I'm impressed that it's been sold in Germany*. I don't think Buffy season 8 has got a UK distributor here yet. Which surprises me given the huge interest Buffy got here when it aired on BBC 2 and Sky One. I guess Panini passed on it here.

* Though you guys did get the OMWF DVD first (which I bought little realising the spoken words (not the singing) was in German).

Simon | April 03, 15:22 CET

"How to pimp your Bildungsroman."

Okay, that's my favourite gratuitous-English-line-in-a-German-article ever.

bigsofty | April 03, 15:32 CET

"How to pimp" was not covered in my German classes.

Sunfire | April 03, 15:33 CET

Oy vayismir! Oh wait, that's Yiddish.

Dana5140 | April 03, 15:35 CET

Panini Germany also brings "Astonishing X-Men" since its beginning. I'm a bit astonished that THE SPIEGEL, which often cultivates a quite sophisticeted, slightly snotty attitude towards pop culture, brings quite an eulogy on "Buffy".

cleveland | April 03, 15:36 CET

Spoiler for #12 in there. My German has really gone away. It's sad.

Oh wow, it really is pimpen. That's hilarious. Actually what I can make out of the article seems to be the best popular press piece on Season 8 to date.

[ edited by Sunfire on 2008-04-03 21:41 ]

Sunfire | April 03, 15:36 CET

Simon said:


That's indeed strange, I can buy the comics in Holland since last year..

But yay for our neighbours though :)

Krusher | April 03, 15:36 CET

This month marks the start of Buffy L'Ammazzavampiri Stagione 8 here in Italy as well. Fans have been pestering the Italian publisher of the old Dark Horse run forever about it, and now we get the LWH TPB.

Perseo | April 03, 15:52 CET

That's indeed strange, I can buy the comics in Holland since last year..

We can buy the US comics here too Krusher, direct from comics shops but I assume Simon's talking about a dedicated UK reprint (though I don't really see the need since the US editions are quite widely available so maybe i've got the wrong end of the stick there).

Saje | April 03, 16:10 CET

Yes I am talking about a UK reprint. It would get a wider audience.

Simon | April 03, 16:19 CET

Not doubting you (OK, I kind of am ;) but did that happen with the previous Buffy comics ? I ask because I just can't really see anyone that wants to read it not being able to (somehow) get hold of it.

Or do you think more people that have never heard of Buffy or Joss would buy it if they could get it in the paper shop ? Guess I could maybe see that.

Saje | April 03, 16:27 CET

Well Panini have churning out reprints of Fantastic Four, Avengers, Superman etc here for a while so I think there is a market for those comics (outside the local comic shop). And Buffy does still have a recognition factor and new official material might tempt the casual fan to buy it.

Simon | April 03, 16:31 CET

Am positively surprised as well. But then again Firefly and Buffy got quite some coverage in the Frankfurter Allgemeine a while back.

Kessie | April 03, 16:38 CET

Why would a UK reprint get a wider audience? Doesn't make sense to me. It's not like English people can't read American *g* and the dvd's aren't dubbed over by English folk eighter.

Oh and yes, I bought the USA version of the comics, a Dutch one is AFAIK not in the planning (and I'm not interested in them anyway, I don't even buy translated books)

Krusher | April 03, 17:44 CET

Ausgezeichnet!

I sent the link to my friends in Munich (who saw Christian Kane when he played there, and got to meet him after the gig.)

Chris inVirginia | April 03, 17:55 CET

Oh no! A typo on the third page! How is this possible? Arrggggh. That's why I buy the US comics & DVDs, even if I have to wait longer or have more trouble actually getting them in the first place!

"macht mimt die Partylöwin": One verb per sentence please and not two who actually mean the same, only with a few different connotations.

Otherwise, well, the translation is actually not too bad, even though xander comes across much less funny than in the english version. hmmmm, must be that Whedon touch, it's just not imitable in a different language. And the translation "Jägerin" for slayer always bugged the hell out of me, but there is sadly no alternatve in the german language.

As to why the Spiegel is so complementary about Buffy (and that's an understatement judging by this article, the journalist just about blasted the page with the superlatives and positive adjectives), well it's a bit left on the political spectrum and very into emancipation and woman power for one thing (even though it's usually not as noticeable) but the biggest reason is that they pride themselves in being creative with the language (in a very journalistic way, of course) and love playing with words. The Spiegel is responsible for a lot of developement in the german language, they're usually witty even when seriously reporting. It is singlehandedly responsible for the dwindling of the genetiv-s, and very proud of its style too. So there would be definite Whedon admiration just because of Joss' way with words. (I think the journalist even said as much in the article, translated it would mean something like Joss' superior dialogue wittiness and caring empathy)

and regarding "ureigenes Bildungsromanniveau pimpen" that is of course also very complimentary of Joss' - in a witty way. very witty. I'm still smiling.

Harpy | April 03, 20:30 CET

That certainly was the case with the translations of the TV series as well (that Xander's funny was off). It's sad, especially in the early seasons. So often it seems that the translator just didn't get it. I get the impression in so many DVDs, that translations are done either by Germans, or Americans, not both (I could be wrong, of course). I think that translations should be worked by a team of both a German and an American in order to get it right. That would be better for so many DVDs & other media though, not just Buffy.

[ edited by Anna von Ovonov on 2008-04-04 05:20 ]

Anna von Ovonov | April 03, 23:19 CET

Ich pimpe, du pimpst...hehehe.

This reminds me of seeing Pimp My Ride on Bosnian television, dubbed in German. I wish I could remember what they called it in German. Anyway, the homeboys speaking German was quite surreal. And this is, too.

dreamlogic | April 04, 00:27 CET

At the minute Buffy can only be bought in comic book shops here in the UK. If there was a UK reprint it would be sold in newsagents up and down the land and would get a far wider audience.

Simon | April 04, 03:22 CET

It' s not just the Xander-fun that's gone in the german version. Already in the tv-show the translations were very bad. Well, Spike had a few moments with his swearing but that was pretty much it.
I saw the german season 8 a couple of days ago and again the words don't have half of the strength they have in english.

So yay for ebay and internet-comic-distribution!!!

mmm cookies | April 04, 05:35 CET

A lot of expressions don't translate; check out the episode titles in the older editions of Topping's Slayer. Many of the French and German titles aren't translations or even clsoe to them.

DaddyCatALSO | April 04, 11:59 CET

Aussi j'adore le titre "buffy contre les vampires". C'est magnifique dans francais.

Simon | April 04, 12:30 CET

I watch Buffy dubbed in French all the time. It's good practice. There are definitely times when things are badly translated, but overall they did it well. And the voices are pretty good approximations of the voices of the original actors, unlike on the Spanish dubbing, for example.

shambleau | April 04, 13:02 CET

Best example i can recall; "Something Blue" translates back from French as "The MArriage of Buffy" and from German as "My Will Be Done."

Too bad the old LAurel and Hardy days are gone; they said the French, Spanish,a nd German versions of their lines phonetically and only the rest of t he cast was different.

DaddyCatALSO | April 04, 16:04 CET

Yeah, I don't mind the cultural changes, like switching a reference to "The Captain and Tenille" to "Sonny & Cher", or the titles that don't translate well, it's when they don't understand what they're translating and it sounds like it came out of Babelfish. Like in the Spanish voice track of the "Firefly" pilot "Serenity" where they translate a line about the abandoned ship being run by a "skeleton crew" to being manned by a "crew of skeletons", or things like that. Just having an American who's fluent in Spanish proofread the teleplay, would be nice; or someone to tell the People who did the subtitles on the German edition of "Firefly" that Chinese is not "Speaking in Galactic Language" through the entire series. Has anyone else seen that?
Chances are they just didn't have the budget on the early seasons of "Buffy" to spend enough time on it to figure it all out and make it as good as they'd like. I love the German voices for the scooby gang, though the vamps and demon voices are distractingly goofy sometimes. My German students say they prefer the German voices after they watch some "Buffy" at home in English, and same thing with my Spanish students and the Spanish voices in "Firefly".
But why is French-Xander's name Alex???
Does the name Xander sound like some vulgar word in French, or something? I don't get that one.
By the way, you German speakers have probably all seen this site (but since it took me forever to find it, I'll mention it here). There is a great German script site for most "Buffy" episodes. I use it all the time in putting together discussion guides or worksheets for my students (...to maximize the fun, :) of course). Here 'tis: http://www.tv-scripte.de/buffy/index.html

Anna von Ovonov | April 04, 18:13 CET