Yesterday I opened the PO box to find a package from Lisbon. I have a publisher there, Editorial Bizancio. Luis Alves and his wife discovered my work on line years ago when they were starting a new book publishing company. I was their first comic collection... since then they also publish Baby Blues and Zits book collections for the Portugal market.
Stone Soup drew their eye because it translates literally... Sopa de Pedra, which is the national dish of Portugal. The fairy tale for which my strip is named is part of their culture, making how that relates to my cast of characters an easy jump for them. Besides... family life is family life, and the (barely) controlled chaos of the Stone Soup family is familiar territory to parents around the world.
"Estado de Sitio" translates into "State of Siege." This cover art is from a cartoon where Joan is saying "The children are winning". I think it's a great title, and maybe Luis should pick my book titles from now on.
If you are wondering why you've never seen this book cover or title in English... Editorial Bizancio chose to publish the 5th book collection, "Not So Picture Perfect", in two parts (it's a substantial 320 pages).
It's really fun to look through a translation of the strip. The dialogue is interesting to peruse... here's Val and Phil running late for a movie—
And then there are the sound effects, like CRASH! —
And finally, even though I don't speak Portuguese, I think I know what this means:
Speaking of book titles...
readers have been asking if there's another Stone Soup collection in the works. The answer is yes... in fact, there are two. The first will be officially released in January, but hopefully available for order in the fall, before Christmas. The second will be a June release. Book publishers everywhere are struggling, but Four Panel Press, with it's singular focus (me) and devoted founder (M.S.) marches on. I am truly blessed.
Title ideas anyone?
Having read the Portuguese books more times than I dare to count, I was pretty disappointed with this cover mainly because it pictured Joan and Wally's daughter before I even read about it. Talk about a huge spoiler...
Posted by: Caroca Sales | March 28, 2010 at 06:47 PM
What about "Just a Stone's Throw..." as a book title?
Posted by: Lucinda Wells | March 30, 2010 at 12:29 PM
But I'm confused about Joan and Wally's daughter being on the cover - she doesn't exist in Not So Picture Perfect, does she?
VERY excited about two new books coming out!! WOO HOO! (but will they be in time for me to survive my two teenage girls?) :-)
Jan, let me know if you're planning any trips to the S.F. Bay Area, we'd love to see you again
Posted by: Sharon | April 08, 2010 at 11:56 AM
I got into "Stone Soup" through the Portuguese translations many years ago. Switched to the originals because it doesn't lose the timing from the English but also because it took them forever to release volume 5. And read them daily on Gocomics.
Glad to hear about the new collections coming next year.
PS - They don't publish "Zits", another publisher does. But they do publish "Pearls before Swine" and "Get Fuzzy".
Posted by: Miguel | June 07, 2010 at 05:54 PM
Hi Miguel,
Thanks for reading Stone Soup in two languages! I so appreciate it. And thanks for the correction about Zits and Bizancio.
Now, back to proofing books 8 9. Coming soon! -----Jan
Posted by: Jan Eliot | June 08, 2010 at 01:51 PM