#word balloons

[deebrisbyfish]

I've been wanting to make a strip about Heidi's weird mumbling for a WHILE, but. needed a punchline that didn't end up being kinda MEAN. Playing with the reality of the strip was a really fun way to do that, and I enjoyed making this one.

[smbhax]

From “The Superstition Murders” in Batman #8, December 1941-January 1942. Bill Finger script, Bob Kane pencils, Jerry Robinson inks, George Roussos letters & background inks.

Info from Grand Comics Database

[laboratoryrats]

Note to Self - Word Balloons: A Study

(No spoilers, don't worry)

14 total comics to compare against, across genres with half as traditionally printed comics and half from webcomics. While not an exhaustive list, should be enough to start to give some idea about preferences.

Text Type: Either fully capitalized (EXAMPLE) or with mixed case (Example)

All Caps versus Mixed Case

Mixed Case vs. ALL CAPS for all comics

Mixed Case vs. ALL CAPS for Traditional Printed Comics AND for all webcomics (same results)

A slight preference for the traditional method of writing out word balloons with text in all caps

Spacing Between Text and Outer Balloons

Min Spacing versus Regular Spacing versus Max Spacing

Spacing between text and outer balloon for all comics

Traditional comics are basically evenly split between a normal spacing (about the width of a letter) and min spacing (which leaves essentially no room between the text and the balloon)

Traditional comics slightly tend toward a minimizing the spacing between the text and the balloon

Spacing between text and outer balloons for webcomics

Webcomics are split between between a normal spacing (about the width of a letter) and extra spacing (which can sometimes double or triple the distance between the text and the balloon). Webcomics slightly tend towards adding additional space between the text and the word balloon

Word Balloons Within or Outside the Panels

Within Panel versus Outside Panel

Whether word balloon (typically) lie entirely within or can exist outside the strict space of the panel

This is perhaps the most obvious difference between webcomics and traditional comics. All traditional comics in this set only have word balloons that lie within the panel, while all the webcomics typically have there word balloons lie outside their panels

Conclusion

As reductive as it sounds, the overall conclusion is that any combination of word balloon choices are well represented in both traditional and webcomics. The only noticeable difference is that webcomics tend to take greater advantage of the negative space between panels by moving their word ballons out of the panel borders

Resources (and Comic Recommendations)

Format: Print (Traditional)

Fables by by Bill Willingham, Lan Medina, Steve Leialoha, Craig Hamilton, Sherilyn van Valkenburgh

Nimona by ND Stevenson

Bone by Jeff Smith

Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples

Tintin by Hergé

Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar, Dave Johnson

Format: Online (Webcomic via Webtoon)

Marionetta by Míriam Bonastre Tur

Suitor Armor by Purpah

Castle Swimmer by Wendy Lian Martin

Cursed Princess Club by LambCat

Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe

Space Boy by Stephen McCranie

The Dragon Tutor by Mar_Mai

[emeraldthelynx]

A new update just made my usual paint program kinda unusable, and that also meant the templates I used weren't really any use, so I made some word balloon templates myself. They're free to use, that's what CC0 means. (And if it saved correctly, that means that they're also on a transparent .png.) Enjoy!

(Edit: I should probably mention that I'm now using a new program, and I made these with it. It's pretty nice!)

[ablackbrick]

Kitty and Katie Whumpashley of Whumpwood Hall

Lin Tarczynski

[sheepydraws]

Team RWBY: We'll take everyone to Vacuo! Where it's safe!

Me: None of y'all have ever been to a desert before, huh?

[the-comics-panel]

White Sand: word balloons

White Sand is a set of three graphic novels written by Brandon Sanderson and drawn by various artists. I don’t know who’s responsible for formatting choices like the word balloons.

White Sand generally uses word balloons in a very standard style. (i.e. the comic overall seems to take style inspiration from DC/Marvel comics)

One.... deviation that I have not seen before is White Sand’s treatment of characters speaking different languages. It is represented by different colored word balloons.

I actually really like this idea, in theory. It’s a good way to show different languages (that you want the reader to understand) as equal and different, like real life languages, as opposed to one language being the “base” language and other languages in italics or chevrons, for example.

However.

[image description: a photo of part of a panel. A word balloon that’s very faintly purple says “you’ll see how”. Another balloon, very faintly yellow, says “lord mastrell? I’m sorry to intrude, but you wouldn’t know which room my accolents and I are supposed to meet in, would you?” the first speaker says “ um… No. Why don’t you just use one that’s empty?” with a balloon that’s faintly yellow, connected to the first balloon with a gradient tail.

Next to the purple balloon a blob of purple has been scribbled on, next to the yellow balloon a yellow blob. End id]

The color choice is so.... subtle I didn’t realize White Sand was using this technique until I was two books in. I have put swatches of color next to the balloons for clarity.

So like I said: interesting idea but a poor execution.

[techmomma]

Speech Bubble/Word Balloon tips

Before I begin, remember: you are writing a comic! The emphasis is on visual storytelling, not literary storytelling. If you are trying to use your speech bubbles to carry your story, that is going to somewhat defeat the purpose of the comic. As a general rule, you want to keep the amount of text and dialogue on a page to a minimum. Lettering and artwork should complement each other!

Number of words

Standard DC comics typically have a guideline of about 35 words per page. That is:

Thirty five words is going to look like this, plus or minus a few. It doesn’t feel like a lot, but it’s typically enough to get a back-and-forth between two or three characters.

Word balloons with 20-25 words are gonna be a li’l big. For webcomics, honestly, I’d keep the words per page to about what you can get away with in a tweet (280 characters). Exposition can get a little lengthier, but again, emphasis on visual storytelling! Try to incorporate lengthy expositions into the visuals of the comic. Or find other ways to explain whatever you’re trying to explain. Get creative!

Formatting

Word balloons can come in a lot of different forms and you can make them unique to your story! Jagged edges, no edges, airbrushed, hard edges, you name it. But if you’re just starting out and haven’t gotten a feel for word balloons yet, here are some easy guidelines.

Whether working digitally or traditionally, getting your words down first is going to be tremendously helpful. It is much easier to configure the word balloon around the text than the text around the word balloon! 

Remember that, for western readers, we read left to right, then up to down. Arrange your bubbles accordingly! The first one to be read should be left and above the others, then so on and so forth.

Keep bubbles to about two sentences max. 

Your character can only emote once per panel; word bubbles should reflect that! Don’t try to smush two different emotions into one speech bubble.

Format text typically into a diamond shape. (Don’t extend middles too far out!)

But...

Sometimes this really is unavoidable though, so don’t worry if you break the rule. Just do your best!

Ideally, you want about a letter’s width of space between the edge of the font and the edge of the speech bubble (whether you use ellipsoids or squircles, like me).

But wide spaces can convey some neat emotions, like loneliness or sadness or forlorn or characters talking to themselves.

Should the tail go in the “corner” or center of the bubble? Good question! This is debated pretty frequently in webcomics, but typically, so long as you use the center or corner closest to the character and the tail is pointing to their mouth, you should be fine.

But hey, speaking of that tail, how long to make it? About halfway between the bubble and the character’s mouth!

Try not to overlap tails, it usually confuses the readers--but that can be used to effect! Such as say, confusing conversations.

Curved or straight tails? Up to you! It can be a stylistic choice, though if you use both, readers will typically feel straight tails are more direct while curved tails are more casual.

DON’T COVER CHARACTERS WITH WORD BUBBLES OR TAILS. Unless being used to effect, such as say, a word bubble overlapping a character that is being spoken over (probably rudely). Usually overlapping word balloons will get the same effect though.

Thumbnails will help you figure out word balloon placement! Use the two-thirds rule, you will almost always have the space to put word balloons in a pleasing composition.

There is still so much to formatting word balloons. Fuck. But this will help you get started. Try to think of word balloons like musical notation! Big balloons for big beats, small balloons for small beats, little interruptions with interludes, pauses, etc.

Text

TEXT. What fonts do you pick? How large? Italicized? Bold? Holy shit.

Number one, pick a font that is either free-to-use-commercially or that you have bought the license to. If it came pre-installed on your computer, you’re typically fine, as you bought the rights when you bought the OS. But check to make sure! AND DON’T ASSUME IT’S FREE-TO-USE-COMMERCIALLY IF YOU GOT THE FONT FROM DAFONT.COM. This website has been stealing fonts from creators and saying they’re free-to-use for years.

But moreso, what kinds of fonts to use. This will depend on your comic, of course, but typically, whether hand-lettering or using digital font, you want the most basic shit possible. Don’t go for Old English fonts, don’t go for cursive (barely anyone can read it anyway now), try to avoid Fancy fonts even if your character IS fancy (this can be ignored if the character is a one-off and you REALLY WANT TO EMPHASIZE HOW FANCY). 

What sorts of fonts to use? Most often for comics, you want a sans-serif font. That is, fonts without serifs. What are serifs?

The little calligraphic strokes sometimes put at the ends. Sans-serif fonts typically have very uniform line widths that are easy to read. 

If you want to make your comics easier for those who have a hard time reading, such as the visually-impaired or dyslexic, choose fonts similar to those that have been found easier to read, such as  Dyslexie, Open Dyslexic, and Comic Sans! Yes, that comic sans. Other fonts that have been found easier to read are Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, Century Gothic, and Trebuchet. If you hand-draw your own font, try to emulate those.

For your comic, once you pick a font, try to keep it the same size throughout the comic. 

As tempting as it is to choose different fonts for each character, many readers can find this distracting. Try to avoid this, but if you are dead-set on it, pick different fonts that feel similar to each other or won’t interrupt the flow of reading. 

Phew, that’s a lot of shit..

All that said, if you have any questions or want further clarification, please feel free to drop an ask in my inbox! And always, remember that all rules have exceptions! But you gotta learn the rules to know how to break them, first.