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ICELAND
KÓNGULÓARMAÐURINN
NR. 4 - 1989
BATMAN OG ROBIN
NR. 7 - 1990
Throughout all Scandinavian
countries the existence (or, predominantly,
non-existence) of native language editions of
popular US comic book titles is tied to the
presence and use of English.
"It is no exaggeration
to say that English plays a significant role
in contemporary Scandinavia."
(Norrby, 2014)
English is taught as a mandatory
subject in schools throughout Scandinavia,
resulting in 9–10 years of English teaching and
a generally high level of proficiency (Norrby,
2014). Not surprisingly, popular culture is one
of the domains where English is used a lot, not
the least because
"being good at English
(...) even seems to be a marker of national
identity, at least for young Swedes." (Norrby,
2014, quoting Oakes, 2001)
The consequence for
Scandinavian language editions of e.g. Marvel and
DC comics? Simple:
"The kids in Norway
are content with Marvel superheroes on TV and
[in] cinemas, while the adult fans know
English well enough to read the
originals. The translated material just isn’t
selling anymore." (Sätre,
2014)
Icelandic comics (teiknimyndasögur)
featuring Marvel or DC material are even
rarer, given the small potential market in a
country totalling just over 300,000 inhabitants,
but they do exist. I came across a nice selection
of both Marvel and DC titles from around 1989/90
at Bókakjallarinn, the "Book
Cellar", in mid-June 2015. Located in a basement in a
side courtyard off Laugavegur, one of
Reykjavík's main shopping streets, I would have
completely missed it except for two advertising
panels set up on both sidewalks, pointing the way
and prominently featuring covers of Icelandic
comic books featuring Batman, Spider-Man and the
Hulk.
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| Essentially a second hand
book store, its friendly owner Svavar Brynjúlfsson also
has a good selection of Icelandic editions of US comic
book material on offer, mostly in excellent condition.
Selecting one title from Marvel and DC each, I left the
Bókakjallarinn with KÓNGULÓAR MAÐURINN NR.
4 (1989) and BATMAN OG ROBIN NR. 7 (1990). |
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KÓNGULÓARMAÐURINN NR.
4 - 1989
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| Semic Press was not only
Sweden's largest comic book publisher throughout the
1970s (partly also thanks to taking over competing
publishers Centerförlaget in 1969 and Williams förlag
in 1975) but also built up an international market
presence throughout Scandinavia (publishing as Semic
Interpresse in Denmark, Semic nordisk forlag A/S in
Norway, and Kustannus Oy Semic in Finland) and other
European countries such as the Netherlands and France.
All of these operations were loosely connected under the
umbrella designation Semic International (not to be
confused with today's Semic International AB, which stems
from the original publishing house but is no longer
active in comics). In
late 1984 Semic secured the rights to Marvel material for
all of Scandinavia, and as the indicia from Kóngulóarmaðurinn
#4 (kóngulóar meaning "spider"
in Icelandic and maðurinn "man")
shows, Semic International with its company seat in
Sundbyberg (Sweden) was also behind this Icelandic
edition, distributed by Siglufjarðarprentsmiðja
(Siglufjarðar print media) from Iceland, but printed -
as virtually all comics from Semic International at the
time - in Finland.
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| Kóngulóarmaðurinn #4
is, in fact, virtually a clone of Edderkoppen #4, published almost simultaneously by
Semic in Norway. |
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Both editions
feature the same reprint material
on a total of 52 pages and the
same cover illustration (which
actually is the back cover from Marvel
Fanfare #27, originally
published for July 1986). The first
feature is the double-length and
thus 38 pages long story
"'Tis better to give!"
(translated faithfully into
Icelandic as "Betra er að
gefa!") from Marvel
Team-Up #150, the final
issue of that series (February
1985), scripted by Louise
Simonson, pencilled by Greg
LaRocque and inked by veteran
Mike Esposito. As was the
standard formula befitting a
title called Team-Up, every issue
featured Spidey and one or more
other superheroes from the Marvel
Universe. In this case, it was
the X-Men - X-Menn in icelandic,
Prosjekt X ("Project
X") in Norwegian.
All
very much standard Marvel 1980's
fare, readers got their shot of
specialness from the short (8
pages) backup story, originally
written and illustrated by Marc
Hempel for Marvel Fanfare
#27 (Hempel also drew and inked
the back cover used here for Kóngulóarmaðurinn
#4) and titled "Spidey
gets antsy".
As
the original title promises, this
is a quirky little piece about
Peter Parker simply being bored
stiff one evening and, as even
swinging about as Spider-Man
can't cool him down, he
ultimately finds amusement by
calling (and obviously waking up)
J Jonah Jameson in the middle of
the night for, well, absolutely
nothing.
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Batman og Robin #7/1990
(Iceland)
Läderlappen #1/1978
(Sweden)
Lynvingen #1/1978
(Norway)
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Batman
og Robin #7/1990, however, not only
differed in terms of cover (using a
standard Bob Kane vignette) but also in
terms of content - although Icelandic
readers probably didn't mind (if they
knew), as the material from Läderlappen
and Lynvingen not reproduced in Batman
og Robin was all non-Batman
material: a 1977 Vigilante story plus a
1955 story from DC's Gang Busters title.
Written by David Vern
Reed and pencilled by Ernie Chan (Chua)
this is a typical example from the
mid-1970s mystery stories which Reed came
up with, often using a seemingly
supernatural setting or plot device which
is later unmasked (usually by the Batman)
and found to be a completely
non-paranormal scheme by some criminal
mind.
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| Batman once again
encounters the villain who goes by the name of
The Spook, and although he cannot catch this
elusive foe the Spook for one reason or another
offers him clues to his next caper by flashing
location and time with an electronic sign on his
chest (a plot element which is actually lost in
the Icelandic version, cf. panels below). |
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| Over a series of further
encounters the Spook keeps encouraging Batman to kill him
as the fighting gets more intense. During their next
fight, Batman drops to the ground and the Spook, unaware
that Gotham's vigilante is using meditation techniques to
dull his pulse rate, finds no vital signs and assumes
Batman has died. |
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| Utterly
shaken, the villain screams in
frustration that he himself was to have
faked death, using the same techniques,
and Batman, who would have been unable to
trust himself not to kill again, would
have hung up his cape... Needless to say,
Batman revives himself and then tracks
down and captures the Spook for good. Batman
og Robin #7/1990 features two
shorter stories, the first -
"Skuggar hins liðna!"
("Shadows of the past") - being
an 8-page Batman backup story from Batman
#328 (October 1980) and originally titled
"A Tale of Time Past!", written
by Marv Wolfman, pencilled by Don Newton
and inked by Kim DeMulder, in which
Alfred thinks the Batcave is haunted and
Batman saves Commissioner Gordon's life
because he investigates the strange
sounds which have so unsettled his
faithful butler.
The second -
"Þjónn bófanna!"
("Servant of crooks!") - is a
7-page story from Dollar Comics format Detective
Comics #486 (November 1979)
originally titled "The Hospitable
Hostage!", scripted by Bob Rozakis
with art by George Tuska and Bob Smith.
It's almost an Alfred solo story as he
"entertains" intruders into the
Wayne penthouse in order to keep them
from discovering the Batman's secret
identity.
Two in-house
advertisements and a back cover
showcasing the 1966 TV series' Batgirl
round off Batman og Robin
#7/1990.
REFERENCES
NORRBY
Catrin (2014) "English in
Scandinavia: Monster or Mate? Sweden as a
Case Study", in Challenging
the Monolingual Mindset (John Hajek
& Yvette Slaughter, eds.), pp 17-32
(available online at academia.edu)
OAKES
Leigh (2001) Language and National
Identity - Comparing France and Sweden,
John Benjamins
SÄTRE
Trond (2014) "The nearly (?)
complete history of Marvel Comics in
Norway", serienett.,
published online 22 October 2014
BATMAN and
all related elements are the property of
DC Comics, Inc. TM and © DC Comics,
Inc., a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc.
The illustrations presented here are
copyright material. Their reproduction
for the study and review purposes of this
website is considered fair use
as set out by the Copyright Act of 1976,
17 U.S.C. par. 107.
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