The Way of the Editor:

Price Guide—International/Internazionale/Internacional…?

The Editor rants about the difficulties of researching comics in another language.

It was only a matter of time before we bit the bullet. As of the update this week, ComicBase now includes a whole host of international prepositions in the program. The 50-60 new additions include such common prepositions as, “Le,” “La,” “Les,” as well as the charming German, “die.” So if you’re looking for a foreign title like, “L’Uomo Ragno,” try looking for it under “Uomo Ragno, L’ ” instead.

The decision to finally include these was prompted by the large number of international titles users have been sending in as corrections. It is virgin territory and we haven’t indexed any of it (great way to score correction points, guys!), but the background check before admitting a new foreign title into the database now takes longer. We really don’t have much data on these issues and we have to research from the ground up, from series run and editions to current pricing. As a consequence, I now know more about Mexican and Italian comics than I ever figured an average American should ever have to learn, and that’s still only just touching the tip of the iceberg.

I mean, did you know that the Mexican translations of “El Sorprendente Hombre-Araña,” or “The Surprising Man-Spider,” featured quite a few Mexican-redrawn issues of the title with characters redone in the style of Neal Adams and Gil Kane? And females like Gwen Stacey were (apparently) liberally re-interpreted by local artists in the style of the Mexican “cómic erótico.” Fascinating! And I have to admit: I’m more than a bit curious to see for myself what one of these issues looks like, so if anyone out there has a copy of El Sorprendente Hombre-Araña #123, send me a scan of Gwen Stacey!

Anyway, if you’ve been sending in corrections in the last month and have wondered where they went, this would be the reason for the delay. That, and Pete’s been hoarding corrections in his inbox that he’s finally decided to pass on to the correction team which we’re starting to process now.

Speaking of which, the ongoing flood of international comics seems to have inspired Pete to start thinking about buffing up his German again, and maybe even pick up Italian. There was also talk on the Forums about attending the Internationaler Comic Salon in Germany, aka “San Diego Deutcheland.” I myself feel kinda intimidated by the possibilities. I really can’t see myself holding much of a conversation in German with anyone, although I’ve been told that Western Europeans are almost all guaranteed to already have a background in English, so I shouldn’t worry. But even so, I think I’d be more comfortable with starting out with international comic conventions in Britain or Canada or Australia. I already speak their language, and with the exception of Canada (where I lived in for six years), these are all places I’ve wanted to go.

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