POW! SMASH! KABOOM!

One recent afternoon, Lalia and I wandered down the street to the newsstand. In a few minutes, we returned home with a small stack of comic books and sat down to work.

No, we’re not in our second childhood! We are researching the contemporary language used in Brazilian comic books, in order to translate the Manga Messiah into Portuguese. This 280-page Japanese comic version of the life of Christ is a first for the Brazilian evangelical book market.

In Japan, manga style comics sell at a monthly rate of at least 120 million copies. Their unique visual style has become a significant part of the 21^st century world pop culture. Manga Messiah leverages this effective story-telling medium to communicate the gospel to today’s highly connected youth culture.

Lalia and I thoroughly enjoyed working together on this project. We laughed frequently, looking for the “hip” word or phrase. It was a welcome change of pace from the traditional books we are used to translating and editing!

OK... time to get back to work. Now, what was the word for "WAAOOW!"? How about "THUP THUP"?

Some of our best source material in Portuguese is a series of comic books by Maurício de Sousa, a long-time cartoonist. Tough research...whatever it takes!