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<   No. 30   2003-02-19   >

Comic #30

1 Haken: Ich habe genug dieses unverschämten Schweinhund gehabt, der meine schlechten Pläne für Weltherrschaft verdirbt!
2 Haken: Geh Herr Doktor Jones gefangennehmen und töten ihn in einer schmerzlichsten Weise! Sofort und mit extremem Voruteil!
3 Haken: Schnell!!!
3 Erwin: Jawohl, mein Kommandant!
4 Haken: I love German. It's such a good language to get angry in.

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Colonel Haken is saying:

Panel 1: I've had enough of this impudent pig-dog spoiling my evil plans for world domination!
Panel 2: Go and capture Doctor Jones and kill him in a most painful manner! Immediately and with extreme prejudice!
Panel 3: Quickly!!!

I considered changing the last panel to this:

... but figured that would just make things a little too obscure.


Sebastian Hoffman (a native German speaker) kindly wrote to tell me that, although he understands I'm not aiming for brilliant and perfect German grammar:
but having Colonel Haken tell about his bad plans for world domination is just not what you wanted to say. :) So here is my proposal:

Panel 1: "Ich habe genug von diesem unverschämten Schweinehund, der meine bösen Weltherrschaftspläne durchkreuzt!"
Panel 2: "Gehen sie Herrn Doktor Jones gefangennehmen und töten sie ihn auf schmerzhafteste Weise! Sofort und ohne Vorbehalte!"
("with extreme prejudice" is not directly translatable. I think this is a good approximation, but it's not an idiom.)

Another one which is not based on being a translation from English:

Panel 1: "Ich habe genug von diesem unverschämten Schweinehund! Er hat meine bösen Weltherrschaftspläne zum letzten Mal durchkreuzt!"
("I've had enough of that impudent pig-dog! He has stopped my evil plans for world domination for the last time!")
Panel 2: "Nehmen sie Herrn Jones gefangen und töten sie ihn langsam und qualvoll! Sofort und ohne Rücksicht auf Verluste!"
("Capture Mister Jones and kill him slowly and painfully! Now and without regards for losses!")

I considered changing the dialogue in the strip to one of Sebastian's suggestions, but then I realised it's funnier leaving it the way it is and providing an extra bonus laugh for readers who understand German. :-)
2011-12-03 Rerun commentary: And so begins my long and tortuous journey with badly translated German.

Haken, by the way, is German for hook, for any of you who never got that gag before.

This is the first appearance of the giant swastika in the background, which I put there to make sure you know these are Nazis. The swastika is made from black and white LEGO bricks, and... holy cow. I made it in 2003. That LEGO swastika is still sitting constructed in my box of random set pieces for Irregular Webcomic! I have this small box of things I've constructed out of LEGO bricks for use in the comic over the years, and which I may need to use again. There's a bunch of things in there, like the control panel of the Legacy, the background wall segments I use a lot, the desks, and so on. And it looks like the oldest thing in there is the swastika.

Maybe I should take it apart...

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My comics: Irregular Webcomic! | Darths & Droids | Eavesdropper | Planet of Hats | The Dinosaur Whiteboard | mezzacotta
My blogs: dangermouse.net (daily updates) | 100 Proofs that the Earth is a Globe (science!) | Carpe DMM (long form posts) | Snot Block & Roll (food reviews)
More comics I host: The Prisoner of Monty Hall | Lightning Made of Owls | Square Root of Minus Garfield | iToons | Comments on a Postcard | Awkward Fumbles
Last Modified: Wednesday, 18 January 2012; 23:58:13 PST.
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