The Maniac Collector's Inbox Chinese Graphic Novels
The never ending pursuit to find previously undiscovered translations of Sherlock Holmes has it's peaks and valleys. I go through periods where there is nothing to be found. All of the usually places are void of anything new and exciting. These periods can last for a few weeks or sometimes several months in a row. Everything balances out though because there are the same swings for the up-periods. Things have really started to pick up after a rather long dry spell. Maybe the world economy will follow suit.
First, as I reported earlier, according to UNESCO's Index Translationum there have been Assamese and Tajik translations of the Canon. This brings a total of eighty-four languages that was Canonical translations. I am sure John Bennett Shaw is smiling down at these numbers. That is twenty more translations than John had in his great collection. The second good sign is I was able to find a copy of the Tajik book, Qhikojaqho dar borai Šerlok Holms. Irfon published this in Dušanbe in 1982! The fact that it took me twenty-seven year to discover it is encouraging to me. I find it exciting thinking of the possibility that other translations are out there just waiting on me or someone like me to bring them to the collector's light. The same Russian company, The East View, which located the Tajik Sherlock Holmes also found an Azerbaijani translation, Baskervillar iti published in 2007 in Baku by Altun Kitab. The final sign that things are improving arrived from Vancouver, Canada in the form of Chinese graphic novels. I found twelve volumes with each one a Canonical story. The stories are abridged but the interesting covers make up for this, at least it does for me. Each of these little books measure 5" x 3.75". Each one has a distinctive color cover and the story is drawn using about 3 inches leaving .75 inch for the Chinese text.
I included a few of the covers below. In all the twelve books contain fourteen stories. One has THOR and 3GAR in it and another has FINA and ABBE. All of the others only have a single story. There seems to be four different publishers of these little gems. Lingnan Art Publishing House; Zhejiang People's Publishing House; Chao Hua Art Publishing House; and Jilin People's Publishing House are all located in Beijing.
The Adventure of the Speckled Band 1982. 124 p.
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton. 1985. 124 p.
A Study in Scarlet 1981. 184 p.
Hound of the Baskervilles 1979. 142 p.
A Study In Scarlet 1981 126 p. Happy Collecting!!
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