to a particular context and according
to a specific purpose. If the general framework of the translation is well put, fidelity is no

5
“Não houvesse a tentativa de fidelidade, a busca sistemática e obstinada de atinar—ainda que em vão—com o que o autor original ‘quis
dizer’, de encontrar meios de expressão para essa intenção comunicativa suposta, também não haveria tradução, diálogo, intertextualidade,
intersubjetividade, mas, tão-somente, discursos diversos, cruzados, desconexos, mutuamente incompatíveis. A fidelidade na tradução
caracteriza-se, pois, pela conjuminação de um certo grau de diversidade com um certo grau de identidade; ela será, não por deficiência intrínseca
ou fortuita, mas por definição, por essencialidade, um compromisso (instável) entre essas duas tendências aparentemente antagônicas, atingindo
a sua plenitude nesse compromisso e nessa instabilidade.”

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longer a problem: it becomes a choice among many within the range of conscious actions
of the translator.6 (31)

From this brief route through concepts of translation fidelity, we are able to summarize
that: (1) the translator’s fidelity to the source text spans a spectrum that goes from word fidelity (or
Nida’s formal equivalence) to sense fidelity. (2) The translator’s fidelity to the reader constitutes an
ethical stance (cf. Schleiermacher; Benjamin; Berman), that ranges from conveying the
strangeness/foreignness of the source text in the target text, to erasing this
strangeness/foreignness and domesticating the source text…(3) The translator’s fidelity to the author
is a commitment—an unstable one—and also a pursuit (cf. Aubert) to reproduce in the target
language the reading experience other readers might have in the source text language. Conversely,
the translator may not commit to or pursue this goal of reproducing a reading experience, but
instead can aim to create a new one. (4) These three instances of fidelity are relative to each
translation project (cf. Steiner; Guidère), in the sense that, according to the translator’s
understanding and working conditions (that is, who is commissioning the translation, the social-
cultural-political context etc.), each translation will have different levels of fidelity to the source
text, to the reader and to the author. These ideas also apply to comic book translation. The authors
cited above are mainly focusing on literary translation, and comic translation has a set of
particularities which singles it out as a translation practice. To understand them, we need first to
understand the characteristics of comics as a medium.

The System of Comics

Thierry Groensteen argues that defining comics is doomed to neglect examples of visual narratives
that, throughout history, were (or will be) considered comics—there are always efforts to include
new visual narratives in the comics category, thus bending proposed definitions. Therefore,
Groensteen catalogues visual narrative elements or expedients available to the medium, to describe
what he calls “the system of comics.” Panels, frames, and their functions (closing, separative,
structuring, expressive, readerly), hyperframes (lines or decoration that encompass the grouping of
panels on a page), site (the precise location of each panel on a page), double-page spreads, strips,
speech balloons, insets and page layouts are some of these expedients. Although they are not
present in every instance or may be used in a variety of ways in the full range of comics, these are
elements that Groensteen considers generally representative in the medium’s history.

6
“La question centrale de problématique de la fidélité est celle de la ‘polarité’: le texte à traduire est perçu de façon erronée comme une
combinaison de ‘fond’ et de ‘forme’ ou encore de ‘mots’ et de ‘sens’, alors qu’il est en réalité un tout qui doit être appréhrendé dans sa relation à
un contexte particulier et en fonction d’une finalité précise. Si le cadre général de la traduction est bien posé, la fidélité cesse d’être un problème:
elle devient un choix parmi d’autres sur la gamme des actions conscientes du traducteur.”

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The key feature or “foundational principle” of comics, according to Groensteen, is iconic

solidarity: “I define this as interdependent images that, participating in a series, present the double
characteristic of being separated (…)[but at the same time also being] plastically and semantically
over-determined by the fact of their coexistence in praesentia” (18). The interdependence of images
and meanings is the feature that constitutes a narrative among partitioned images on the same page
or along many pages of the same comic story. According to Groensteen, iconic solidarity is
developed during the making of a comic through image repetition and many types of connections
between these images that the comic author determines in his or her work. These are the grounds
for the notions of spatio-topia, page layout, arthrology, breakdown and braiding.

Spatio-topia concerns the spatial features of each panel, such as its format, size, and position
on the page’s surface, which determine its relation to other panels (Groensteen 21, 28-29). Page
layout refers to the page framework and how panels are distributed; it fits into spatio-topia in
accordance with desired narrative goals (21). Arthrology relates to the construction of connections
between the elements of each page and within the comic as a whole. There are two types of
arthrology: restricted arthrology, between contiguous images, and general arthrology, between “translinear
or distant images,” scattered throughout a comic story (22). Breakdown and braiding are two
operations that aid these connections: one “breaks” the narrative into panels and pages, while the
other “braids” extra connections that arise from repetition (of characters, objects, settings,
linework, and colourwork) throughout the comic (Groensteen 23, 147).

The system of comics that Groensteen offers is an attempt to detail steps in comic book
making and to simultaneously develop analysis frameworks for narratives in the comics medium.
Among many authors who seek to treat comics from a theoretical stance (for instance: Will Eisner
in Comics and Sequential Art; Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics; Neil Cohn in The Visual
Language of Comics; Hannah Miodrag in Comics and Language), Groensteen has the most complex
schema, and the closest to the semiotics-based approach applied to another visual medium: film.
The comparison to film underscores the multiple elements of comics: [I]n an image-based story, as
in film or comics, each element, whether it is visual, linguistic, or aural, participates fully in the
narration. Christian Metz had the upper hand and one can’t say it more clearly: “in a narrative film,
everything becomes narrative, even the grain of the film or the tone of voice” (Groensteen 11).

By taking Groensteen’s approach to comics, I seek to emphasize that there is a diverse

array of operations that constitute words and sense in a comic narrative. As an image-based narrative
which may or may not use linguistic signs (a coded language), the words and sense (in the literary
context proposed by authors that discuss translation fidelity) of a comic book arise from all the
image-connection procedures listed by Groensteen. When it comes to comics translation, these
connections are the features that should be highlighted.

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Comics Translation
One might think that linguistic signs—coded language—are the only aspects that matter for a
comics translator, and should be considered apart from non-linguistic signs such as what is drawn.
Operationally, yes, it could be said that comics translation consists in locating linguistic signs
written over the page (in speech balloons, captions, onomatopoeia, other lettering spread
throughout the background) and rewriting those in another language. The non-linguistic, picture
portion of the page, is usually left unchanged.

Comics theory, though, posits that linguistic and non-linguistic signs cannot be considered
apart in narrative terms. Groensteen, for instance, maintains that the connection between page
elements is the foundational narrative principle of the comics medium. Therefore, when a comics
translator thinks that he/she will engage exclusively with linguistic signs, in actual fact he/she is
acting over the whole page composition, and thus disrupting the narrative connections that
organize words and sense in a comic story.

Federico Zanettin considers comics translation from a multisystemic or multimodal stance:

[I]t seems important to stress that comics are primarily visual texts which may (or may not)
include a verbal component, and that in the translation of comics interlingual
interpretation (‘translation proper’) happens within the context of visual interpretation.
Language is only one of the systems (in as far as we are happy with defining language as a
system) involved in the translation of comics. […] The translation of comics into another
language is primarily their translation into another visual culture, so that not only are
different natural languages such as English, Japanese, Italian or French involved, but also
different cultural traditions and different sets of conventions for comics. In other words,
the translation of comics does not only imply the interlinguistic (or intralinguistic)
replacement of verbal material. (12)

Zanettin’s comment about translating between different visual cultures is part of a current
discourse in Translation Studies that seeks to soundly bind the complementarity between linguistic
signs and non-linguistic signs in multimodal expressions. José Yuste Frías emphasizes: “It is time
to have done with the old opposition between text and image in translation in order to put an end
to the assumption that the translator should only concern himself with text.”7 (299). By reinforcing
the differences in how different cultures interpret lines, colours, gestures and other visual language
elements, the same author argues:

7
“Il est temps d’en finir avec la vieille opposition entre le texte et l’image en traduction pour cesser de croire que le traducteur ne doit s’occuper
que du texte.”

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The text-image coupling in translation is not a “meld”, nor a “hybrid” mixture in which
text is “subordinate” to images or images only “illustrate” text. The new iconotextual entity
that arises from the text-image union is mixed, crossbred, and in it the verbal element is
100% present, just as the picture element is 100% present.8 (300)

Other authors, like Klaus Kaindl, Nadine Celotti and Michal Borodo, underscore the
multimodality approach to translating comics. The latter, for instance, demonstrates how image-
reading may lead to different interpretations of speech balloons and, therefore, effectively different
translation decisions: Borodo analyses two differing Polish translations of the Franco-Belgian
comic Thorgal, comparing “accurate” translation decisions in “purely linguistic terms” in one of
these translations to another where the decisions are “more coherent and intelligible in the context
of the multimodal nature of the comic book as a whole” (32). Kaindl not only underscores the link
between the linguistic and pictorial modes, but also typography, “the interface between language
and pictures” (274). This is what Celotti tries to sum up when she calls the comics translator “a
semiotic investigator” (33).

To illustrate the complementarity possibilities, the two-panel sequence in Fig. 1, from

Bryan Lee O’Malley Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, explores an ambiguity with the word item—which, in
this instance, means both “couple” and the objects a player may collect in games. We understand
that the goal is to create a comical situation due to how the male character misinterprets the word,
thus setting up a conflict between what the first panel characters meant by item and the pictures in
his thought balloons. Narration occurs in this complementarity between dialogue and pictures, and
that is what constitutes words and sense in this excerpt.

Fig. 1: From Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. (Source: O’Malley 173)

In Brazilian Portuguese, for instance, there is no easy way to capture the ambiguity of the

8 “Le couple texte-image en traduction n’est ni un mélange ‹fusionné› ni un ensemble ‹hybride› où le texte serait ‹subordonné› à l’image et
l’image simplement ‹illustrerait› le texte. La nouvelle entité iconotextuelle formée par le couple texte-image est une entité mixte, métisse, où
l’élément verbal est présent à 100% et l’élément visuel l’est aussi à 100%.”

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word item that the excerpt proposes. Among possible translation solutions for this scene, there
could be another misunderstanding and comical situation using the same references: young couple,
an absent-minded character, video games (Scott Pilgrim is a love story largely influenced by video
games iconography and logics, so puns like this should be retained in translation). The
misunderstanding that the translator creates, though, will still be harnessed to the non-linguistic
signs that figure in the male character’s thought balloon (Super Mario items); the preferable strategy
is to leave the non-linguistic signs intact.

The reason why non-linguistic signs should be left unchanged are cultural, economical and,
we might as well say, artistic. According to Valerio Rota, comics readers understand pictures as the
direct contact to the original author’s intentions. Even if the comic story comes from a different
visual culture, the drawing component is highlighted as essential to comics and it would be
considered an act of disrespect to the reader if it was changed. The drawn page itself is considered
a plastic, artistic work, irrespective of its narrative function, and partly preserved for these reasons.
This level of non-linguistic sign conservation, according to Rota, is present, for example, when
manga reading direction (right to left) is left unaltered in translated comics or when a linguistic sign
is not translated because of its own aesthetic expressiveness—as when it has particular linework or
when it is part of the composition with the non-linguistic signs on the page: “Sometimes, these
textual elements are considered an integral part of the graphics, and altering them is hardly
tolerated by the mainstream reading public. Therefore, some Italian publishing houses keep the
titles of the stories graphically unaltered, simply putting a translation of them at the bottom of the
page” (Rota 85). Rota also highlights that this appreciation for “unaltering” non-linguistic signs is
also dictated by economic criteria (84). Altering words is indispensable for the translation process
and facilitated by graphic software, but altering non-linguistic signs would imply more work hours,
more graphic skills and possibly the hiring of another professional, like a new artist, to perform
these adjustments.

Preserving the non-linguistic signs, though, should be considered as a tendency, not as a

rule. Moreover, it is a contemporary tendency, which does not encapsulate the whole history of
comics translation. The artistic status of comics drawings, the accelerated translation rate, and
technological development in graphic design come from the 1980s and 1990s. Most current
comics adopt a production process in the source language where balloons, captions, onomatopoeia
and other linguistic signs are digitally applied over the drawn page and may be digitally erased,
relocated or altered with no harm to the non-linguistic signs on the page, thus encouraging and
facilitating the tendency to leave non-linguistic signs unaltered.

Zanettin, Rota and Kaindl, though, present many examples of comics where the non-
linguistic signs were altered to conform to certain visual cultures or public segments.

When comics are translated, a change of genre, readership, publication format (or a
combination of the three) may be involved which will govern primary translation choices

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[…]. For example, a change in the form of production and distribution (e.g. serial to non-
serial publication, publication in newspaper vs. publication in magazine) may lead to
different translation strategies and audience design. (Zanettin 8)

Fig. 2: Action Comics n.1 (1938), p. 1 Fig. 3: Action Comics n. 1 (1938), p. 2 (Source:
(Source: http://www.reading- http://www.reading-room.net/Action1/Action1P02.html)
room.net/Action1/Action1P01.html)

Fig. 4: A Gazetinha, 17/12/1938 (Source:

http://museudosgibis.blogspot.com.br/2011/06/serie
-primeira-aparicao-do-heroi.html)

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Fig. 5: Daredevil n. 231, n/p (1986)

Fig. 6: Superaventuras Marvel n. 66, p. 24

(1987)

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There are cases, however, where it can be argued that transformation of a non-linguistic sign is
necessary to preserve coherence. Yuste Frías highlights a panel from the Astérix en Hispanie comic
album in which one of the characters, lying on the ground after his defeat by the lead hero, lifts his
right thumb (Fig. 7). Yuste Frías underlines that this gesture has no universal meaning and
criticizes its non-translation—non-redrawing, for instance—when it is published in other
countries:

Fig. 7: From “Astérix en Hispanie.” (Source: Yuste Frías 264).

The current common meaning attributed to the thumb, specifically the raised thumb from
a clenched fist, is approval, success, triumph. This could not be applied to the whole of
Europe, as in Greece (as well as in the Middle East, West Africa and South America), to
raise a thumb would be like raising the middle finger in France. Therefore, what looks like
a universally positive gesture is extremely offensive in other cultures.9 (Yuste Frías 264)

Valerio Rota also considers lettering and the physical dimensions of the comic as
meaningful elements, echoing what Kaindl (“Thump, Whizz, Boom”) refers to as “typography.”
Character morphology—or “graphic peculiarity,” as Rota says—has its own meaning:

[Texts in comics] are not simply a comment on the picture, but are an integral part of it.
Texts in comics are not the mere transcription of the characters’ speeches: they are a
graphic representation of them. Before being something to be read (i.e. texts), they are
something to be seen: pictures themselves, which contribute to the visual equilibrium of
the page. In fact, their graphic peculiarity comes before their textual quality. Far from
being a mere ‘simulation’ of sounds and speech, balloons and onomatopoeic texts are
graphic devices which can be (and are) employed to provoke specific effects on the reader.
9
“L’acception commune donnée actuellement à la symbolique du pouce, seul doigt levé d’un poing serré, est l’approbation, le succès, la réussite. Or, cela ne
vaut pas pour toute l’Europe, car en Grèce (comme d’ailleurs au Moyen-Orient, en Afrique de l’Ouest et en Amérique du Sud), lever le pouce correspond à
lever le majeur en France. Par conséquent, ce qui semble être un geste universel positif se trouve être extrêmement offensant dans d’autres cultures.”

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That is, words in comics are first of all employed to represent and evoke feelings through
the modulation of elements like their size, shape, colour and disposition in space, all of
which are graphic and extratextual elements. Even the colour and shape of balloons, which
are the physical containers of words, contribute to the creation of particular effects. All
these elements pave the way for the effect of the text itself; that is, words as such play their
role only subsequently, when their graphic quality has already created a certain atmosphere
in the mind of the reader. (Rota 80)

Concerning page format, Rota provides information on the established print sizes in different
global comics markets—the American comic book (17x26 cm, 32 pages), the French album (23x30
cm, 48-96 pages), the Italian bonelliano (16x21 cm, 96-160 pages), the Japanese tankobon (12x18 cm,
200-400 pages)—and how these physical dimensions have direct impact on expression and
narrative. In the American graphic novel market—comics mostly intended to be sold in
bookstores—there is a great variety of formats, generally determined by the author according to
his intentions in terms of expressiveness and narrative. When it is translated, the comic may be
subject to graphic format changes that impact on these expressive and narrative intentions.

The page, then, imposing artistic restrictions and potentialities, is not just an incidental
feature, but rather a fundamental creative element in comics. This element, with its
proportions and characteristics, cannot be easily modified in translation through editorial
processes without altering the original work substantially; therefore, changing the size of
the original publication is an operation which has important consequences for the
translated comic and its enjoyment. (Rota 83)

While Groensteen highlights the connection elements within the page and within page
sequences, saying that these connections are the most essential feature of comics, Zanettin, Rota
and Kaindl add that this connection is also related to graphic format and typographic expression.
For the translator who is interpreting a comic and adapting it to a foreign language, this requires a
semiotic investigation (cf. Celotti) or a multimodal reading (cf. Borodo). This network of
connections will establish meaning—or words and sense—in comics, in such a way that all these
elements are relevant to translation and, therefore, to the discussion of translation fidelity in this
medium.

Fidelity in Comics Translation

Concerns about translation fidelity, as seen at the beginning of this paper, pertain mostly to literary
translation. By its nature, the graphic configuration of prose will be completely changed in
translation. Therefore, topics like layout, illustration positioning, typography and other graphic
aspects are hardly considered when it comes to fidelity. In comics, though, visuals are prevalent, so
all of these aspects should be considered if we are talking about translation fidelity.

This does not mean, however, that we should forget the basic tenets of fidelity in literary

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translation. The concept of fidelity levels in different instances (source text fidelity, target text
reader fidelity, source author fidelity) still stands, as well as the point that these variables are
relative to each project or working conditions of the translator. These instances, however, should
be analysed according to the following chart:

SOURCE TEXT SOURCE AUTHOR TARGET TEXT

FIDELITY FIDELITY READER FIDELITY

Linguistic
word - - - - - - - - - sense uncommitted - - - - committed foreignizing - - - domesticating
signs fidelity

Non-linguistic
word - - - - - - - - - sense uncommitted - - - - committed foreignizing - - - domesticating
signs fidelity

Spatio-topia
word - - - - - - - - - sense uncommitted - - - - committed foreignizing - - - domesticating
fidelity

Typography
word - - - - - - - - - sense uncommitted - - - committed foreignizing - - - domesticating
fidelity

Format fidelity word - - - - - - - - - sense uncommitted - - - committed foreignizing - - - domesticating

Linguistic signs fidelity: “Typical” fidelity, concerning equivalences between two codified
languages, tends to be at the sense end of the source text fidelity spectrum; in comics we
should add concerns over connections between linguistic and non-linguistic signs.
Non-linguistic signs fidelity: As seen above (cf. Rota), current comics translation tends to leave
non-linguistic signs unchanged. This may lead to difficulties in translation or even questions
of appropriateness to some target language readers. As also seen above, in figs. 5 and 6, this
commitment was not always present in comics translation history.
Spatio-topia fidelity: In the source comic, each panel has its own place on a page and in relation
to a page sequence. This spatial location and its relationship to other panels is meaningful.
Relocating panels may be detrimental to the spatio-topia.
Typography fidelity: The word morphology (words as images) is also meaningful in a comic,
since it expresses and connects to what is being stated by linguistic signs and non-linguistic

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signs.
Format fidelity: The physical dimensions of the comic book prescribe different reading
situations. Enlarging or shortening images leads to different meanings, given that the comics
artist designed his page while thinking of specific panel and print sizes and their
communicative impact upon the reader.

Concerning the “source text fidelity column”, it may sound counter-intuitive to propose a
word-sense spectrum when we are dealing with non-linguistic signs—spatio-topia, typography and
format; but these can in fact be linked to linguistic signs in the sense that, balloons and captions
can, for instance, feature onomatopoeias. More generally, the linguistic and the non-linguistic are
inextricably linked through the choice of font and font size or any other typographical choice.
There are therefore various ways of dealing with all visual aspects that may fall into the word-sense
spectrum. A fidelity approach that tends to the “word” pole would preserve these visual aspects in
the target text as they were in the source text. The fidelity approach that tends to the “sense” pole,
on the other hand, would alter these aspects (by redrawing, rearranging panels, or choosing a new
font and publication format). In comparing Figures 2-3 (ST) and 4 (TT)—the Superman origin
story—for instance, all of these visual aspects have been changed: panels were rearranged,
shortened or enlarged, typography options are completely different and a two-page sequence was
rendered in one page with a different print size. However, ST and TT essentially tell the same
story.

It should be noted once again that these considerations of fidelity correspond to levels, by
which I mean we are not talking about being only “faithful” or “unfaithful”: there are spectra, as
represented in the chart above. Linguistic signs, non-linguistic signs, spatio-topia, typography and
format, in translation, will each have its own level of fidelity relative to any given comics
translation project and working conditions10.

Final Remarks
This paper has sought to apply some of the considerations regarding fidelity in literary translation
to the specific and distinctive issues in comics translation. Comics translation studies are still new,
while effective comics translation for books and magazines is about a 100-year-old—and currently
growing—market. To consider aspects of fidelity is an attempt to contribute to reflections on the
comics translation craft.

When applying the ideas of literary translation fidelity to comics translation, questions
10
We may also think about fidelity and economical instances: for example, the format a translated comic book (and its
printing run) will have in another country may lead to a printing cost that is greater or less than the source comic had,
which makes this comic cheaper or more expensive than the source comic was in relation to its source country economy.
The price of the comic book would lead to different modes of appreciation and reading conditions in two different
regions—and this could also be thought of as a fidelity level. Similarly, the reading experience of the same comic in print
and digital formats is up for discussion.

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could be raised about literary translation itself. While non-linguistic signs are usually dismissed in
the discussion of literary translation fidelity, recent studies on paratranslation—a concept
proposed by José Yuste Frías (261)—highlight meaningful aspects of text presentation that impact
how the text itself is appreciated. To think, then, about paratranslation fidelity in literary translation
may be a fruitful endeavor.

In comics, the non-linguistic sign is not a paratext, since it is the core (or sometimes the
only) “text.” The translation of media mainly based on non-linguistic signs—in addition to comics,
there are movies, TV, videogames, illustrated books, websites etc.—is already prevalent and
concerns booming markets, but it still lacks the extensive scholarly investigation we find applied to
literary translation.

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