Comments on: Word Balloons in Visual Space

By: Sunday Brunch: 3/28/10 | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources

Sunday Brunch: 3/28/10 | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 20:43:34 +0000

[...] ITEM! Continuing this line of thought (sans balloons), Jeet Heer talks about the art of the word balloon. [...]

By: Jonathan Bass

Jonathan Bass — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 06:27:33 +0000

STATIC #4 (1993) uses text boxes over word balloons a few times in a way similar to Clowes in “Mister Wonderful.”

Here is one instance in which Virgil is recalling another character’s words instead of hearing what his friend is saying:

http://www.tigershorts.com/projects/images/examples/static_04_14_1993.jpg

By: Ryan Standfest

Ryan Standfest — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:00:22 +0000

Actually, here is one of the Jodorowsky images making interesting use of the word balloon as object, one of many such strips of his that accomplishes this:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DVoV_KJmPbk/SZyi5JlzHpI/AAAAAAAAAAo/eCa20fA0fRY/s1600-h/fabula_panica.jpg

By: Ryan Standfest

Ryan Standfest — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:55:46 +0000

Two wonderful examples I can think of with regard to the transformation of word balloons into psychological objects, would include some balloons created by Saul Steinberg, in which conversations consist of the balloons forming new relationships independent of those doing the speaking, and those created by the filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky in the comics series drawn by himself from 1967-1973– “Fabulas Panicas,” published in “El Heraldo De Mexico.” In a number of these strips,word balloons and thought balloons take on weight and disrupt space in a manner that demonstrates the volume of the spoken word in actual weight. The words of a bickering couple seated at a dinner table become fork and knife-shaped balloons that cut into the child of the couple seated at the table with them. Remarkable. I cannot find a link to these specific images, but I have discovered a blog that has posted some of the other strips: http://fabulaspanicas.blogspot.com/

By: patrick ford

patrick ford — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:46:45 +0000

Harold Gray didn’t need to use thought balloons because he often had Annie, and other characters talking to themselves.
Gray did that constantly, and he had Annie talk to Sandy as well.
Gray no doubt picked this up from working with Sidney Smith on The Gumps.
Smith very commonly had Andy, Min, or some other character delivering long monologues to themselves (or the reader).

By: Bryan Munn

Bryan Munn — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 01:53:31 +0000

I remember thinking Chaykin was doing something very interesting with layered word balloons and sound effects when I first saw American Flagg back in the day. That he had an inventive letterer in Ken Bruzenak didn’t hurt. Sort of a slick, post-modern take the crowded mediascape that was first articulated in the early comic strips. I’m thinking of someone like Segar who had his generic crowds share giant word balloons or else had them all compete with tiny word balloons of a single exclamation each that fought and shoved with one another like gas bubbles in seltzer water. Sometimes Segar could barely get his figures into the panel for all the word balloons. Early comic strip characters like Popeye and Annie didn’t always have time to think in thought bubbles. They were moving faster than thought, maybe. Plus, they were often talking to an audience (the reader) as much as to themselves.

By: Ph

Ph — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:18:51 +0000

The only answer I found myself is that, perhaps, in those cases (like the American Elf strip), text is there to make a final beat on the rythm of the strip. But the strip would still convey a similar meaning without the words (though, a different rythm).

I remember hearing Ted Stearn say something like that in an Inkstuds interview.

Thanks for your insight on that Jeet.

I agree with you that a text on captions would be great.

I think is one of the least explored aspects of comics.

By: Jeet Heer

Jeet Heer — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:18:52 +0000

@Diana. Thanks for the additional examples.
@ph. That’s an interesting example. I’m not sure what to make of the reduancy except to note that words can never exactly duplicate what’s in the images. The bareness of “And slept on the couch” isn’t the same as the rather sad image. So I’d say that this type of dupclication can be fine depending on the example. But there are lots of abuses. I’m thinking here of many EC comics where the captions add nothing to the image and indeed take away from them.

By: Diana

Diana — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:08:41 +0000

Howard Cruse used numerous overlapping word balloons in the bar scenes of some of his Gay Comix stories.
The dense word balloons of Marshall Rogers also appear in the Detectives Inc. stories.

By: Ph

Ph — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:55:16 +0000

Jeet:

Here is a specific example:
http://www.americanelf.com//comics/americanelf.php?view=single&ID=42599

Last panel of this American Elf strip.

James K. writes “And slept on the couch” and the image shows exactly the same thing.

I picked this very fast. I didn´t searched too much. But there are lots of examples.

Thanks.