Le Grand Pouvoir du Chninkel by Jean Van Hamme

Nicolas Finet and his team in France and Andreas Knigge in Germany have supplanted around one hundred of the 1001 Comics with French/Francophone and German and other titles respectively. This resulted is such surprising entries as ‘Los Chicos de Bash Street’ for Leo Baxendale’s Bash Street Kids, probably largely unknown to Spanish readers, and resulting in some equally surprising omissions.įortunately, editors of the other editions have been substituting certain entries with others from their own countries, opening up the richness of great sequential art being highlighted and making the book more relevant and commercial in the process.

Of the translations so far of this 960-page brick of book, only the Spanish version from Grijalbo (below) decided to make no changes to the contents whatsover (apart from adding a Walking Dead cover on the spine) and stick to the original selection. That’s right, there is no worldwide consensus on the best of anything! In the case of 1001 Comics, while the interior images cannot be changed due to everyone printing from the same master files, so those entries with illustrations have to be included wherever it is published, other text-only entries without a picture can be replaced by great comics from the past or present on each new edition’s home turf, as long as they slot into the chronology of the year of first publication, of course.Īs the editor of the British and American original edition of 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die (covers above), I am in totally in favour of all local editions being adapted to suit their comics cultures, in fact I’d like to be able to insist on it. This coming Friday August 23rd, I will be talking about 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, from 5-6pm, as part of their Stripped programme of events - you can book tickets here! You might not realise this, but the internationally translated and hugely successful series of 1001 guides, covering everything from beers and battles to golf courses, does not necessarily stay the same from country to country, or language to language.

Le Grand Pouvoir du Chninkel by Jean Van Hamme