publishing methods were the complete opposite
of Kabanas’s. He printed on the finest paper,
ordered the genuine films (veloxes), had an entire
stuff to deal with the foreign material and even
hired one of the most famous Greek writers of
that time, Kostas Tachtsis, to translate the first
issue. But, after the French editors read that issue
they got really mad. They thought the comic book
was perfect in everything except for one of their
characters’ name! Obelix’s dog, Idefix, was translated as Κατρουλίξ (Katroolix, the one that gets
wet, roughly) that doesn’t mean anything bad in
Greek, just that the dog is too small like a baby
that gets wet. But the French guys thought that
the name was too humiliating for Idefix so they
sent a letter to Psaropoulos where they threatened to cancel their contract if the name wasn’t
changed which it eventually did. Imagine now
these guys representing Marvel and take a look
at one of the common Kabanas Marvel books.
I’m sure they’d instantly put Kabanas to a painful
death. The Marvel guys, on the other hand, never
showed any interest in the way their comics were
represented. If they were lucky enough to have a
publisher who respected their stuff and his own
audience they never indicated it. They didn’t give
a shit as long as the money rolled in. I’m not talking, of course, about the creators, but about the
corporate stooges that can’t tell Lobo from the
Hulk.)
Here in Greece the comic creators and publishers are so few that we know each other by each
others first names. Even if I tried to avoid one of
them it wouldn’t be possible. The whole comic
industry was always present in the next comics’
event. There’s no standard medium, printed or
otherwise, that hosts regular stories or any of the
history of the Greek comics scene, especially that
of the old days, except maybe some story or article from members of greekcomics or comicdom
sites.
And, now, technically speaking, this is the way
the job was done:
Step 1: We ordered the material.
Step 2: Marvel informed us whether or not they
had the veloxes (photographic paper) available
Page 13
of each issue we ordered. If they didn’t, we proceeded with the next issue available. Marvel also
informed us of the availability of each original
issue. If they didn’t have it, they tried to acquire
it from a comic book dealer and they tell us about
the price we would have to pay for it. If the price
was too high that was okay, we could live without
it.
Step 3: The veloxes and the issue, hopefully,
showed up. The girls cut the large paper (8 pages
each) to page-size parts and they fit the four different color shades for each page of the comic.
Step 4: They scaned the film with the black lines
and they electronically erase the English text.
Step 5: They put the Greek text into the balloons.
Step 6: They print the page with the greek text
and cut off the balloons with it.
Step 7: They glue the greek text balloons on the
pages and they put together the letters pages and
other articles.
Step 8: I came in to review the work. Any mistakes that I spotted were corrected.
Step 9: The book, veloxes and all, went to the
printer.
Step 10: The book went to the press agency that
did the distribution.
Step 11: From there the book went to the newsstands!
D999. The Kabanas publisher sure knew how to do
the least possible to get those books out for sure.
How ironic that with that lack of concern for quality it
created, at least to American eyes, such a novel and
wonderful little hodge podge of books. I can tell you
honestly that of all the books in my foreign collection,
the Marvel Kabanas books hold a special place in my
heart.
So Idefix got to keep his name intact! A little wet
dog is the perfect metaphor for how the American
publishers treated their characters abroad in the early
days from my research. It’s unbelievable the stuff the
licensing departments were doing, or not doing. Like
a dog left out in the rain the intellectual properties
were left to fend for themselves it seems. But, like I
stated above, many of the older foreigns were special
because of this lack of oversight. These older “wet