The Comics Panel

The blog title is a joke there’s only one person here (Lore, she/they) ask if there’s a comic or technique I should talk about

[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.

[pachimew]

Interestingly, I think the color difference is actually clearer in the online comics. 

It is, admittedly, still pretty subtle, but I think that might be a matter of printing rather than color…or maybe I’m just better at picking it up? Either way, they certainly could be easier to tell apart, it’s hard to pick up on the difference until you see them side-by-side.

[the-comics-panel]

[id: screenshot of part of a panel showing two balloons, one is light yellow and the other light blue]

Oh! Thank you for the reference of the online pages! I hadn’t seen those before.

Yes, it does look a little easier to see! I guess this is a lesson on making sure colors print clearly (or a lesson for my eyesight? 🤔 who knows)

[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.

[the-comics-panel]

Never Satisfied: word balloons

Never Satisfied (https://www.neversatisfiedcomic.com/comic/never-satisfied) is a webcomic by Taylor Robin.

Robin often uses both the shape and tails of the word balloons to indicate emotion!

Spoilers for later chapters ahead

[id: January, a young woman, sits in a chair, a blue jay sitting on her head. The background is abstract thorned roses around her. Four word balloons connected with looping tails say “ you’re not in it for the power or the fame or some legacy. You’re in it to defend the weak, to keep the people you care about safe. You have people who look up to you, don’t you? A strong, unwavering girl like you must”. One of the tails is wound around the girls neck. End id]

Fidelia’s flattery and attempts to influence January are shown with the tails of the bubbles— she’s speaking sweetly, the tails swirling around, but she’s lying. The tail wraps around January’s neck, symbolizing Fidelia’s control over her.

This was my favorite example, but here’s some more bubble shape used to show emotions:

[id: Lucian, looking scared at the camera, says “magister Lapointe... st— st—“. The speech bubbles have wobbling, shaky edges, and the tails are as well. End id]

The wavering edge of Lucy’s bubbles show how scared they are, much as someone’s voice might waver when they’re scared.

[id: Su-Yeoung gives a forced smile and says “I’m not mad.” Her speech balloon has flower shapes coming off the edges and the tail waves back and forth. ]

Su-Yeoung’s balloon shows how she’s got a cheerful edge to her voice. The flowery bubble shows how it’s forced, since it doesnt match her pained expression.

[id: Fidelia Lapointe glares at the camera and says “what”. The tail of the balloon goes back and forth before going straight down a fair distance through the panel. ]

The tail of Fidelia’s balloon emphasizes the flat, angry way she says “what”. The tail reminds me of scribbles used to show frustration, and could also symbolize a refocusing of Fidelia’s attention.

Never Satisfied has some great word balloons, and they are used in many ways to show emotions or intentions I couldn’t cover here. Great technique!

[the-comics-panel]

Sleepless Domain: word balloons

Sleepless Domain (https://www.sleeplessdomain.com) is a webcomic written and illustrated by Mary Cagle, except the first couple of chapters, which were drawn by Oskar Vega. The comic techniques stay pretty consistent across artists though! But let’s start with word balloons:

[image description: panel from SD. Undine, a girl with brown skin and blue hair and eyes says “is everyone okay? it’s pretty close to 10 PM”. The outline of her balloon and the color o the text is blue. Tessa, a girl with light brown skin and pink hair and eyes says “ they’re probably just being lazy”. Her balloon outline and text are pink. End id]

Sleepless Domain features magical girls like Tessa and Undine. Magical girls have balloons that correspond to their color scheme. Meanwhile, normal people have black outlines and text:

[panel from SD. Sylvia, a girl with pale skin and light gold hair, says “ you can’t forget the fans. It’s been a while since they got new footage” in a correspondingly-colored balloon. A photographer man hovers around her and says “ just pretend I’m not here!” In a regular black and white balloon. End id]

Interestingly, this was a later decision— the photographer’s balloon used to be colored like the girls’, but was changed to black and white when later chapters were in progress (the first few chapters didn’t feature many non-magical girls)

There’s a couple more word balloons to talk about, but I’ll put them under the cut for spoilers

In conclusion, Cagle uses word balloons in a generally standard style, but she uses color and style to indicate something about a character’s nature. This is standard throughout the comic. I appreciate the internal consistency and the informative nature of this technique!

[id: Goops, a purple person(?) with white eyes emerges from the ground and says “you wouldn’t be so confused if you hadn’t forgotten” her word balloons are dark purple with a white outline and glowing white text in a different, scratchy font. End id]

Goops’ spooky nature is shown with her spooky balloons. Also, her otherness is reflected and accentuated by her different style and font.

[a person in shades of gold and white. Her eyes are completely obscured by white. She says “very sweet” in a gold balloon like the magical girls’ but with variegated shades of gold. End id]

Meanwhile, the dream woman has a balloon like the magical girls, indicating a nature like theirs, but with the varying, almost metallic color, she is set apart from them.

[the-comics-panel]

First Post

Hey! I’m Lore and this is my new blog for talking about comics techniques! Thanks for hanging out!