Last month I had a combination of flu, bronchitis, and pneumonia for four weeks. I had a rough go at it, and I still haven't quite recovered my aerobic fitness. If I had to run a 5k right now I'd be in trouble. I basically spent three weeks in bed without much movement beyond the necessities. Thank you to my wonderful mother who took care of the house and children when I couldn't. I pulled some muscles in my abdomen the second week, so I couldn't do much beyond lay on my side, wince from the coughing, and stare at my phone.
I took the opportunity to study Russian on Duolingo. A lot of Russian. I took a couple of quarters of Russian back at Seattle Pacific University in ~2006, and I had dabbled in Duolingo here and there since, but I'm now more proficient than I ever was. I'm proud to say I've achieved every achievement, including completing the tree.
Anyway, with my newfound proficiency I thought it would be fun to translate some Russian comics. I learned about Bubble Comics sometime in the past year or so. I found some online at comics.ru which looks super illegal, but I don't know enough about Russian copyright or the Russian equivalent to the DMCA to verify. I also found them here which looks pretty legit.
The problem was that these comics were pretty difficult for my level. I got a few pages in and super enjoyed it, but it was very slow going. I needed something more tailored for the young grade school level reader I am in Russian. So, I googled the history of Russian comics, and found this wonderful 3 part series by Maria Evdokimova on comicsforum.org which I found to be a super enlightening about the history and current state of Russian comics. This lead me to the Nu Pogodi comics in the early 2000s which is one of the first "modern style" Russian comics I've seen. It's also more Archie than Watchman, so almost exactly what I was looking for. The characters date back much farther than the comic series. You can find the original cartoons on YouTube.
Freaking hilarious. I got through the whole thing. It's about a wolf who's chasing a rabbit a la Wyle E. Coyote, and in this episode he buys problematic magic items from a mouse. Prat falls abound, it was pretty satisfying. Then, I found out there's a mini pastiche of the Ninja Turtles about ninja cockroaches. The ninja cockroaches are named after Russian Renaissance-era painters. Just look at it.
I translated them for Hermione for bedtime stories, and she loves them. She's asking for more, so it is great motivation for me to keep it up. I'm not fluent enough to translate them for her as I read them for the first time, but if I discern them beforehand I can read fast enough for a decent bedtime story. If I get some time, perhaps I'll upload some scanlations.
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