{"id":8953,"date":"2011-03-02T00:43:38","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T05:43:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/?p=8953"},"modified":"2011-03-02T00:43:38","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T05:43:38","slug":"awkward-word-balloon-placement-in-early-comics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/?p=8953","title":{"rendered":"Awkward Word Balloon Placement in Early Comics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Herriman's Major Ozone, Sept. 29, 1906<\/p><\/div>\n

As an addendum to my McManus notebook<\/a>, I\u2019ve been collecting examples of reverse-order word ballooning, that\u2019s to say the tendency of early cartoonists to occasionally have word balloons read from right to left rather than the reading protocol that\u2019s easier in English (from left to right).<\/p>\n

A few examples of what I\u2019m talking about:<\/p>\n

George Herriman, Major Ozone,<\/em> Sept. 29, 1906:<\/p>\n

Major Ozone: “What! And shut out that fine fresh air? Never, Captain, Never!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Captain: “Major,\u00a0 you\u2019d better close your door \u2013 it may storm tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Gene<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Gene Carr, Bill and the Jones Boys<\/em>, Jan. 22, 1905:<\/p>\n

Motorist: \u201cYes, but don\u2019t touch that lever or you\u2019ll start the machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willie: \u201cKin Jonesey an\u2019 me sit in yer ottermobile w\u2019ile yer gone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Foster Morse Follett, The Kid, Jan. 15, 1905<\/p><\/div>\n

Foster Morse Follett, The Kid<\/em>, Jan. 15, 1905:<\/p>\n

Mom: “Sure, the kid, he just turned the water off, that\u2019s all!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dad: \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jimmy Swinnerton, Jimmy, July 07, 1907.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jimmy Swinnerton, Jimmy<\/em>, July 7, 1907:<\/p>\n

Mom: \u201cNo Jimmy, dear. I think not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jimmy: \u201cMamma, can I have another dollar? My eye is all well?\u201d<\/p>\n

What exactly is going on here? The simplest explanation is that these strips are all done in the early days of newspaper comics, so these are all primitive works done by artists who have yet to master their craft. Yet the explanation of primitivism or incompetence is belied, I think, by the extreme beauty of the art, and also by the fact that that in these comics word balloons are usually properly placed in most panels. These examples occur from time to time but most word balloons are sequenced to read from left to right (the protocol we\u2019re used to in English).<\/p>\n

A few theories:<\/p>\n

1. The primacy of images over words.<\/strong> The first generation of newspaper comics were very visually splendid. McCay\u2019s work was the peak achievement but he was merely the headman in a large parade of artists whose main talent was visual. Spectacular display was the main selling point of the early comics. So it seems likely that the images came before the words and had priority over the words. That is to say, the artists drew first and the words were added on as an after-thought, often used to clarify what was going on in the picture.<\/p>\n

2. Stagecraft.<\/strong> The early comic strips were heavily influenced by stagecraft; often showing two figures standing in the same relation to each other panel after panel, in the mode of a vaudeville routine. If we see the panels as being modeled after a stage, it could be that the artists thought that the clarity they gained form keeping the characters in a fixed relation to each other outweighed the loss of clarity by having the occasional word balloon reversal. Below I\u2019ve given\u00a0the first panel\u00a0of the Swinnerton strip excerpted above. As will be seen, in the first panel, Jimmy is posed halfway between his mom (on the left) and his dad (on the right). This positioning of the characters is repeated in the last panel. Perhaps Swinnerton felt that the visual coherence gained from repeating this positioning of characters was more important than having the word balloons read from left to right in the last panel.<\/p>\n

3. A different reading protocol.<\/strong> This is the most difficult concept to explain but after spending time with cartoons from the early 20th<\/sup> century (and also previous centuries) it\u2019s hard to avoid the fact that they have a different type of reading than what we are used to. The early comics aren\u2019t meant to be skimmed or read quickly. They have a density of visual and verbal information that takes time to process. So the occasionally reversed word balloon could be tolerated because the reader was supposed to be spending time on the comics, deciphering them slowly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

First panel of Little Jimmy, July 07, 1907.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As an addendum to my McManus notebook, I\u2019ve been collecting examples of reverse-order word ballooning, that\u2019s to say the tendency of early cartoonists to occasionally have word balloons read from right to left rather than the reading protocol that\u2019s easier in English (from left to right). A few examples of what I\u2019m talking about: George Herriman, Major Ozone, Sept. 29, 1906: Major Ozone: “What! And shut out that fine fresh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[442,484,490,667],"class_list":["post-8953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-foster-morse-follett","tag-gene-carr","tag-herriman","tag-jimmy-swinnerton"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicscomicsmag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}