Archie Sonic Comic Translations

Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Comics - Translations

As of 2015, Archie is still #1 at producing the most Sonic comics, both in number of issues & number of spin off series. Because they're so popular, it's an easy bet for success to translate them into other languages & sell them in different countries. Attempts with a few issues have been made before, and any attempts will be added to this page. However, no company has successfully done all of the comics into another language.

The French company (in France) Delcourt tries their hand at translating some Archie Sonic stories. They made thicker 'trade like' books out of issues of the comic. The backs describe the story inside, and the covers are sometimes chosen randomly. Like, it's not the cover for the issue in there & sometimes it makes no sense with the story. They also appear to choose some of the Archie variant covers for their book's main cover. Delcourt is at http://www.editions-delcourt.fr All images & info in section by TheFatPanda

Here, you can see some details of the books. There's the cover (with Delcourt logo at the bottom) the splash page (with Death Egg) & 2 examples of the cover-liner pages (both front and back) The top one uses the cover "Sonic Says Fight for Freedom" as a repeated tile, while the bottom one chooses neo-classic Sonic art scattered around geometric shapes. (Why neoclassic? The book features only modern style art) As you can see at right, the spines are plain, with the Sonic logo in bold in the middle & a small Sonic icon near the top.

The translation consists of getting all the English out of the word bubbles & background text, then putting in the equivelent French so anyone could understand it. It's pretty typical for a translation. Here, you can see an interior page example, and a 'teaser' page for their next issue/book (volume 7) placed at the end of the story. (Snivly seen there in the last panel of that one)

Sadly, however, Delcourt doesn't seem to be handling the volume very well. They're slow, with 48 pages released twice per year, and as this owner-account details, it skips around. So if you only knew French, you'd still have to buy the English ones to fill in with looking at the pictures the bits this company is missing. That might make it more confusing. As of 2015, the 7th book is over due, however it may be cancelled.
(If it is, probably mis-handleing of the stories is to blame, fans want the whole thing, not to skip around)

"These hardback books began publication back in May 2012 and have been released twice yearly since (usually every May and November). Each book clocks in at roughly 48 pages.

For some reason they chose to start it off at the "Genesis" saga and continue it from there. And they make absolutely no effort to explain things :P

I gets particularly stranger later on where they randomly decided to skip a whole chunk of the story (going from Antione being blasted by Metal Sonic in "Unthinkable" to the "Endangered Species" arc. The random choices they make will become more apparent in the full story list:

Book 1: "Sonic Les Origines 1/2"

Collects issues 226 and 227 (the first two parts of "Genesis") and the first two pages of 228, serving as a teaser for the next book.

Book 2: "Sonic Les Origines 2/2"

Issues 228 and 229.

Book 3: "Arrière toute!"

Collects "Two Steps Back" (first story from 230), "Lost in the Moment" (from 231) and the first eleven pages of "Dark Tidings" (first story from 232)

Book 4: "Le jeu de alliances"

Collects the remaining pages from "Dark Tidings", "The Trial of Geoffrey St. John" (first story from 233) and the entirety of 234 (both stories).

Book 5: "Lost World et campagnie"

And now for something completely different! This book collects the comic tie-in stories for Sonic Lost World and Sonic Generations, the Olympic Games story from 242, and..."Unfriendly Skies" from the same issue (the prelude to "Endangered Species")

Book 6: "Espèces En Voie De Despiration"

Collects the first two chapters of the now-considered-infamous "Endangered Species" arc, before jumping all the way back to the 218 back-up story "Hindsight" out of freaking nowhere."

Above you can see the tie in Lost World was translated & added, though it was sort of small/mandated by Sega to coincide with the game. The row of cover thumbnails (far left) is on the interior of the cover. They used the CG art of the Deadly 6 for their liner page. The bottom image (tilted comic with thumb) shows the size of a normal Archie comic with the Delcourt book, which is a little bit bigger. All info & images in this section by TheFatPanda

Panini Germany Archie Translated Comic Cover

Panini Comics/Books of Germany did a German language translation of some of the Archie comics as well. However, they suffered the same problem (and same fate) as the France attempt above: due to super infrequent releases, missing plotlines & general inability to keep up, it had low sales and was apparently cancelled.

" In July 2012 they launched "Sonic Das Comic Magazine". At first they also made an odd choice of where to begin: they started from the first issues of Sonic Universe. Two issues per issue, released every two months. It only ran for 4 issues.

Issues and stories:

Issue 1- SU#1-#2

Issue 2- SU#3-#4

Issue 3- SU#5-#6

Issue 4- SU#7-#8

Each magazine came with a free gift attached to the cover (common for kids magazines published in Europe), which was usually a cheaply made plastic toy of little value. Currently, the magazines & their toys are difficult to find

After this magazine ended they moved onto the another series: issues of the main Sonic comic published as actual comics. Published every two months, two stories each.
Like the French edition, they pick up at the Genesis saga. The difference here is that they actually make some effort to explain things, going above and beyond in a lot of instances.
An example is the footnotes in the stories that refer to previous issues. In instances where the footnote refers to something that happened before Genesis, it's changed to a brief explanation of what they're talking about, like when Sonic refers to when he was roboticized the footnote just specifically says "Yes, Sonic was once subject to roboticization". There are even instances where they ADD footnotes where there weren't any before, like when Sonic thinks about something Scourge said to him at the start of 236, they add a new footnote explaining who this random green hedgehog the readers have never seen before is supposed to be.
The comics more or less print each issue from Genesis onward in the right order, back-up stories intact and no gaps (except, I think, for 242). The series got cancelled after issue 9 due to low sales. Issue 10 was planned for release (and to this day still appears on Panini's website) but has remained unreleased.

Some of the extras they have include character profiles and games.

They released there own translation of the Sonic Archives too, though only one issue has been released. "Sonic Sonderband" prints the first eight issues of the main Sonic comic series. Unlike the Archives however, they're printed as full-sized books rather than in digest format."

www.paninicomics.de is the website, and a search for "Sonic" will produce the cover images. As you can see (and why not all of them are archived here) is that they're pretty much the same as the standard release but with the German words on there like "NEU" instead of "New" and "Das Schnelleste Comic Heft Der Welt" which is "The Fastest Comic in the World"....ish. The right side starburst is an ad to win an ipod case. Info quoted provided by TheFatPanda