Foreign language translations of ST novels

[Nerys Ghemor]

Interesting..."caminho" instead of "camino"...the weird thing is, now that I think about it, if you listen to the Spanish dubbing of The Phantom Menace, and the way Jar-Jar talks...I think that part of his weird accent is Portuguese! (At least, it is on the North American Spanish dubbing as opposed to the one done for Spain.

Hmmm...when I can bring myself to watch Episode I with the Spanish language track on, I'll let you know.

Trust me...the Spanish makes it much more bearable. At least, it does for me. (And truth be told, this is actually one of the highest-quality dubbing jobs I've ever heard, anywhere.)

I shall be very interested in your opinion!

Oh, and on the N.A. version, Palpatine has the SEXIEST voice!)

I can see how a Spanish villain might come off sexy...

Heh...it's not even JUST the language. It's the guy's voice--it is SO awesome! To me, that guy IS the voice of Palpatine, and always will be. I don't care that English is my native language...that guy sounds so much better.

 

[Saul]

That destiny cover is what Star Trek covers should be like! It's beautiful and eye catching all at once. You look at the cover and know you're getting something exciting before you even read the blurb. The english covers are a bit confusing to the non regular reading.

 

[Therin of Andor]

That destiny cover is what Star Trek covers should be like! It's beautiful and eye catching all at once. You look at the cover and know you're getting something exciting...

The three US covers of "Destiny" were beautiful, eye catching and exciting.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

And TNES, and Terok Nor, too. But some of the other more recent ones, like The Soul Key, have been less than stellar.

 

[Tino]

That German cover is way better than the english ones.
I had always been disappointed that such a strong line-up such as "Destiny"
got those 90's style covers.

 

[Saul]

That destiny cover is what Star Trek covers should be like! It's beautiful and eye catching all at once. You look at the cover and know you're getting something exciting...

The three US covers of "Destiny" were beautiful, eye catching and exciting.

I agree. But a picture is worth a thousand words as they say and that German cover is telling me a lot more than the US covers frankly.

 

[DevilEyes]

And TNES, and Terok Nor, too. But some of the other more recent ones, like The Soul Key, have been less than stellar.

Terok Nor is the best cover by far IMO - the covers look great by their own but it's even better with the way they form a triptich; followed by The Never-Ending Sacrifice, Fearful Symmetry and Infinity's Prism*. I quite like the covers of Avatar/Twist of Faith, but that concept rarely works: more often than not, it just seems weird and cheesy, as with Unity. That cover is bad, as is The Soul Key. Both versions of Destiny covers are all right, but the German one is still a bit better.

edit: oh, and These Haunted Seas - that one is awesome. Much, much better than the Mission Gamma covers. Another reason I'm glad I got the omnibus editions.

 

[Clawhammer]

Cross Cult has revealed the first draft of the cover for the German translation of the first Destiny book earlier today:

First of all, my advice to the guy who made it: contact S&S and show them this one, you have a rare gift to make photos look like illustrations in a very nice way. It would be a waste of talent to keep that in Germany only. (I'm kind of serious here, and I'm hardly serious...serious!)
While I love that airbrused look and the composition of elements, I cannot deny the fact that:
1. The Aventine looks a bit cramped in there. (For god sake use the render!)
2. It would have been nice if they asked for permission to use my Captain Ezri "concept" in there. Having said that, let me also stress that I made it as a fan and not as something official. I still feel kind of annoyed.... I put all the spots on her head manually... So it's spot on!

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

And that right there is a good example of why professional authors in the States do not read fanfic...because of complaints just like that.

 

[Count Zero]

I think they're more afraid of law suits than complaints. And in this case, the complaint seems to be justified. Sadly, it has become quite common to just lift stuff from the internet and then use it for your own purposes, even for companies that make money with that and loudly complain about copyright infringements.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

And again, that's why professionals are supposed to distance themselves from fan works, because if they don't, then they cause a grievance of this nature--which I agree is justified on the face of it from an outsider's point of view. That is not an official legal opinion, though--that could only be decided by a court of law that was privy to all of the evidence.

 

[Count Zero]

I'm not even sure whether it would be illegal under German law because it allows for some lenience so long as you create something new with it. Depends on the Schöpfungshöhe (threshold of originality) assigned to the resulting cover, I guess.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Hm...I seem to recall someone in America getting in trouble over not properly compensating the photographer, when they photoshopped the famous "HOPE" poster for Obama. Not 100% sure what the outcome was, but the Associated Press--who owned the photo, did sue, even though the guy photoshopped it.

I do not believe the case is resolved, but I believe that AP and the photographer have a case, PERSONALLY.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_"Hope"_poster#Origin_and_copyright_issues

What's happened here, with this Ezri photo, seems similar, and even more blatant.

 

[Defcon]

2. It would have been nice if they asked for permission to use my Captain Ezri "concept" in there. Having said that, let me also stress that I made it as a fan and not as something official. I still feel kind of annoyed.... I put all the spots on her head manually... So it's spot on!

FWIW, according to an official of Cross Cult they're reworking the cover at the moment to make Ezri look older and more "distinguished", so (most likely) it won't be 1:1 "copy" of your pic on the final cover.

(I had posted a link to your post here on their message board, which prompted the answer including the information above. Here's a link to the full reply in case you understand German.)

 

[mmtz]

I have some Portuguese translations of the Gold Key Comics, and a few Brasilian translations of the DC Comics run on TNG.

It's easy to tell the difference because of the differing translations for the name Star Trek itself: Caminho das Estrelas (Portugal) versus Jornada das Estrelas (Brasil).

Cover art for some of the Brasilian Gold Key reprints is entertaining, like this one featuring Spock running off with a blond babe

I'm trying to list all of the Gold Key foreign language reprints on this page. You need javascript enabled in your web browser to view and filter the cover images.

http://homepage.mac.com/mmtz/stcomix/world/goldkey.html

I don't own very many of the foreign reprints, so if anyone has good cover scans you're willing to share, please contact me. thanks

 

[Clawhammer]

2. It would have been nice if they asked for permission to use my Captain Ezri "concept" in there. Having said that, let me also stress that I made it as a fan and not as something official. I still feel kind of annoyed.... I put all the spots on her head manually... So it's spot on!

FWIW, according to an official of Cross Cult they're reworking the cover at the moment to make Ezri look older and more "distinguished", so (most likely) it won't be 1:1 "copy" of your pic on the final cover.

(I had posted a link to your post here on their message board, which prompted the answer including the information above. Here's a link to the full reply in case you understand German.)

Thanks! yeah I can read German quite well, und spreche es auch noch ein wenig.

Well actually I'm not sure how official Cross Cult is. My work was purely on a fan bases and not commercial. For a good reason as well: It would not have been a good idea to use that particular photo of Nicole DeBoer as it was not made for the Star Trek franchise. It would be kind of pricey to make it useable.

Anyway as Nerys Ghemor said: I kind of learned my lesson with this issue, it seems somewhere along the line I became a "professional" (HA! ) I will be a bit more careful with my fanboy stuff.

Ok lets drop this and continue the conversation:

I have the following translations in Dutch, they are all TNG.

The Children of Hamlin, Carmen Carter
The Captains Honor, David and Daniel Dvorkin
The Peacekeepers, Gene Deweese
Power Hungry, Howard Weinstein

I think my sister once bought them and I kind of borrowed them.

 

[MichaelS]

2. It would have been nice if they asked for permission to use my Captain Ezri "concept" in there. Having said that, let me also stress that I made it as a fan and not as something official. I still feel kind of annoyed.... I put all the spots on her head manually... So it's spot on!

FWIW, according to an official of Cross Cult they're reworking the cover at the moment to make Ezri look older and more "distinguished", so (most likely) it won't be 1:1 "copy" of your pic on the final cover.

(I had posted a link to your post here on their message board, which prompted the answer including the information above. Here's a link to the full reply in case you understand German.)

Cross Cult's reply is a bit strange - they say that the number of available pictures is limited, which is true, but they use that as justification to use non-official material such as Mark's photo manip - a bad excuse, IMO. Any professional illustrator worth their pay can whip up a similar image on their own in no time.

That said, it is a spiffy cover, and I'm looking forward to seeing the reworked version.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Clawhammer--I think what you should do is BLATANTLY watermark your stuff if you do any more of it, to make it so no one would want to steal it. Sucks, but I think it would be for the best. Your work, whatever its quality, should not be used without permission. Period.

And any PROFESSIONAL illustrator should be able to get a current-day pic of Nicole de Boer and work THAT into being Ezri. No excuses. I would not allow them to use this work of yours, Claw, if I were you.

 

[Defcon]

I would not allow them to use this work of yours, Claw, if I were you.

^ Actually, as he pointed out himself, Clawhammer would have no ground to base any claims on, since he himself used another persons intellectual property to create the pic. The only one with a really claim to stop them from using it would be the owner of the rights to the original photo.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Not necessarily so. The whole reason we're not allowed to post fanfic ideas in here is because if a professional author used them and the fanfic writer--regardless of the fact that they were using the author's or franchise's intellectual property--wanted to press the point, it could result in serious litigation for the author even if the judge did not find in the author's favor.

To the authors/mods: have I offered a correct summation of why fanfic/story ideas are not to be posted in this forum?