Félicitations – Anthea Bell OBE

By John Freeman on January 3, 2010

Our belated congratulations to Anthea Bell for receiving her Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours list for “services to Literature and Literary Translations.”

Anthea is best known to us for the English language translations of the Goscinny and Uderzo Asterix books along with her translating partner Derek Hockridge. However the duo have translated many more bandes dessinees albums than just the Asterix books, from the cowboy adventures of Lt Blueberry to the Arabian humour of Iznogoud (now published by Cinebook).

She discusses her work on the Asterix books in an excellent article on The Art Of Translation written for the British Council’s website as well as her love of the character on the Asterix International website.

In addition to these comic strips she has also translated many novels into English and is interviewed at Writer Unboxed about her work translating Cornelia Funke’s children’s novels from German into English.

However for us she will always be part of the translation team who turned a Gallic Bard, who’s original name translated as “Comprehensive Insurance”, into the wonderful Cacofonix.

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.