Speech balloon 1187874 225477765 2008-07-13T22:13:30Z Buddy13 993542 /* Drawings within the speech bubble */ I don't know what the original writer was trying to convey... [[Image:Speech balloon 3 types.svg|100px|thumb|The three most common speech balloons (top to bottom: speech, thought, scream).]] '''Speech balloons''' (also '''speech bubbles''', '''dialogue balloons''', or '''word balloons''') are a graphic convention used most commonly in [[comic book]]s, [[comic strip|strips]], and [[cartoon]]s to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing the speech or thoughts of a given character in the comic. There is often a formal distinction between the balloon that indicates thoughts and the one that indicates words spoken aloud: the bubble that conveys subjective thoughts is often referred to as a '''thought balloon'''. ==History== [[Image:Strigel 1506-detail.jpg|thumb|220px|Prior to the 18th century, speech was depicted using bands, flags, scrolls, or sheets of paper.<ref>[http://bugpowder.com/andy/e.speechballoons.evolution.html Evolution of speech balloons]. Retrieved on August 24, 2006.</ref>]] [[Image:Boston1775.jpg|thumb|220px|1775 cartoon printed in Boston]] One of the earliest antecedents to the modern speech bubble were the “[[speech scroll]]s”, wispy lines that connected first person speech to the mouths of the speakers in Mesoamerican art.<ref>{{Cite paper |author=Hull, Kerry Michael |title=Verbal Art and Performance in Ch’orti’ and Maya Hieroglyphic Writing| date=2003| url=http://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2003/hullkm039/hullkm039.pdf}}</ref> In Western graphic art, labels that reveal what a pictured figure is saying have appeared since at least the 13th century. Word balloons began appearing in 18th century printed broadsides and political cartoons from the American Revolution often used them. [http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/erelrev.htm][http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/wood/ykid/illustrated.htm] With the development of the [[comics]] industry in the 20th century, the appearance of speech balloons has become increasingly standardized, though the formal conventions that have evolved in different cultures (USA as opposed to Japan, for example), can be quite distinct. <!--- [[Image:Fukidashi.png|thumb|left|Four different shapes of speech or thought balloons.]] ---> The [[Yellow Kid]] is generally credited as the first true comic strip character. His words initially appeared on his yellow shirt but word balloons very much like those in use today were added almost immediately, as early as 1896. By the start of the 20th century the use of word balloons was ubiquitous, and since that time only a very few comic strips and comic books have relied on captions, notably [[Hal Foster]]'s [[Prince Valiant]] and the early [[Tarzan]] comic strip. For many years, word balloons were less common in Europe than in the USA, or were used together with captions. One example is the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] cartoonist [[Marten Toonder]]'s comics about [[Tom Puss]] and [[Oliver B. Bumble]], where the literary captions are printed out below the strip and almost take up as much space as the drawings, so that the strip fills twice the space of most newspaper strips. A similar example from England is [[Rupert the Bear]]. ==Popular forms== ===Speech bubbles=== The most common is the speech bubble. It comes in two forms for two circumstances: An in-panel character and an off-panel character. An in-panel character (one who is fully or mostly visible in the panel of the strip of comic that the reader is viewing) uses a bubble with a pointer, called a tail, directed towards the speaker. When one character has multiple balloons within a panel, often only the balloon nearest to the speaker's head has a tail, and the others are connected to it in sequence by narrow bands. This style is often used in [[Mad Magazine]], due to its often dialogue-based humor. <!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Combubble speech offscreen.PNG|thumb|From left to right: A western bubble, a manga bubble and a bubble in the style of those used in ''[[Persepolis (graphic novel)|Persepolis]]'']] --> An off-panel character (the comic book equivalent of being "off screen") has several options, some of them rather unconventional. The first is a standard speech bubble with a tail pointing toward the speaker's position. The second option, which originated in [[manga]], has the tail pointing ''into'' the bubble, instead of out. (This tail is still pointing towards the speaker.) The third option replaces the tail with a sort of bottleneck that connects with the side of the panel. It can be seen in the works of [[graphic novel]]ist [[Marjane Satrapi]] (author of ''[[Persepolis (graphic novel)|Persepolis]]''). In American <!--- Is the description American necessary? Isn't this technique also used in manga, etc? ---> comics, a bubble without a tail means that the speaker is not merely outside the reader's field of view but invisible to the [[point of view (literature)|viewpoint character]], often as an unspecified member of a crowd. Characters distant (in space or time) from the scene of the panel can still speak, in squared bubbles without a tail; this usage, equivalent to [[voice-over]] in film, is not uncommon in American comics for dramatic contrast. In contrast to captions, the corners of such balloons never coincide with those of the panel; for further distinction they often have a double outline, a different background color, or [[quotation mark]]s. ===Thought bubbles=== Thought bubbles come in two forms: the chain thought bubble and the "fuzzy" bubble. The chain thought bubble is the almost universal symbol for thinking in cartoons. It consists of a large, [[cloud]]-like bubble containing the text of the thought, which is connected to the area next to a character by a chain of increasingly smaller circular bubbles. In Manga, the method of depicting thought is different. Instead of a cloud, the thought is encircled in a shiny halo. Another, less conventional thought bubble has emerged: the "fuzzy" thought bubble. Used in manga (by such artists as [[Ken Akamatsu]]), the fuzzy bubble is roughly circular in shape (generally), but the edge of the bubble is not a line but a collection of spikes close to each other, creating the impression of fuzziness. Fuzzy thought bubbles do not use tails, and are placed in the area of the character who is thinking. This has the advantage of reflecting the TV equivalent effect: something said with an echo. Writers and artists can refuse to use thought bubbles, expressing the action through spoken dialogue and drawing; they are sometimes seen as an inefficient method of expressing thought because they are attached directly to the head of the thinker, unlike methods such as caption boxes, which can be used both as an expression of thought and narration while existing in an entirely different panel from the character thinking. An example is [[Alan Moore]] and [[David Lloyd (comic artist)|David Lloyd]]'s ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', wherein during one chapter, a monologue expressed in captions serves not only to express the thoughts of a character but also the mood, status and actions of three others. In recent years the thought bubbles have been phasing out in favor of internal monologue rendered in the aforementioned caption method. {{Fact|date=March 2008}} <!--- This comment might only be valid for modern American adventure comics, not for comics of other cultures and traditions. ---> ===Other forms=== The shape of a speech balloon can be used to convey further information. Common ones include the following: *''Scream bubbles'' indicate a character is screaming or shouting, usually with a jagged outline or a thicker line which can be colored. Their lettering is usually larger or bolder than normal. *''Broadcast bubbles'' (also known as ''radio bubbles'') may have a jagged tail like the conventional drawing of a lightning flash and either a squared-off or jagged outline. Letters are sometimes italicised without also being bold. Broadcast bubbles indicate that the speaker is communicating through an electronic device, such as a radio or television, or is robotic. *''Whisper bubbles'' are usually portrayed with a dashed (dotted) outline, smaller font or gray lettering, which indicates the tone is softer as most speech is printed in black. They indicate that the speaker is whispering. *''Icicle bubbles'' have jagged "icicles" on the lower edge, representing "cold" hostility. Similarly the speech balloons of monsters may have an outline that suggests dripping blood or slime. *''Colored bubbles'' convey the emotion that goes with the speech, such as red for anger or green for envy. This style is not used very often in modern comics. ==Captions== Captions are generally used for [[narration]] purposes. They are generally square and connected to the edge of the panel. Often they are also colored to indicate the difference between them and the bubbles used by the characters, which are almost always white. Captions have become commonplace in modern comics, replacing the old style thought bubbles.{{Fact|date=June 2007}} ==Artist-specific variations== [[Image:YellowKid.jpeg|thumb|120px|[[Yellow Kid]]'s words appear on his shirt]] Some characters and strips use highly unconventional methods of communication. Perhaps the most notable is the [[Yellow Kid]], an early [[United States|American]] [[comic strip]]. His (but not the other characters') words would appear on his large, smock-like shirt. Also noteworthy are the many variations on the form created by [[Dave Sim]] for his comic ''[[Cerebus the Aardvark]]''. Depending on the shape, size, and position of the bubble, as well as the texture and shape of the letters within it, Sim could convey large amounts of information about the speaker. This included separate bubbles for different states of mind (drunkenness, etc), for echoes, and a special class of bubbles for one single floating apparition. An early pioneer in experimenting with many different types of speech balloons and lettering for different types of speech was [[Walt Kelly]], in his ''[[Pogo]]'' strip. In the famous French comic series ''[[Asterix]]'', [[René Goscinny|Goscinny]] and [[Albert Uderzo|Uderzo]] use bubbles without tails to indicate a distant or unseen speaker. They also have had fun experimenting with many different types of lettering to suit characters with distinct nationalities, thus meaning they speak a different language that Asterix may not understand, but the readers can. So Goths spoke in a [[blackletter]] font, Greek had a more angular font than normal (though always understood by the characters, so it's more of an accent than a language), Norse used "Nørdic åccents", Egyptian was in faux [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphs]] (depictive illustrations and rebuses) etc. Another original experiment with speech bubbles was exclusive to one album, ''[[Asterix and the Roman Agent]]''. The agent in question was a vile manipulator who could create dissension amongst any group of people with a single innocent-sounding comment. His victims start quarreling and ultimately fighting each other while speaking in green-colored speech bubbles, which symbolize darnel. Font variation is a common tactic in comics. The ''[[Sandman (Vertigo)|Sandman]]'' series, written by [[Neil Gaiman]], features many characters whose speech bubbles are written with a font that is exclusive to them. Some examples: the main character, the gloomy [[Dream (DC Comics)|Dream]] speaks in wavy-edged bubbles, completely black, with similarly wavy white lettering. His sister, the scatterbrained and whimsical [[Delirium (DC Comics)|Delirium]] speaks in bubbles in a many-colored explosive background with uneven lettering, and the irreverent raven [[Characters of The Sandman#Matthew|Matthew]] speaks in a shaky angular kind of bubble with scratchy lettering. Other characters, such as John Dee, have special shapes of bubbles for their own. In ''[[MAD Magazine]]'', in the recurring "Monroe" comic strip, certain words are written larger or in unusual fonts for emphasis. In [[manga]], there is a tendency to include the speech necessary for the storyline in balloons, while small scribbles outside the balloons add side comments, often used for irony or to show that they're said in a much smaller voice. [[Characters of Negima (16-31)#Satsuki Yotsuba|Satsuki Yotsuba]] in the manga series [[Negima]] is notable because she speaks almost ''entirely'' in side scribble. ==Graphic symbols in speech bubbles== Speech bubbles are used not only to include a character's words, but also emotions, voice inflections and unspecified language. ===Punctuation marks=== One of the universal emblems of the art of comics is the use of a single punctuation mark to depict a character's emotions, much more efficiently than any possible sentence. A speech bubble with a single big [[question mark]] (?) (often drawn by hand, not counted as part of the lettering) denotes confusion or ignorance. An [[exclamation mark]] (!) indicates surprise or terror. This resource is broadly used in the European comic tradition, the Belgian artist [[Hergé]]'s ''[[The Adventures of Tintin]]'' series being a good example. In other countries, the punctuation marks stand alone above the character's head, with no bubble needed. In [[manga]], the [[ellipsis]] (i.e. three dots) is also used to express silence in a much more significant way than the mere absence of bubbles. This is specially seen when a character is supposed to say something, to indicate a stunned silence or when a sarcastic comment is expected by the reader. The ellipsis, along with the big drop of sweat on the character's temple—usually depicting shame, confusion, or embarrassment caused by other people's actions— is one of the [[Japan]]ese graphic symbols that have taken root in comics all around the world, although they are still rare in Western tradition. Japanese even has a sound effect for "deafening silence," {{nihongo|''shiin''|シーン|}}. ===Foreign languages=== In many comic books, words that would be foreign to the narration but are displayed in translation for the reader are surrounded by [[Brackets|angle brackets]] or chevrons ( &lt;Like this&gt; ), e.g., in the [[ElfQuest]] series, whenever any character speaks Human. [[Gilbert Hernandez]]' series about [[Love and Rockets (comics)|Palomar]] is written in English, but supposed to take place mainly in a [[Hispanic]] country. Thus, what's supposed to be representations of [[Spanish language|Spanish]] speech is written without brackets, but occasional actual English speech is written within brackets, to indicate that it is unintelligible to the main [[Hispanophone]] characters in the series. Other comic books use a different font or balloon style to the same end. Some comics will have the actual foreign language in the speech balloon, with the translation as a footnote. It's much used in Asterix with Romans citing Latin sayings. ===The big Z=== It is a convention in [[United States|American]] comics that the sound of a snore can be reduced to a single letter Z. Thus a speech bubble with this letter standing all alone (again, drawn by hand rather than a font type) means the character is sleeping in most humorous comics. This can be seen, for instance, in [[Charles Schulz]]'s ''[[Peanuts]]'' comic strips. Being such a long-based resource, the Z-bubble doesn't even imply that the character is snoring anymore, but just sleeping. [[Jim Davis (cartoonist)|Jim Davis]] has based some jokes starring [[Garfield]] upon this technique. For example, in one strip, Garfield is unable to sleep because his Z-bubble is pointing in the wrong direction. When he grabs the bubble's tail to make it point at himself, he falls asleep. Originally, the resemblance between the 'z' sound and that of a snore seemed exclusive to the [[English language]], but the spread of American comics has made it a frequent feature in other countries. In manga, though, the usual symbol for sleep is a big bubble coming out of the character's nose. ===Drawings within the speech bubble=== Singing characters usually have [[musical note]]s drawn into their word balloons. [[Archie Comics]]' [[Melody Valentine]], a character in their ''[[Josie and the Pussycats (comic)|Josie and the Pussycats]]'' comic, has musical notes drawn into her word balloons at all times, depicting the fact that she speaks in a sing-song voice. The above mentioned Albert Uderzo in the ''Asterix'' series decorates speech bubbles with beautiful flowers depicting an extremely soft, sweet voice (usually preceding a violent outburst by the same character). A stormy cloud with a rough lightning sticking out of it, either in a bubble or just floating above the character's head as a modified 'cloudy' thought bubble, depicts anger, not always verbally expressed. [[Light bulbs]] are sometimes used when the character comes up with an idea or solution to a problem. In the Western world, it is common to replace profanity with a string of nonsense symbols (&%$@*$#), sometimes called [[The Lexicon of Comicana|grawlixes]]. In comics that are usually addressed to children or teenagers, bad language is [[censorship|censored]] by replacing it with more or less elaborate drawings and expressionistic symbols. For example, instead of calling someone a swine, a pig is drawn in the speech bubble. One example is the [[Spain|Spanish]] ''[[Mortadelo]]'' series, created by [[Francisco Ibáñez]]. Although not specifically addressed to children, ''Mortadelo'' was born during [[Francisco Franco]]'s [[dictatorship]], when censorship was the order of the day and the slightest attempt of rough language was prohibited. When Ibáñez's characters are angry, donkey heads, lightning, lavatories, billy goats and even faux Japanese characters are often seen in their bubbles. When ''Mortadelo'' was portrayed on film by Spanish director [[Javier Fesser]] in 2003, one of the critiques made to his otherwise successful adaptation was the character's use of words that never appeared in the comics. Fesser claimed: "When you see a bubble speech containing a lightning falling on a pig, what do you imagine the character's saying?" ==Order== In order for comic strip and graphic novel dialogue to make sense, it has to be read in order. Thus, conventions have evolved in the order in which the communication bubbles are read. The individual bubbles are read in the order of the language. For example, in [[English language|English]], the bubbles are read from left to right in a panel, while in [[Japanese language|Japanese]], it is the other way around. Sometimes the bubbles are "stacked", with two characters having multiple bubbles, one above the other. Such stacks are read from the top down. Poor use of speech balloons can unintentionally make the proper reading order ambiguous, confusing the reader. ==Lettering== Traditionally, a cartoonist or occupational [[letterer]] would draw in all the individual letters in the balloons and sound effects by hand. A modern alternative, used by most comics today and universal in English-translated manga, is to letter with computer programs. The [[font]]s used usually emulate the style of hand-lettering. Traditionally, most mainstream comic books are lettered entirely in [[upper-case]], with a few exceptions: * Name particles such as ''de'' and ''von'', and the "c" in a [[surname]] of Scottish or Irish origin starting with ''Mc'' * To indicate a frightened or quiet manner of speech * An interjection such as "er", "um", etc. In a few comics, notably ''[[The Adventures of Tintin]]'', uppercase and lowercase are used as in ordinary writing. Since the mid-1980s, [[mixed case]] lettering has gradually become more widely used in mainstream books. Recently, [[Marvel Comics]] experimented with mixed case lettering in all its books. Most mainstream titles have since returned to traditional all upper-case lettering but titles specifically marketed to younger readers or a more [[manga]] audience such as the [[Marvel Adventures]] line, ''[[Runaways (comics)|Runaways]]'' and ''[[Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane]]'' have retained mixed case lettering. In many comics, although the lettering is entirely in capital letters, [[serif]] versions of "I" are used exclusively where a capital I would appear in normal print text, and a [[sanserif]] (i.e., a simple vertical line) is used in all other places. This reduces confusion with the number one, and also serves to indicate when the personal pronoun "I" is meant. This lettering convention can be seen in computer fonts such as [[Blambot]]'s "DigitalStrip.ttf" and "AnimeAce.ttf" fonts, which make no other distinction between lower- and uppercase letters. ==Substance of balloons== In several occasions, comics artists have used balloons (or similar narrative devices) as if they have true substance, usually for humorous purposes. In ''[[Peanuts]]'', for example, the notes played by [[Schroeder (Peanuts)|Schroeder]] occasionally take substance and are used in various ways, including Christmas decorations or standing places for birds. Sometimes balloons can be influenced by the strip's environment: in the Italian strip ''[[Sturmtruppen]]'' they freeze and crack when the temperature is very low, or an Archie comic strip where two men from Alaska remarked on how cold it was, by saying the speech balloons froze as they said them, and the words had to be thawed out to be heard. In the novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'', the last words of a murdered Toon (cartoon character) are found under his body in the form of a speech balloon. ==Computer-generated speech balloons== Many digital artists generate speech balloons with [[List of vector graphics editors|general-purpose illustration software]]. Products like [[Comic Book Creator]] for [[Microsoft Windows]], [[Comic Life]] for [[Mac OS X]], and the cross-platform application [[Balloonist (software)|Balloonist]] target the non-professional end of the market. [[TXTual Healing]] is a street art performance that involves strategically projecting interactive speech bubbles onto the facade of a building, as if they are coming out of the doors and windows. Using a computer paired with a cell phone, people in the street can generate their own content for the bubbles by sending in an SMS message. ==References== <references/> ==See also== *[[Balloon help]] *[[The Bubble Project]] *[[Tag Cloud]] *[[Speech scroll]] ==External links== * [http://research.famsi.org/kerrmaya_list.php?_allSearch=&hold_search=&x=0&y=0&vase_number=1398&date_added=&ms_number=&site= Picture of a Mayan painted pot] A depiction of speech scrolls. * [http://www.eeight.com/cartoon-tutorials/speech-bubbles/ Detailed Step-by-Step Tutorial for Creating Speech Bubbles (Word Balloons) for Comics, Cartoons and Gag Strips] * [http://webcomictriage.blogspot.com/ Your Webcomic Can Still Be Saved] A guide on drawing speech bubbles and avoiding common mistakes in webcomics. 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