Like millions of other Americans this weekend, I succumbed to temptation and went to see the Iron Man movie. While the movie did an excellent job of introducing the character and concept to a viewing audience which predominantly knows little of the character or concept, what struck me was a moment early in the film when Stark’s captors recorded a message in arabic (I think), without the benefit of subtitles. This actually was important later in the film when the translated message revealed just how deep the villain’s plans went. Unfortunately, it is far more difficult to transpose this audience confusion into the prose aspect of comics.

When it comes to language differences, webcomics borrow a page from their print brethren, with text often given in English, with a notation or brackets revealing that the language is translated. The more elaborate comics will go so far as to provide the original language, often presenting a translation at the bottom of the panel or page. However, sometimes an artist will feel the need to present the same confusion characters feel to the reading audience. Thus we get word balloons full of gibberish, coherent only to those people who know the language or willing to suffer through a translation program. Even then, it doesn’t always work well.

Of course, there are times when the art carries understanding better than the words, such as one episode of Megatokyo two years ago, and another from a little over a year ago. In these cases, it is the characters themselves that convey understanding with expressions and body language. Indeed, the best of stories can be told without even a word spoken, relying only on character facial expressions and body language to tell the tale.

When it doesn’t work, such as this update of Evil Overlords United (specifically the Thingie back story), the audience is left with no knowledge of what’s going on and a confusion perhaps greater than that of the character. For those people who don’t other visiting forums, the language is a phonic cutting of Quebecan French and English (which means that online translation programs would be completely ineffectual). Even translations given on the site’s tagboard proved too transitory for the casual reader, who would find the scene beyond their comprehension and result in them shrugging and moving on to another comic, rather than struggle to understand what’s going on.

Seriously. What harm would there be in presenting a translation at the bottom of the page? It’s obvious that Zworgue doesn’t know what’s being said. Keeping the audience out of the loop makes no sense. There is nothing vital being said here, no secret of the villain that will be revealed with a “translate” button on a computer later in the movie. Nor is there any great story shown, using facial expressions and body language to help reveal either what is being said… or what effect those words give even without understanding.

Is there a time for not revealing what is being said in a comic? Definitely. If, like in Iron Man, the words are so vital that concealing them helps present a twist later in the story, then the words should be concealed. Inevitably, someone will translate it… but most of the audience will have no clue. But if the foreign words are used just for atmosphere, then a translation below the comic will help keep the audience happy and interested. Otherwise you risk losing your audience to other comics that don’t dick with their readers to that extent.

Addendum note: Once the character Zworgue was given a “babelfish” the artist went back and translated the rest of the comics. I feel that the gimmick was not successful, and that it’s far better for the audience to understand what’s being said (unless it is absolutely essential for the story for the audience not to know what’s going on) than to risk alienating readers when they’re lost in translation.