Although best known for the Adventures of Tintin, in the 30's Hergé also wrote a series of 310 short comic strips known as "Quick et Flupke" about two street urchins in Brussels. "Quick" was the name of a friend of Herge; "Flup" in Flemish is the diminutive for Philip and "ke" means little so Flupke means "little Philip." The two boys unintentionally cause trouble, often aggrivating their parents, neighbors, shopkeepers, and the police.
The Quick & Flupke strips (called "gags" in Europe) were published in black and white on the pages of "Le Petit Vingtième", a weekly youth supplement to the conservative Catholic newspaper, "Le Vingtième Siècle". The supplement, which included two pages of Tintin and two of Quick & Flupke, appeared every Thursday starting in January 1930 and continuing until May 1940, when the Germans invaded Belgium.
From time to time, the Quick & Flupke strips were gathered together in books, 5 in total of 88 to 96 pages each. The first two books were published by the Editions du Petit Vingtième while the last three and all the subsequent books were published by the Casterman publishing house. Volume 1 (1930) was reprinted as a replica book in 2011. Some of the strips were also republished in the 50's in Tintin magazine, conceived by Raymond Leblanc, this time colored by Studios Hergé.
Hergé eventually abandoned Quick & Flupke in order to spend more time on The Adventures of Tintin, his more famous series. Over the years, most of the strips were colored by Studios Hergé and published in two series of books, both titled Les Exploits de Quick et Flupke by the Casterman publishing house. Series 1 (serie) was 10 books of 30 pages each published between 1949 and 1961. This series plus an additional volume 11 was reprinted in the mid to late 60's with solid color covers without background stars. Series 2 (recueil) was 6 volumes of 62 pages each published from 1975 to 1982.
In January 2008, Euro Books India (a subsidiary of Egmont, UK) released English translations in softcover form of all 11 titles that were originally written by Hergé. Currently, these are available only in India, although Egmont planned to gradually release them in the UK. Two of them (#4, Under Full Sail, and #12, Fasten Your Seat Belts), were released in 2009. Interestingly, these translations by David Radzinowicz are different from the India English translations, which are not attributed to any specific person. More books were to have been released in the UK in 2010-11, but none were.
The Quick & Flupke strips (called "gags" in Europe) were published in black and white on the pages of "Le Petit Vingtième", a weekly youth supplement to the conservative Catholic newspaper, "Le Vingtième Siècle". The supplement, which included two pages of Tintin and two of Quick & Flupke, appeared every Thursday starting in January 1930 and continuing until May 1940, when the Germans invaded Belgium.
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| 5 out of 11 Q&F comics in English... |
Hergé eventually abandoned Quick & Flupke in order to spend more time on The Adventures of Tintin, his more famous series. Over the years, most of the strips were colored by Studios Hergé and published in two series of books, both titled Les Exploits de Quick et Flupke by the Casterman publishing house. Series 1 (serie) was 10 books of 30 pages each published between 1949 and 1961. This series plus an additional volume 11 was reprinted in the mid to late 60's with solid color covers without background stars. Series 2 (recueil) was 6 volumes of 62 pages each published from 1975 to 1982.
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| Translated by Kuntal |
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In this post I have translated and uploaded one of the "Quick & Flupke" comics, "Pranks & Jokes" in Bengali ("ঠাট্টা আর তামাশা"). In this book, in most of the conversations I have tried to convey the sense of the text, instead of following the 'literal translation'. Hopefully readers will find this classic humor strips quite interesting and funny, and will keep on laughing along with the hilarious adventures of two street urchins, Quick and Flupke, like the way I did. |
| Pranks & Jokes (in Bengali) |
I hadn't read this series before. So, firstly I thank you to enlighten us about the work. Then I again thank you to take the pain to translate the book in bengali for people like us. Kudos to you Sir.
ReplyDeleteI have tried to convey the sense of the text, instead of following the the 'literal translation'...এই ব্যাপারটা এখনো খুবই কম বঙ্গানুবাদে দেখা গেছে,সবারই টার্গেট থাকে আক্ষরিক অনুবাদ করা... এই দিকে লক্ষ্য দেওয়ার জন্যে অনেক ধন্যবাদ :)
ReplyDeletefatafati jinis dada.............aage kokhono porini
ReplyDeleteasadharan jinis dada............fatafati lagchhe porte..........natun jinis tar opor apnar anubad...khasha anubad hoechhe! jani khub basto manus apni.tabu request roilo ei anubad pratibha nasto hote deben na.........jodi samvob hoi ei series aro boi r ignogoud er bangla anubad er request roilo............
ReplyDeleteDARUN DURDANTO ..................... ANEK DHANYOBAD
ReplyDeleteDarun Kuntal, Tahole sheh abdhi tumi anubad shuru I kore dile & amader ke ekti sundar upohar dile Durga Puja shuru r prakkale. Asankhya dhanyabad tomake , ei series ta kintu first dekhlam.
ReplyDeleteQ & F er 1 ta issue kinechilam last year...humor gulo ektu dated ar,besh koyekta already onek humor-strip e use/re-use hoye geche incld. by ND ;),so not much new! But translation jompesh hoyeche..
ReplyDeleteSudhu title ta...'ঠাট্টা আর তামাশা' kemon jeno odbhut sonaye..although English title is 'Pranks & Jokes'
Thank you all who visited and read my bengali translation ("ঠাট্টা আর তামাশা") of "Qucik & Flupke".
ReplyDeleteIt is not like that I do not prefer to our own Indian/Bengali comics, but truly speaking there are lot of gaps in "Desi comics" - in terms of story, plot, drawings, characterization, and so on. I am not saying that just by reading foreign comics will solve those problems, but it will definitely help us (our comics writers) to think (and may be act on) like the way foreign writers do/did. The amount of "attention to the details" are found in Herge's, Gosccinny's or Raymond's comics, it's really amazing. I will try to translate some more new or less-known foreign characters/comics in near future. It takes lot of time - which is the main problem with my hectic life style, with a 3-years old kid - but your encouragement may obliterate that problem - so stay tuned at GALPOGHAR.BLOGSPOT.COM :-)
Osadharon onubad hoyeche..amader chotobelay anondomelar prothom diker theke suru kore motamuti '80 sal projonto Tintin-er amon maan-er onubad chilo, pore maan kharap hoye gache..apnake osonkhyo dhonyobad amader oneker ojana akta strip-ke amader amon chomotkar onubade upohar dewar jonye..
ReplyDeleteধন্যবাদ! :)
ReplyDelete