The Offensive
As you can see, I found a slightly larger image of the awesome cover of the third and final manga-sized installment of The Painted Man in Japan, which went on sale just the other day. Twilight Dancer looks big and badass, almost like he was a demon himself, which is exactly how he is described in the books.
Interestingly, google translates the title of the final volume as “The Offensive”, which I wasn’t sure was a warning of graphic content or a description of the giant scene of coreling carnage towards the end. I asked Momoko Wani, my wonderful Japanese translator, and here’s what she said:
“Speaking of the title, it is a bit different from that plain nuance ‘offensive’. Well, if you translate it into English, like this; ‘it’s our turn!’.
The title is a challenging roar from the three kids’ throats, who can decide their own matter by themselves now; against their world, and probably their future.
Or you can take it as a roar by all human beings against demons.”
I really like that translation, and that title. I think it captures the essence of the final story arc very well. It’s an interesting thing about Japanese; the written language carries many meanings that can be lost in translation, similar to English homonyms, only more so. It reminds me of a post on Patrick Rothfuss’ blog last month about how translation is more an art than a science, and why computers will likely never fully replace human translators.
Anyway, I’m excited that my Japanese readers finally get to see how the story ends, too. The Polish readers still have to wait until February…
In other news, the interview I did with Annie the Superfast Reader on her blog, Reading is My Superpower is up. Check it out if you’re interested. She asks some fun new questions, and on the questions I have been asked before, like who my influences are, I tried, as always, to answer truly, yet still differently from how I have in other interviews.
Also, I have some schedule news for New York ComicCon. I will be making the following scheduled appearances:
New York ComicCon
Jacob Javits Center, New York, NY
Saturday, February 7
1:30-2:30pm – Panel – SciFi/Fantasy roundtable – room 1A21
4:00-4:30pm – Signing at Del Rey booth (Del Rey will be giving away free advance copies to all comers for me to sign!)