Dark Horse Releases

Peregrine_Falcon said:
By the way, does anyone know why Amazon and every bookshop I could get in contact with is selling it in their stores a MONTH after its release date?

This same situation has plagued me here in NJ. In my area (Central Jersey), you have to hunt for a copy of Berserk during it's scheduled release. The comic book store by me, who apparently has alot of people reserving copies of it, IS ALWAYS LATE. Barnes and Noble which is 2 mins from my house doesn't even offer it. :puck: Why? Can someone tell me? The only places I know of that has the on time is a comic store 30 mins away from me and a place in PA. WHY IS THE WORLD SUCH A CRUEL PLACE? :judo:
 
I hate to burst anyone's bubble but in a week or two both the summary and the colored frames will almost certainly be added the volumes on darkhorse's page; they will also be adding a 4 page preview. They have done these 3 things, within a month of a volume's release, for every single volume at least since volume 13. I wasn't checking their website prior so i can't speak on that.

After fixing the SFX boxes, it also seems that they finally agree to remove those atrocious series summaries.

Check it out:

http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=14-354

http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=14-355

It also appears that they are going to use colored frames on the covers now, so the stupid, American logo won’t cover up so much of the artwork (this was the worst for volume 13).

http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=13-515
 
Peregrine_Falcon said:
By the way, does anyone know why Amazon and every bookshop I could get in contact with is selling it in their stores a MONTH after its release date?

The release date on Dark Horse's site is the date that it will arrive as shipped by Diamond, the company that ships comic books, manga and other collectibles to specialty shops. For regular book stores, it's a whole different system that I don't know anything about except that it takes longer. Your best bet is to go to a local comic book shop if you really want to get it as soon as possible.
 
The Dark Horse website directed me to http://www.tfaw.com/ to purchase the Berserk issue. It has listed the publication date for 7/25/07 as opposed to Amazon which listed it for 8/25/07. Is pre-ordering Berserk from them worth my time and is their shipping fairly quick? If not, then what are some other online stores that would be worthwhile?

EDIT: As of today, Amazon has bumped up Berserk #18's release date to 7/18/07:

http://www.amazon.com/Berserk-18-Graphic-Novels/dp/1593077432/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-2397168-9368418?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184529678&sr=8-1
 
The best place I've been able to find Berserk in every state I've come across is Waldenbooks, ironically those in malls. When I go to f*in huge Barnes&Noble, they've no Vagabond, and if they -do- have Berserk, there's usually a massive gap in the series. My guess is the mature rating, but beats me.

As for Dark Horse, CORNY PUN INCOMING, people have been riding them way too much. Yeah, I have a few discrepancies with any translation/Americanization, be it manga or whatever the fuck from another nation/language, but in all honesty they've done a fantastic job with Berserk and at least try to fucking listen to the negativity people love to shit on them with. Yes, I'm saying at no aimed persons in N.A who depend on this "English" translation to be grateful, and if you don't like it or you are a big enough Berserk fan enough to where it DOES actually matter, you obviously are going to get the original published Japanese versions, so its beyond self-defeating to complain about them.
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
Manji said:
As for Dark Horse, CORNY PUN INCOMING, people have been riding them way too much. Yeah, I have a few discrepancies with any translation/Americanization, be it manga or whatever the fuck from another nation/language, but in all honesty they've done a fantastic job with Berserk and at least try to fucking listen to the negativity people love to shit on them with. Yes, I'm saying at no aimed persons in N.A who depend on this "English" translation to be grateful, and if you don't like it or you are a big enough Berserk fan enough to where it DOES actually matter, you obviously are going to get the original published Japanese versions, so its beyond self-defeating to complain about them.

I will agree that overall DH has done a pretty good job with Berserk, but to say that we can't criticize them for their mistakes is outrageous. For one, I simply care about the quality of products associated with the story and characters I have grown to love. Secondly, I would honestly rather buy volumes from DH. I'm not sure how many sets of eyes you have, but reading back and forth from the manga to a translation script is the very definition of tedious. And why can't members be upset when the translators take things into their own hands? We should be grateful that we are not reading Berserk as it was intended?

As for my personal complaint, the whole issue of the SFX was very frustrating for a number of reasons stated by a large number of people in this very thread, and the belligerent "Fuck you, quit bitching about our product" response from DH at the time was ridiculous. I can't say for certain, but I'm guessing that it's due to consumer criticism that they finally toned down the SFX enough that now its pretty much a non-issue.

In conclusion, I'll complain if I feel I need to.
 
Aazealh said:
Now be a good boy and go spend your time with something else.
sktoetag.jpg


Can't we all just get along?
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
This whole mess just went in circles; down the drain with it. Guys, it's not your jobs to reply to posts concerning the board, it's Aaz's, so stop instigating these little pissing contests because his motives really aren't the same. I can't even read these threads anymore where the miles of quotes and endless replies break out.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Jaze1618 said:
Picked up Volume 18 today at Xanadu In Seattle at 3rd and Virginia

I'm hoping Kinokuniya has it in stock tomorrow when I grab lunch. I'm glad I decided to give Dark Horse another chance, as the SFX translations in the last couple volumes are done very well. They're much easier to ignore now that they're not surrounded in giant white rectangles. I really hope they alter the previous ones that used the big white boxes so that they're less noticeable whenever they decide to reprint them (not really familiar with the whole 1st print, 2nd print, etc. process, or how often it's done).
 
Rhombaad, I was thinking specifically of you when I went to the details of including where in Seattle I found it. Good Luck!
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Jaze1618 said:
Rhombaad, I was thinking specifically of you when I went to the details of including where in Seattle I found it. Good Luck!

Thanks man, I'll check Xanadu this weekend if I can't get it at Kinokuniya.
 
Picked up Volume 18 today at Xanadu In Seattle at 3rd and Virginia

Lucky bastard! :judo: I wound up special ordering mine from a video game shop and it may take weeks to come. By the way, Amazon has decided to start shipping Volume 18 by September 24th, so don't bother.
 
Just got mine today. Of course, my local comic shop and the Waldens by me didn't have it. So I had to drive a few towns over and pick it up, but OH I GOT IT! (and picked up an Aliens/Predator Panel to Panel book...and like $150 worth of series I needed to catch up...TIME TO NERD OUT!!!!!)
 
The copy that I had ordered from amazon on July 15 FINALLY came today. I hope that amazon isn't going to be this slow on every volume. The SFX translations have remained unnoticeable and the cover art looks much crisper and less discolored than the previous volumes. I hope they use frames for all the upcoming DH Berserk volumes; keeping the cover art at original size really helped (I don't think this metallic color was the best choice though). I haven't read through all the pages yet but I haven't come across any translation that sounds weird.

Created by Kentarou Miura, Berserk is an unstoppable manga avalanche, an overwhelming epic of unbridled action, unsettling horror, and uncivil humor that has crushed both friend and foe alike in its relentless path of destruction. No pain, no gain!

The blurbs still suck like always, though.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
I don't currently own any Dark Horse volumes. I had the first three, but I was so impressed (like by the typo on page 1) I gave them to my ex-girlfriend. Though despite this and my constant bitching, even driving Chris Warner himself from these boards, I concede that I will be buying them one day, which is probably why I'm so crabby about it, it's my Gad damn inescapable fate. =)

Anyway, I've been patiently waiting, hoping Dark Horse would sort out it's issues and that subsequent reprints would improve quality, of course, the opposite is also possible, and it seems that there's no standard or continuity in how the volumes are being handled, such as half of them having SFX boxes and half not.

So, can I get some advice on my course of action, because I only want to buy them once (since I'm actually buying the volumes themselves for the second or even third time). I imagine earlier volumes have improved with reprinting, perhaps not as dark, typos removed, printing errors gone (such as doubled episodes in a volume, etc.), that's basically the kinds of things I'd like to know, how do the reprints compare to the early releases? Have things only gotten better, or have they cheaped out even further like on paper quality and ink? I basically don't want to wait for improvement only to find out they actually got worse when it's too late for me to do anything about it (or worse yet, they go out of print altogether). Might I as well get them now, or might it be worthwhile to wait a bit longer, how's the series selling, what are the odds of higher quality reissuing after a time, these sort of things (how's that generally work with a long published series, I know Vagabond is being reissued, but that may not be common)? Like, are they possibly going to spruce up earlier volumes further, maybe even add the SFX bubbles? I might as well wait for something like that (even if it means waiting for years) if all the proceeding volumes will have them, since my chief concern is the translation anyway ("Groovy!").

Thanks in advance.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I can't speak for reprints, as I don't own two editions of any one volume. But I do own DH volumes 3-12, and I can say the paper/ink quality certainly goes up as it progresses. Logically, reprints would follow that trend, unless their source material is the culprit of those messy too dark/light images that seem to be the bane of the DH editions... Well, that and *SFX :troll: Of course, I own the japanese editions if I want to see near-flawless image reproduction. So, my purchase of the DH versions would, like you, be purely for the translation.

Anyway, I also am grumbling about picking up the missing volumes, since I know I'll ultimately do it. I think the only reason I haven't is Im running out of bookshelf space. That and my wounded pride.
 
I received the first 6 volumes around February 14th of this year, the next 3 volumes a couple months later, 8 volumes on June 10th and the last one today, so I can say that the majority of the ones I have are reprints. I don't recall spotting any errors on the reprint of the first volume. The first volumes were darker than normal and some of the later volumes seemed slightly lighter than normal, but this is minor to me.

The SFX translations are not insane like the ones in volume 13. You have to actually be looking for them to even find most of them at this point. Nothing is in a box, most are in small, narrow print in the gutter area, some are written in small, narrow, white text in black background, but you still have to look for them to notice them. Some of them are just transliterations like ZHA-ZHA but most are actual translations like CLOMP, WHAP, and ROAAAR. Sometimes they put in explanations of certain things an English speaking reader might not catch on such as Puck's running style being an imitation of Japanese comedian Kinichi Hagimoto's or the meaning of Tapasa.

The latest preview page they have up is this. You can get an idea of what the SFX translations look like:
http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/preview.php?theid=14-352&p=4

I have compared its translation quality to those of other online translations/scanlations. Its translation is MUCH better. One example would be in the first episode of volume 17 when Puck wants Guts to be more appreciative of being saved. One scanlation, for example, had him say "Pretty please with sugar on top" in order to get the keys. That does not sound right for the Black Swordsman. The DH translation had him say "Thank you, O great Puck" instead, which makes much more sense. There are also no added, useless obscenities, and each character has a talking style to match their personality. I didn't spot anything as out of place as "groovy", but I did notice that in volume 15 when the bird pecked Puck off, Puck said, "I doth care nevermore!", which is a reference to Edgar Allan Poe's Raven poem. I don't know what a literal translation of that was. That was the only reference that stuck out like a sore thumb.

I appreciate the fact that Chris Warner came on this board, listened to the fans, and addressed their complaints. The reprints are much better (I didn't notice any grammatical errors), None of my pages were shifted over (although there were a few instances in which the tip of the letters did go off the top of the page, but I had no trouble reading what they were saying), and the SFX are translated but are virtually invisible in all of the latest volumes. Unfortunately, they were very conspicuous for volumes 12-14 and that was not fixed in the reprint, which makes reading it a pain in the ass. I don't blame him for leaving the forum, but I'd really wish that he'd come back.

If you've already purchased the volumes before, you don't have to buy the DH ones if you hate them so much. Quality does improve through reprints, so wait a while if slight light tint or a slight dark tint bother you. Amazon sells them for $11.16 each. If you order them in at least bundles of 3, you can get free shipping which usually arrives in a week; that's the cheapest method I have seen so far for getting the books.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Walter said:
Anyway, I also am grumbling about picking up the missing volumes, since I know I'll ultimately do it.

I broke down a lot earlier than I thought I would and purchased Vol. 13 and onward. I feel a bit (well, more than a bit) like a hypocrite for doing so, especially after I wrote that email to Chris Warner way back when. The SFX boxes are pretty distracting in volumes 12-14, but from 15 onward they've done a really good job of making them as unnoticeable as possible. If they ever fix this issue in volumes 12-14, I'll definitely buy those again, as their new way of handling the SFX is a major improvement, but I have no idea if they plan on doing so. Aside from one instance of "grooviness" the translation has seemed pretty solid from volumes 4-18. The first 3 volumes definitely have the weakest translations, but I don't recall them being all that bad. I'll have to go back and reread them, as it's been a while.
 
Dark Horse should have been translating SFX and putting borders on the covers since the beginning... They should be more professional. "Dhey're idiots!"

Regardless, I bought volumes 1-15 and can't wait to read them.
 
If they ever fix this issue in volumes 12-14, I'll definitely buy those again

Me too.

I hope they don't use the metal frame for every volume. Black would be perfect for volume. 19. I liked Hakusensha's choices for colored frames but I don't understand why they decided to go back to the white frames later on.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Peregrine_Falcon said:
I hope they don't use the metal frame for every volume. Black would be perfect for volume 19.

Same, that would be pretty boring. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell yet, since the final cover art for DH's release of Vol. 19 isn't up on their site yet. The artwork for the volume's cover is up, but it's missing the DH logos and text.

Peregrine_Falcon said:
I liked Hakusensha's choices for colored frames but I don't understand why they decided to go back to the white frames later on.

Personally, I always liked the white frames better. :guts:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Thanks for the info guys, especially Peregrine_Falcon. If anyone else has more to say or simply an opinion on the likelihood of these changes ever being made to previous volumes (like, judgeing by industry norms, Id' guess not likely), I'd love to hear it.

Until then, I guess I'll continue to wait.
 
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