Article on Downloading Comics
Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2005 1:00 am
I'm interested in seeing articles like that, but the take on why people scan and distribute comics was pretty uninteresting - hitting the obviously idiotic arguements for copyright infringement - and it didn't touch much on fan translation of Japanese comics.
I do my translations mostly so I can translate some stuff on a regular basis, to keep my Japanese language skills in use, but also because I really want to put out aligned translations that people interested in learning Japanese can use and enjoy for language learning. Nobody so far has really used my translations for that, but I always try to include formats that are interesting for language learners - even the Tenjo Tenge translation scripts that I have up contain both the English and Japanese, as well as translation notes for the more interesting translations.
Actually, I think the format that I can produce (but do not make public due to bandwidth limitations) are quite nice - even better than the Kodanshya bilingual comics (which are very nice for language learners.)
Anyway. I'm also happy to see manga being more successful commercially in the US - when TokyoPop asked me to remove my Great Teacher Onidzuka translations, I was happy to comply. I wonder how their translations measure up - I should really look into that some time.
fugu