Multilanguage stories - Opinions

315Art 2023-02-07 20:22:30 UTC #1

Hello everyone, today I've got a question for all the bilingual (and more) in this site, how is your approach with multilanguage stories?

Here's my situation: I'm not a native English speaker so my characters sound quite spaghetti, but I do my best to keep my stories accessible wordwide, you know, just in case.
Now, while I've started something new in American (that's another problem), I've got a full comic from the beginning to the end like that, I though that it may be worth an "Italian version", in order to amplify the potential readers.

Have you ever been in this situation with your comics? Does your "localized version" do better than your "international" one? Tell me your story, your opinions and, if you want, drop what are you working on!

These are mine:

BlairFujin 2023-02-07 20:30:00 UTC #2

I was translating my works into Polish (my first language) but there wasn't enough interest to justify time spent on translating and editing the pages

Kelheor 2023-02-07 21:49:44 UTC #3

I would post the non-English version on a more local sites if you have any. It's hard enough to get people's interest here in English, I think the top second language that could generate some readership is Spanish (I even saw some Spanish comics promotions on the front page) ... And I guess that's it? I know Webtoons have Spanish and French versions of the site specifically for these languages, not sure about Italian.
I originally posted my first comic in my language on my country's platforms, but it was pretty futile, so I just started making it from scratch in English. Now I also create another comic, a gag-a-day in English and recently we started translating it into our native language, but I only post it specifically on our country platforms, no way I can see it getting any engagement on Tapas or Webtoons

allenT 2023-02-08 02:09:16 UTC #4

For English I have to care about grammar corrections and such. (English is not my mother tongue, I don't like to use popular phrases/proverbs like in most it sounds too current (or cliché)-- for me at least.. Also my characters are village folks so it's natural to keep it simple. This also helps international readers (me as well) understand with simpler English.

I'm not proficient with proper Chinese either but I'm more comfortable using it. The dialogues sound more casual and local (but not slang heavy) touted towards Taiwanese audience, therefore a lot of times it's funnier. I'm not Taiwanese but southeast Asian.

In both version the dialogues basically are not very wordy & I don't add much small talks into my comic. I upload both languages of my comic pages together as I add two languages in the same work files. Chinese words can fit in a bit more info into the same-sized dialogue boxes than English can, so Chinese readers are in for a small privilege.

I post my Chinese version on ComicFury, only a few people read my comic from Taiwan sites & family. It's hard to promote.

315Art 2023-02-08 20:54:47 UTC #5

I understand, do you write your stories in Polish and than translate them?
See, I do that from Italian to English, I've just got a better flow when I write down for obvious reason, but I also tend to change sentences that don't make sense in one language or the other or doesn't fit the balloon while editing the pages.

315Art 2023-02-08 20:58:28 UTC #6

It used to be a similar platform in Italian where I've started with some weekly gag comics, but probably there was no market as at some point they've basically shut everything down. I think you can still login, but you cannot upload anymore.

315Art 2023-02-08 21:04:14 UTC #7

I see what you mean, the small dialogue and the characters backstory are helpful in your case, good thought!
I never heard about ComicFury, I'll have a look! Promoting with Instagram or similar doesn't work anymore for me, as I don't have big numbers.

BlairFujin 2023-02-08 21:14:50 UTC #8

No, I write in English. I find it easier than starting in Polish and translating - it's easier to avoid copying structures from the other language. I've read some comics where it's obvious that they wrote their dialogues in their first language first and then... translated more in word by word sense instead of using a sentence with a similar meaning...

Llyrel 2023-02-09 16:12:27 UTC #9

Hello there, fellow Italian!

I haven't made a localized version of my comic yet, but from what I've noticed, the general consesus re: comics in languages other than English seems to be "it's very difficult to market a non-English comic on English speaking platforms"

Sadly, platforms for us Italians to post webcomics are basically non-existent: I think Webcomics.it still exists nowadays, but... it looks a bit like a deserted land, to me? D: then there would be Tacotoon and Jundo, but from what I could understand they act as publishers and do not allow self-publishing on their platform.

The only platform I know of that includes a proper filter for multiple languages so far is GlobalComix. They don't have a whole lot of Italian comics as of now, but the option is there. Other than that, you can post your comic in Italian on Tapas/Webtoon/ComicFury. All of these platforms definitely have some Italian comics, but... yep, building an audience is very, very difficult. You'd definitely need to do a lot of promotion in Italian speaking communities to redirect traffic to the site/platform of your choice. I wouldn't underestimate the power of Facebook for this! I found plenty of Italian comic artists on there, plus there are groups you can join where you can meet other artists and promote your work

system 2023-03-11 16:12:30 UTC #10

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