est offices where the main characters from Marvel
found a new home from which to reach the Spanish-speaking world. However, the American comic
books were secondary to the Mexican pocket-sized
comic books whose print run numbers were close to
one million weekly copies.
I ventured into Novedades motivated by the fact
that they would credit the translators. I could hardly
wait to see my name printed next to such legends as
Lee, Kirby or my new idols, Byrne and Miller. I spent
six years at Novedades working, initially, on the
Fantastic Four, then Spider-Man and Spider-Woman.
I also worked in special editions reprinting Annuals
and other special editions of these magazines.
In the series “Páginas de la Historia” (“pages in history”) of “Novelas Inmortales”, I was also given the
opportunity to work as an illustrator, an experience
that made me realize how difficult it was to draw
comics.
While the offices were a far cry from those of Novaro, the translation system was virtually identical to
the one used there, with the exception that proofreading was practically non-existent. Remy Bastien,
the publisher, or his assistant, went over the translation and made only minor changes that, in their
opinion, were relevant.
At first, the lettering was done by hand, allowing
some freedom in terms of the space occupied by the
texts inside the word balloons. Unfortunately, shortly
thereafter, they decided to use printed typography.
From all the Marvel superheroes printed by Novedades, only Spider-Man survived the economic crisis
brought on by the peso devaluation in 1986. By then,
and just like the dire Mexican economic situation,
my working relationship at Novedades had begun to
deteriorate.
Comic book balloons were smaller than those appearing in the stories of the sixties, but the font that
was used in the typesetting process was the same.
The results were not to the editor´s liking. Despite
this and other minor disagreements it was Novedades editor-in-chief Remy Bastien, who best knew
the medium, and who is even now remembered by
fans with admiration and respect.
Page 6
Editorial ViD: 1986 and 1990
Advised by Remy I went to the offices of Editorial Vid
which had by then bought the rights to D.C.´s characters and had begun printing the Spanish version of
John Byrne´s “Man of Steel”.
With some copies of my translations clutched nervously in my hands, I walked into the editorial offices
to meet with Editor Francisco (Paco) Jimenez. At the
entrance of what once had been the owner´s house,
located in the back street of the gigantic “ Torre Vid”,
a small bronze statue of “Memín Pinguín”, ViD´s
Mexican flagship comic book character, welcomed
visitors.
Much to my surprise instead of offering me work
as a translator, the editor asked me to blow-up and
touch-up certain Superman and Batman panels
drawn by John Byrne, Jerry Ordway and David Maz-
Batman Year One Published by VID
Continued on page 8