''Comics are too expensive for kids. And they've changed,'' says a clerk at a comic shop in Virginia.
漫画对孩子来说太贵了，他们已经被改变了。一位弗吉尼亚的漫画书店店员说。
VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.
欢迎来到美国之音的今日美国节目，我是Steve Ember
VOICE TWO:
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"Incredible Hulk" in July at the Comic-Con 2008 convention in San Diego, California |
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And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we take a break from the news of the real world for a look at the world of comic books.我是 Barbara Klein，这星期的节目，我们要从现实世界的新闻中休息一下，来看一看漫画书里的世界。
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VOICE ONE:
Comics use drawings and words to tell stories that can be funny or serious, or a little of both. Comic books grew out of comic strips in newspapers. 漫画书用绘画和语言来表达或滑稽或严肃的故事，或者两者兼具。漫画书从报纸上的连环漫画发展而来。
One of the most successful early comic characters in America was Mickey Dugan, better known as "the Yellow Kid." He wore a yellow coat that was too big for him. 最早的成功漫画角色之一是Mickey Dugan，更以‘黄孩子’而广为人知。他穿着一件肥大的黄衣服。
He was a character in a comic strip in New York called "Hogan's Alley" by Richard Felton Outcault. It provided social commentary on the problems of cities.他是纽约Richard Felton Outcault的连环漫画霍根小巷中的角色。他对城市问题发表评论。
The Yellow Kid first appeared in eighteen ninety-five. The character became so popular that it was also used to sell products and to create stage shows. Over the years, many movies and TV shows have been based on stories and characters that first appeared in comic form. 黄孩子于1895年问世。这个角色很受欢迎，因此也被用于产品销售，被改编成舞台剧。许多年来，很多电影和电视节目是基于原先的漫画里的故事或角色的。
VOICE TWO:
Adventure stories in comic books were extremely popular during the nineteen thirties -- the period known as the Golden Age of Comics. 30年代最流行的漫画书是冒险故事，那段时期是漫画书的黄金时代。
Famous characters created during that time include the science fiction hero Flash Gordon and the detective Dick Tracy. Others from the golden age are the medieval adventurer Prince Valiant and the mysterious, masked Phantom.那个时期产生的著名角色包括科幻英雄飞侠哥顿，至尊神探。还有中世纪冒险家华伦王子和神秘的面具幽灵。
The nineteen thirties also gave us a superhero who came to Earth from the planet Krypton.
、30是年代也产生了来自克星的超人。
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VOICE ONE:
Superman is the secret identity of Clark Kent, a newspaper reporter for the Daily Planet in the big city of Metropolis.
超人是一个大城市的星球日报社的记者Clark Kent的秘密身份，
Superman became a hero of comic fans as he used his strength, X-ray eyes and ability to fly to fight for "truth, justice and the American way." Not bad for someone who jumped from the imaginations of two teenage boys in Cleveland, Ohio. 超人成为漫画迷的偶像是因为他用力量，透视眼和飞行能力为真理公正和美国生活方式而斗争。从两个来自俄亥俄州克利夫兰的少年的想象中跳出来的不错的角色。
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were seventeen when they created Superman in nineteen thirty-three. They sold the rights to the character to the DC Comics company for one hundred thirty dollars.
Jerry Siegel 和Joe Shuster 在1933年创造这个角色时只有17岁。他们把这个角色的版权以130美元的价格卖给了DC漫画公司。
That might have seemed like a lot to them at the time. But it was nothing compared to all the money made since then from Superman comics, radio and TV shows, movies and toys. 在当时对他们那是很大一笔钱。但和后来的超人漫画，广播，电视节目，电影，玩具上赚的钱相比就微不足道了。
Finally, in nineteen seventy-five, they threatened a legal fight to get more of a reward for their creation. DC Comics agreed to pay each of them twenty thousand dollars a year for life. And it agreed to identify Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster as the creators of Superman in all future printed materials and films.
最后，在1975年，他们威胁要以法律方式要求更多报酬。DC公司同意在他们一生中每年支付他们每人两万美元。并同意在将来的印刷品和电影中标明他们是超人的创造者。
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VOICE TWO:
In nineteen thirty-nine, six years after Superman, another hero arrived. Batman was the creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. 1939年，在超人产生后6年，另一个英雄出现了---蝙蝠侠，艺术家Bob Kane 和作家 Bill Finger的创造。
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These days, Batman is presented as a complex character with a dark side. But a lot of people remember him as a simple hero. He dresses in a bat suit to hide his identity as he fights evil-doers like the Joker and the Riddler in Gotham City.现在，蝙蝠侠以一个有阴暗面的复杂角色出现，但很多人只记得他是个英雄。他穿着蝙蝠装和像小丑或谜题先生这样的恐怖分子在纽约战斗。
Batman does not have superpowers. But he does have lots of money to support himself. Batman is the secret identity of Bruce Wayne. He saw his wealthy parents killed during a robbery. That experience led him to a life of fighting crime. 蝙蝠侠没有超能力。但他有很多钱。蝙蝠侠是Bruce Wayne的秘密身份。他目睹了富有的父母在抢劫中被杀，那次经历使他走上了和犯罪作斗争的道路。
VOICE ONE:
Spider-Man first appeared in nineteen sixty-two. Spider-Man is the secret identity of Peter Parker. 蜘蛛侠在1962年问世。蜘蛛侠是Peter Parker的秘密身份。
As the original story told it, he was an average teenager in high school until he got bitten by a radioactive spider in a laboratory. He developed great strength and the ability to shoot webs from his wrists. He can climb and swing between tall buildings and catch criminals with his sticky webs.据原始故事情节，他在被一只实验室的放射性蜘蛛咬到之前只是个平常的高中生。他具有了强大的力量还可以从手腕射出蛛网。他可以在建筑间攀爬，荡来荡去，并用他的粘网抓住罪犯。
Peter Parker is a young photographer for the Daily Bugle newspaper in New York. If this were real life, he would surely have wanted to be at the White House last Monday. President Bush presented one of this year's National Medal of Arts to Stan Lee, the former head of Marvel Comics. He helped give us Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men and others.
Peter Parker是纽约军号日报的年轻摄影师。如果这是真实的生活，他上星期一一定会想去白宫。布什总统出席了今年的神奇漫画公司的前掌门人思丹里的颁奖仪式。他给了我们超人，神奇绿巨人，X战警和其他角色。
This was his introduction at the ceremony:
这是他在意识上的介绍
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President Bush presents a 2008 National Medal of Arts to comic book creator Stan Lee at the White House |
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SPEAKER: "The 2008 National Medal of Arts to Stan Lee, for his groundbreaking work as one of America's most prolific storytellers, recreating the American comic book. His complex plots and humane superheroes celebrate courage, honesty and the importance of helping the less fortunate, reflecting America's inherent goodness."2008年的艺术国家勋章颁给思丹里，因他的作为美国的多产作者的开创性工作，再创了美国漫画。他的复杂的情节和人物角色歌颂了勇气，忠诚和帮助不幸的人的重要性，反映了美国人的内在美德。
VOICE TWO:
Americans growing up in the nineteen fifties watched Superman on television. 50年代的美国人是看着电视上的超人长大的。
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But the special effects needed to realistically show him flying through the air were not developed until the seventies. The first movie in the "Superman" series was released in nineteen seventy-eight. It was a huge success, with two hundred eighty-nine million dollars in ticket sales at theaters worldwide. And it led to other movies based on comic book superheroes. 但是真实的表现他飞在天上的特技直到70年代才出现。超人系列的第一部在1978年发行，获得了巨大成功，在全世界取得了2.89亿的票房。它导致了其他基于漫画英雄的电影。
"The Dark Knight," the latest of six Batman films, came out this year. The Internet Movie Database lists it as the fourth biggest film of all time, with almost one billion dollars in worldwide ticket sales. 黑暗骑士是六部蝙蝠侠电影的最后一部，今年发行。互联网电影数据库把它列为有史以来的第四大电影，在全世界获得接近10亿票房。
Fans of Spider-Man, however, could point out that their hero beat all the other Batman films at the box office. Together his three movies took in more than two billion dollars. Yeah, Spidey rules. 然而蜘蛛侠的影迷们，可以指出他们的英雄可以在票房上击败所有的蝙蝠侠电影，三部蜘蛛侠电影的总收入就超过了2亿美元。是啊，蜘蛛侠说了算。
VOICE ONE:
Last year, comic specialty shops in North America ordered an estimated four hundred thirty million dollars in English-language comics. The Web site comichron.com, a resource for comics research, says that was a nine percent increase from the year before. 去年，北美的漫画店定购了估计有4.3亿美元的英语漫画。漫画资源网站说，这个数字比去年增加了9个百分点。
So who are the buyers? We went to NOVA Comics and Games in Springfield, Virginia, and got an answer from sales clerk Dave Weinberger.那么谁买呢？我们去了弗吉尼亚州的春田市的新星动漫游戏公司，我们从销售人员戴夫温伯格先生那里得到了答案。
DAVE WEINBERGER: "It's not kids anymore. Comics are too expensive for kids. And they've changed -- comics for example like the one I'm showing you, back in the late sixties was fifteen cents. Right now comics go for about three, four bucks each. And they're not printed on paper anymore, they're kind of like magazine stock which drives up the cost. So, average age is probably mid-twenties on. You just don't see kids walking in with their allowance buying comics anymore. They're too expensive."不再是孩子们，动漫对孩子来说太贵了。他们变了，就像我拿着的这一本，回到60年代末要15美分，现在要三四美元一本。他们也不再印刷在纸上，是一种废杂志浆料，这增加了成本。所以，消费者的平均年龄在二十五六岁以上。所以你看不到孩子被允许来买漫画，太贵了。
VOICE TWO:
Customer Mark Smith was in the store buying old back issues from the nineteen sixties and seventies to complete his collection. He told us he has been collecting comic books for about thirty-three years, since he was seven years old. We asked him what comics he was interested in.顾客马克史密斯当时正在买六七十年代的过期漫画刊物以完整他的收藏。他说他收藏漫画已经23年了。从他7岁开始。我们问他喜欢什么漫画。
MARK SMITH: "Fantastic Four, X-Men, Avengers and some books from the eighties, Alpha Flight. You can see on the wall right there -- that Wolverine comic, I bought it when it came out for sixty cents. They're selling it for thirty dollars right now. I bought it because I enjoyed it. I didn't buy it for an investment."神奇四侠，X战警，复仇者和其他80年代的漫画。阿尔法航班，你可以看到的在那边墙上，金刚狼漫画，我从他60美分时就开始买了，现在他们卖30美元。我买它是因为喜欢，不是为投资。
VOICE ONE:
Comic books have also led to graphic novels. These look like comic books but tell stories like a novel. Some graphic novels explore social issues and historic events. 漫画书也导致了漫画小说的出现，这些书看起来像漫画但故事是小说，一些图画小说探索社会和历史事件。
"Maus" by Art Spiegelman is about the Holocaust, when Nazi Germany killed two-thirds of the Jewish people in Europe during World War Two. About six million died, along with millions of other victims. 斯皮格曼的MAUS是关于二战期间德国纳粹屠杀欧洲接近三分之二的犹太人的故事，约6百万人被杀，还有其他数百万受害者。
In "Maus" the Nazis are shown as cats and the Jews as mice. The two-book series took Art Spiegelman thirteen years to complete. The story is based on the experiences of his father in Poland in the nineteen thirties and forties. 在MAUS 中纳粹被表现为猫，犹太人被表现为鼠，一套两本的漫画书花了斯皮格曼13年时间完成。故事基于他父亲在三四十年代在波兰的经历。
"Maus" won a special Pulitzer Prize in nineteen ninety-two.MAUS1992年获得普利策奖。
VOICE TWO:
Frank Miller is also noted for his graphic novels, including "300." It tells an imaginary story about people involved in a real battle -- the Battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece. A movie version of "300" was released last year.弗兰克米勒也以图画小说著名，包括“300”。它讲述的是古希腊的一次真实的战役温泉关战役中的一个虚构故事。这个故事的电影版去年上映。
Another Frank Miller graphic novel and movie, "Sin City," tells four connected stories of crime, corruption and sex. Here is a scene in which a killer meets his victim on a balcony during a party. 弗兰克米勒的另一部图画小说和电影罪恶之城讲述的是四个关联的故事，腐败和性。这里是其中的一个场景，杀手和他的受害者在一个聚会的阳台上相见。
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VOICE ONE:
Not all graphic novels are about subjects like war or violence. "American Splendor," for example, is a series about the everyday life of a real person named Harvey Pekar. There was a movie version in two thousand three, and stage plays have also been based on the stories. The most recent American Splendor came out in September. 声音一:不是所有的图画小说都是关于战争和暴力的主题。例如，美国奇观，是一个关于一个叫Harvey Pekar的人的日常生活的系列。还有个电影版本在2003年发行，也有基于这些故事的舞台剧。最新的美国奇观在九月发行。
VOICE TWO:
Comic books today are often written for adults. But many people can remember when comics were mainly for children. Some still are. And some are even written by children. Almost one thousand schools in the United States are involved in the Comic Book Project. 漫画书现在经常是为成年人而写。但许多人能记得漫画主要面对儿童的年代。现在有一些漫画还是面向儿童的。甚至有些是儿童创作的。美国有近一千个学校涉及漫画计划。
Education researcher Michael Blitz started the project in two thousand one at Columbia University in New York. He wanted to create an activity for children that would combine skills like reading, writing and drawing. 教育研究者Michael Blitz 在2001年纽约哥伦比亚大学发起了这个计划。他想要发展孩子的综合能力包括阅读，写作和绘画。
The Comic Book Project lets children express themselves as they write and draw their own stories. The best ones are chosen and then published and sent to schools across the country. 漫画书计划让孩子们在写作和绘画他们自己的故事时表达自己。一些最好的作品被选中然后印刷并被发送到全国各地的学校。
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