| Author |
|
Chris Basken
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 January 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 120
|
| Posted: 30 March 2015 at 12:39pm | IP Logged | 1
|
|
|
Like I said, there are certainly examples of "good" thought balloon use. I think the best uses fly below my radar, as they're not drawing attention to themselves.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Steven Legge
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2012
Location: Canada
Posts: 866
|
| Posted: 30 March 2015 at 1:13pm | IP Logged | 2
|
|
|
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
| www
e-mail
|
| |
Jason Czeskleba
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 April 2004
Posts: 4548
|
| Posted: 30 March 2015 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | 3
|
|
|
Chris Basken wrote:
| Thought balloons are going away partly (or mostly?) because they're not cinematic. |
|
|
That is true. But since comics are not movies, it's an odd rationale for not using them. I suppose the distinction is that in the 70s (when thought balloons arguably were over-used) many comics writers were frustrated novelists. Whereas now comic writers aspire to be screenwriters, or already are.
It's hard to imagine the first 100 issues of Spider-Man without thought balloons. A great deal of information/characterization/depth would be lost, and there really would have been no alternate way to convey it.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Chris Basken
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 January 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 120
|
| Posted: 30 March 2015 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | 4
|
|
|
Not passing judgment on the trend. Just noticing it.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Carmen Bernardo
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 August 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 3666
|
| Posted: 30 March 2015 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | 5
|
|
|
Thought balloons had a bit of appeal to me at times, especially if they're related to the character's inner monologue. But, as JB pointed out, they get a bit over-rated if they're the character's thoughts actually describing the action being shown on-panel.
"If I can just angle that optic blast over to the panel on the right and use the deflection to move the projectile off-course -- GOT IT!"
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132275
|
| Posted: 30 March 2015 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | 6
|
|
|
Much of the "language" of comics was created back in the days when everything was written full script. In those days, as Denny O'Neil once told me, writers would overwrite -- same information in the captions, the speech balloons and the thought balloons -- because they could not be sure the artist would actually draw what was asked for.Working plot/pencils/script, tho, one hopes the writer will LOOK AT THE PICTURES and write based on what they see there. But so many writers grew up reading those full script books the scripts don't "sound right" without the redundancies. Hard to strike a balance, tho. But we can hope the script will play TO the pictures, and not just describe the pictures. (There have been times when I've worked with artists who, given a detailed plot, dropped or changed important scenes. This forced me into very much writing AGAINST the pictures, as I had to find ways to tell the story WITHOUT the visuals.)
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 15793
|
| Posted: 30 March 2015 at 9:48pm | IP Logged | 7
|
|
|
I grew up a Marvel kid and only got into DC with JB on Superman in my early teens -- and other DC titles by my mid to late teens.... When I found my way to the early Barry Allen Flash stories I got a kick out of the way the writers wrote the Flash's thought balloons. It wasn't like Marvel -- it didn't really give you much insight into the humanity of the guy, but there was fun in the way it played along with the 'power stunts' being shown in the art. Often it was little more than annotating the action ("If I pump my legs super fast I can whisk these eggs into a big soufflait!"), but there was a certain charm.
Edited by Peter Martin on 30 March 2015 at 9:49pm
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
J W Campbell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 June 2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 353
|
| Posted: 31 March 2015 at 12:25am | IP Logged | 8
|
|
|
Jason Czeskleba wrote:
| That is true. But since comics are not movies, it's an odd rationale for not using them. |
|
|
It's one of the slightly petty pleasures I get working on comics — watching writers tie themselves in knots trying to avoid using a thought balloon when that's exactly what would serve their narrative purposes.
There was one occasion when I unilaterally changed a narrative caption into a thought balloon, simply because the writer had dropped a first person caption into a story where not only had this character not had first person narration, no one had it, either before or after, at any point in the story.
The writer howled; the editor thanked me for the catch and said he'd have done the same thing if he'd spotted it.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
| www
|
| |
James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 7612
|
| Posted: 31 March 2015 at 1:15am | IP Logged | 9
|
|
|
I much preferred the inner dialogue thought balloons as they let me in to the character - Spider-man's personal angst for instance.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
e-mail
|
| |
Brian J Nelson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 August 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 365
|
| Posted: 31 March 2015 at 7:53am | IP Logged | 10
|
|
|
I was always a fan on the inner dialogue. I do miss them.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Jim Lynch
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 August 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 617
|
| Posted: 31 March 2015 at 9:49am | IP Logged | 11
|
|
|
I always liked balloons better than the caption dialogue. No matter who the character is, I can't help 'hearing' Leslie Nielsen's voiceovers from Police Squad when I read those boxes.
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
|
| |
Stephen Robinson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5835
|
| Posted: 31 March 2015 at 11:41am | IP Logged | 12
|
|
|
This reminds me of how the Fleischer Superman shorts and
the Timm BATMAN cartoon (the latter of which was greatly
influenced by the former) were "visual narratives." You
couldn't go into the other room and just listen to the
sound and hope to follow the story. This is a contrast
from, say, SUPERFRIENDS, HE-MAN, or GI-JOE that felt
like "TV radio plays" -- everything on the screen is
being described to me (Hawkman announcing that he has to
"fly away" when... flying away or Green Lantern
announcing his intent to use his power ring when he's
clearly using his power ring and so on...)
A friend argues that Spider-Man is the "thought balloon"
exception because his "inner dialogue" is so important.
The self-doubt in his thoughts coupled with the
cockiness of his words when in costume combine to make
Spider-Man the character we love. If a story or cartoon
just depicted the "cocky" Spider-Man, without the
internal voice, would he be the same character?
|
| Back to Top |
profile
| search
| www
|
| |
Topic Closed)
