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1. The literature on the translation of comics and the aim of this study
Comics, which include comic strips, books, graphic novels and webcomics, are a type of text that first appeared in the US at the end of the nineteenth century (Zanettin 2009: 38). They portray content through the interplay of verbal and visual presentations. In earlier days, the translation of comics was a relegated theme in Translation Studies (Zanettin 2009: 39). However, recent decades have seen an increasing number of researchers take an interest in this subject with the aim of investigating the unique relationship between the verbal and the visual, challenges in translating comics, coping strategies and comparisons between the source texts (ST) and target texts (TT).
Scholars have explored the relationship between images and words and how it influences translation, from the perspective of “constrained translation” (Rabadán 1991; Zanettin 1998; Valero Garcés 2000; Grun and Dollerup 2003; Mikkonen 2006; Zanettin 2014; Guillaume 2015; Borodo 2016; Pischedda 2020). Several contributions have been grounded in different concepts. Kaindl (1999) conducted a comprehensive study on the translation of comic strips and discussed the position and capital of comics in the greater sociocultural system and the categorisation of translation strategies into repetition, deletion, detraction, addition, transmutation and substitution. Kaindl (2004) noted that translation studies on texts containing various signs centre on the linguistic features while non-verbal elements are often neglected (2004: 174). He introduced the multimodality approach as a new means of examination for studies on the translation of comics. Borodo (2015) examined the Polish translation of Thorgal, a French classic comic, through a multimodal approach and pointed out that the postures, gestures, interactions and spatial orientations of characters in every picture should be considered when we seek to determine the gain or loss in the translation of speech balloon texts. The reason why we need to examine pictures is that translators may condense their translations when pictures help complete the information. Zanettin (2018a; 2018b) presented a historical overview of the development of comics in the US and Europe and how censorship has influenced the translation of comics because of dissimilar target readerships. Zanettin (2018b) pointed out that research on the translation of comics encompasses four major themes: (1) translation strategies, (2) translation history,...