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It has occurred to me that if I wrote shorter posts, they wouldn't take so long to write. Heh. Oh well. Writing these long entries spares my various friends from finding novels in their inboxes. You guys know I will talk/write non-stop if you let me...so I'm getting it all out here. And this way I don't have to write everything over and over for each individual person and thus forget who I've told what.
Interesting Skip note today. No, no spoilers, so read on with impunity. Skip v8p162 posed an interesting FX problem. I can't actually SHOW it to you for obvious reasons, but I think I can describe this particular curiosity. Kyoko is overreacting, as usual. In large white-outlined-in-black kana, she agonizes "Dou shite yooooo noooo!!" with the O's trailing down the page, across, and off the far right side of the paper. No big deal there, but what makes it tricky is that "no" in the middle of the "ooooooo"s is in English. So it actually reads "dou shite yoooo NO ooooooo". (lowercase = Japanese, CAPS = English) Now, the English "NO" is in all-black letters, and also has a long trail of black (Japanese) Os, this time written veritcally. So the English NO is in the original line of Japanese "oooo"s, and the NO's line of Japanese "oooo"s is vertically down the page. So it kinda looks like this:
dou shite yoooNOooooooo!!!
o
o
o
o
o
I have no idea if that will work when posted, but imagine the vertical "ooo"s lined up underneath the horizontal sentence, forming a big T at the English "NO". The official English translation to replace it was "I dooooooon’t geeeeeeeet iiiiiiiiiiiiit!" and, of course, "Nooooo!" This was the FX problem I faced. You all know I work very hard to match the original FX style with my English version. So. What to do here?? Alas, "I don't get it" did not have a convenient "no" inside. However, it DID have an N. So I decided to letter "I don't get it" in white, make the bottom half of its "N" black, and letter the vertical "ooo"s in black, thus matching the Japanese fairly closely. So I did. When finished, as I usually do with unconventional FX, I zoomed out, sat back from my computer, and took a long look at the FX. I then asked myself the normal questions:
1. Can I understand what's happening? Actually, yes, I do understand quite clearly. Okay then...
2. Can a person who hasn't seen the original version understand what's happening? Hmmmm....yes. But they might have to study it a second to figure it out. Uh-oh.
3. (the most important question) Will Shoujo Editor let me get away with it??? (Aye, there's the rub!) *study study gnaw on pen zoom out some more study study study* Nope. She won't. Ttaku mo.
So...I went with plan B, which was "I don't get it" all in white, including the N. And the vertical "Noooo" in black, with its very own dedicated black N underneath the white N. Typing this out has made me want to take a 2nd look at my final printout to see if perhaps my original plan could be saved...*takes that 2nd look*...but I don't think so. Having only the one letter be two-toned with the black bottom half draws all the attention to IT, rather than to the beginning of the "I don't get it" sentence. And if I had really been loyal to the original version and made the N all-black, it stands out even more. X_x
I do admit it's a bit sad to be consciously chosing to depart from the original version. But I haven't had to correct one of my shoujo manga FX in many months, so I think my judgement here is sound.Of course, by saying this I have now cursed myself in this regard. Oops.
I actually have another difficult lettering problem I faced today with Skip, but I'll spare you the details. The problem was long, narrow, vertical text boxes. Which brings up the ever-present question: vertical type, or not to vertical type?? I could write paragraphs about this as well, but suffice it to say that this time, I went with the less-safe option. My fingers are crossed that Shoujo Editor will not veto my daring venture. ^^
And since the Japanese and strange spacing wreak havok with lj's spellcheck feature, this one came to you raw. I hope it wasn't too painful. m(_)m
Oh yeah. And still no English. T plus 3 days and counting...
Interesting Skip note today. No, no spoilers, so read on with impunity. Skip v8p162 posed an interesting FX problem. I can't actually SHOW it to you for obvious reasons, but I think I can describe this particular curiosity. Kyoko is overreacting, as usual. In large white-outlined-in-black kana, she agonizes "Dou shite yooooo noooo!!" with the O's trailing down the page, across, and off the far right side of the paper. No big deal there, but what makes it tricky is that "no" in the middle of the "ooooooo"s is in English. So it actually reads "dou shite yoooo NO ooooooo". (lowercase = Japanese, CAPS = English) Now, the English "NO" is in all-black letters, and also has a long trail of black (Japanese) Os, this time written veritcally. So the English NO is in the original line of Japanese "oooo"s, and the NO's line of Japanese "oooo"s is vertically down the page. So it kinda looks like this:
dou shite yoooNOooooooo!!!
o
o
o
o
o
I have no idea if that will work when posted, but imagine the vertical "ooo"s lined up underneath the horizontal sentence, forming a big T at the English "NO". The official English translation to replace it was "I dooooooon’t geeeeeeeet iiiiiiiiiiiiit!" and, of course, "Nooooo!" This was the FX problem I faced. You all know I work very hard to match the original FX style with my English version. So. What to do here?? Alas, "I don't get it" did not have a convenient "no" inside. However, it DID have an N. So I decided to letter "I don't get it" in white, make the bottom half of its "N" black, and letter the vertical "ooo"s in black, thus matching the Japanese fairly closely. So I did. When finished, as I usually do with unconventional FX, I zoomed out, sat back from my computer, and took a long look at the FX. I then asked myself the normal questions:
1. Can I understand what's happening? Actually, yes, I do understand quite clearly. Okay then...
2. Can a person who hasn't seen the original version understand what's happening? Hmmmm....yes. But they might have to study it a second to figure it out. Uh-oh.
3. (the most important question) Will Shoujo Editor let me get away with it??? (Aye, there's the rub!) *study study gnaw on pen zoom out some more study study study* Nope. She won't. Ttaku mo.
So...I went with plan B, which was "I don't get it" all in white, including the N. And the vertical "Noooo" in black, with its very own dedicated black N underneath the white N. Typing this out has made me want to take a 2nd look at my final printout to see if perhaps my original plan could be saved...*takes that 2nd look*...but I don't think so. Having only the one letter be two-toned with the black bottom half draws all the attention to IT, rather than to the beginning of the "I don't get it" sentence. And if I had really been loyal to the original version and made the N all-black, it stands out even more. X_x
I do admit it's a bit sad to be consciously chosing to depart from the original version. But I haven't had to correct one of my shoujo manga FX in many months, so I think my judgement here is sound.
I actually have another difficult lettering problem I faced today with Skip, but I'll spare you the details. The problem was long, narrow, vertical text boxes. Which brings up the ever-present question: vertical type, or not to vertical type?? I could write paragraphs about this as well, but suffice it to say that this time, I went with the less-safe option. My fingers are crossed that Shoujo Editor will not veto my daring venture. ^^
And since the Japanese and strange spacing wreak havok with lj's spellcheck feature, this one came to you raw. I hope it wasn't too painful. m(_)m
Oh yeah. And still no English. T plus 3 days and counting...
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