Groucho or Felix? The English translation and localization of Dylan Dog

Dylan Dog is one of the most iconic Italian comic book characters in our country, to the point that even if you never read it, you still know him as part of pop culture. Created by Tiziano Sclavi for Sergio Bonelli Editore, the series tells the terrifying adventures of the Nightmare Investigator, Dylan Dog, who in each number follows a supernatural case and faces several creatures representing the anxieties and fears of human beings. Some stories are homages to myths or known works: the first issue is in fact an homage to The night of the living dead by George Romero! Over the course of the first issues the monthly series that debuted in 1986 gained its distinctive characteristics: many references to movie and novels; surreal humor and irony; a protagonist full of flaws and quirks; a particular writing style that brings the comic closer to the novel, with special attention to the introspection and the oniric aspect. The comic and surreal side of the stories comes from Dylan’s assistant, Groucho. What? Groucho Marx? Well yes but actually no.

Dylan's assitant Groucho and actor Groucho Marx

Groucho is a comedian that acts in a very similar way to the real mister Marx, being in fact a perfect impersonator. His funny and absurd attitude helps relieve the serious and morbid atmosphere and Dylan’s occasionally melancholic personality. However, Groucho demonstrated many times, over the span of the very long series, that he is a competent assistant and a good supportive friend for his boss. Due to his status as Groucho Marx look-alike, our surreal friend has been the subject of a localization and translation dilemma at the end of the 90s, when a few series of Sergio Bonelli Editore were exported to the American publishing market.

Thanks to the translation book Nuvole Migranti - Viaggio nel fumetto tradotto written by Valerio Rota, I could retrace the path of the collaboration with the US publisher Dark Horse. In 1998 the initiative That’s Fumetti! was presented with the goal of promoting the Italian comic in the world, with the collaboration of the biggest Italian publishers of the industry. The created a catalogue in English about the Italian comic and its history, and the initiative’s Organizing Committee participated in the San Diego International Comic Con in august 1998. The collaboration with Dark Horse was rumored for a while but the results showed up in 1999 with the publication of the Bonelli Comics.

From the many series of Sergio Bonelli Editore’s library, the chosen ones were three: Dylan Dog, Martin Mystère and Nathan Never. The agency Strip Art Features of Ervin Rustemagic, responsible for the management of foreign publishing rights of the SBE characters and direct publisher of Bonelli comics in Slovenia and Croatia, proposed the three series to Dark Horse. The US publisher chose six stories for each character (occasionally using suggestions from the Italian authors as well) to create three miniseries of six issues. In order to give them an American appeal, the covers were drawn by US artists: Mike Mignola for Dylan Dog, Dave Gibbons for three covers of Martin Mystère and Art Adams for four covers of Nathan Never.

Cover of issue n°1 by Claudio Villa

While the translation was a good quality work, managing to keep for the most part the meaning and tone of the original writing, two editorial choices were taken: Dylan lost his characteristic exclamation (Giuda Ballerino) and, more importantly and more drastic, Groucho was renamed Felix and the moustache was edited out! Dark Horse decided to do this probably in order to avoid problems of image usage from the Marx family and to not create confusion in the American readers who were reading a story already rather different from the standards of the time. For the American edition, Dark Horse edited all the pages featuring Groucho with incredible precision, it’s a really impressive work!

Felix in the Dark Horse edition
and Groucho in the original edition

The contrast between the original version and the Dark Horse edition is still striking in the eyes of an Italian reader, as well as for the fact that it removes part of the character’s psychology. On one hand, the assistant perfect impersonator of Groucho Marx contributes to the surrealism (and the anachronism: he has the appearance of the 1930s Groucho and the series takes place during the 1980s), on the other hand out friend uses the name of Groucho Marx as a mask. We never know his original name or his past in detail before meeting Dylan. This intriguing part of his psychology is lost once you take away his trait of impersonator. Though you can reach a similar introspective result by simply using his comedian attitude.

Cover of the stories' collection
by Mike Mignola

In October 2019 it was announced, after some time of rumors, that James Wan’s Atomic Monster will help SBE in the production of a ten episodes tv series inspired by the stories of the comic. Groucho’s problem could show up once again on this occasion, how will they solve it?

In my opinion, the ideal option would be modernizing the character’s appearance, keeping his personality intact and using “Groucho” as nickname and perhaps Felix as name, mentioning it once or twice. Once a trailer of the series will be released we will see which solution will be picked. 

Until then, be prepared for more articles about the world of comics, stay tuned!