💜 Huge thanks to Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou for providing his lettering wisdom for this video! Check out his channel: th-cam.com/users/StripPanelNaked 💜 Also thanks to Lady Emily for voicing all the quotes in the video: th-cam.com/users/LadyEmilyPresents
HOPE I GET PINNED for pointing out that the Manga Tomo-chan is a Girl is using Panels and Speech-Bubbles and Writing-Tricks to astonishing, miraculous Effects, as explained in the video '9 Ways Tomo-Chan uses Panels well'.
I always thought it was "Speech Ballon" and "Thought Bubble" respectively based on the '"tail" of each. The "Balloon" having a full and connected neck/tail, and The "Bubble" having smaller bubbles that sort of percolate up to the main bubble.
The best thought balloons were Silver Age Superman explaining to the audience that he was doing something completely bonkers. "I'll use my SUPER-VENTRILOQUISM to make it APPEAR as if YOU, the AUDIENCE can HEAR MY THOUGHTS!"
@@ProjektTaku Savage Dragon creator had cool deconstruction/parody character of Superman with premise that was basically : not-Superman was first ever superhero, so when other superheroes started to appear and had cooler superpowers than his "jump high, punch hard and be invincible" he would kill them and steal their powers, that's how he "learned" to fly and heat vision, x-ray, etc. I may typed something wrong, but I am definitely right about premise. But also historically/canonically Superman always had power extension/upgrade since his creators, because already by his creators he had his for example hearing upgraded from normal hearing when he had to hang behind window to hear shit (also it's why Clark Kent works as reporter, because OG Superman couldn't just hear crime around his city let alone whole world like in more modern interpretations) to legit superhearing when he could hear stuff that were behind many walls and galsses and doors. Also Superman is perhaps only Superhero that was substantially retconed by creators as well, when they added Kents to his origin in Superman #1 (originally he grew in orphanage)
@@FirstnameLastname-my7bz wow, not-superman sounds really cool. I like to think superman's powers just grew as he learned more about himself and his limits, since he does train.
Now I'm having the idea for a sort of immortal knight character, whose thoughts are conveyed in stylized ribbons that billow and fold around them, and hang off them loosely. Like there's a panel looking down from the top of the building, and their feet step in and are wrapped in their thought ribbons. Or they've shouldered their huge broadsword, and the ribbon is coiled around the blade. Occasionally the ribbons act as the borders of panels. And there might be a dramatic moment where they're swing their sword at someone, with the ribbon following the arc of the blade, conveying their thought of "Die, Thing of Evil! Return to the Pit!". It would be a lot harder to implement because it's not a balloon or caption box hanging in space. It would be integrated into the art itself, and require a lot of careful planning with the letterer to make it work. But I think it would be cool as heck.
I’m surprised we didn’t get some examples of non-standard thought bubbles. Like Impulse’s picture thought bubbles, which made it seem less like thinking in words and more like something running through Bart’s rampant imagination. Or even the thought bubbles in Bendis’s Mighty Avengers, which always seemed like spur-of-the-moment thoughts and even sometimes purposely contradicted what the character was actually saying.
Jimmy Palmiotti & Amanda Conner also used stylized thought balloons during their runs on Harley Quinn (usually constructed out of diamond shapes to match her motif) and Starfire (who occasionally did picture bubbles like Impulse).
Plus, there have been other ways to represent telepathy like in Morrison's JLA where the telepathic bubble was a lumpy, wavy version of a speech callout.
Another problem with narration boxes: they can be confused with narration text boxes. If you have an unseen narrator (assumed to be the writer) who might have a bit of personality (Stan Lee being a major one), then when you see a text box saying "What's this?", you might be confused as to whether it's the narrator or the character. Sure, different colors and the like, but a thought bubble (I prefer "bubble" over "balloon") makes it clear it's the character, and the narrator can continue to be personality driven and quirky in the text boxes, without confusion in the slightest.
Related: I remember that when I was reading the current Batgirls comic, which has its own snarky narrator. But for the longest time I assumed it was Steph cause it sounded most like her and I was so used to narration boxes that I assume the narrator is a characters thoughts.
Yeah I feel that's more a case of badly executed rather than problem with the tool. As you say there are ways to avoid such an issue. This toe feels like if I was looking at a panel where two characters have there heads close to each other and it's unclear who's head the thought bubble Is coming from and calling it a problem of thought bubbles
This and several other reasons might be why the narrator voice has dissapeared. A narrator with a strong personality will pull you right out of the story and make your remember that you are just reading a story. This is why youtubers who narrate using an idiosyncratic speech pattern (the snarky or ironic voice for instance) draw too much attention to themselves when the attention should be on the informative content.
Apologies for the couple of random music volume spikes. Not sure what happened there, but I'll watch out for those in the future. There are captions in case you can't hear what I'm saying.
Hassan's comment about the pacing of manga being much faster than western comics actually made a lot of sense to me as a dyslexic reader! It's very easy for my eyes and attention to "slide" across a page too quickly to absorb western books and sometimes comic books, but the speed fits EXACTLY with manga. Thanks for helping me figure out why that works!
I felt this, even as a non-dyslexic reader. The speed of manga is one of the main draws - and one of the reasons I tend to prefer manga to anime, where the pacing is "one major story unit per episode," no matter what happens in that story unit.
Yeah, this derives from Osamu Tezuka's cinematic techniques that are really the foundation of all modern manga. Following his emergence there was a great deal of thought about this kind of thing and different methods used to achieve it among the generation that was negotiating the forms of manga and gekiga. but, yeah, manga flows
@@stephenbradford8524 depends also on whether you're watching an old or new anime series, the latter in most cases used to get started a couple or so years after the manga it's based on starts and then release episodes weekly from there alongside the manga that also pubblishes chapters weekly, issue is that one chapter alone doesn't fill the 20 minute runtime of anime episodes without some serious stretching, an episode usually encompasses 3 manga chapters, which obviously means that they must they'll eventually run out of material to adapt if they don't slow down, which means slowing the pacing down and adding filler content not present in the source material is a necessity, anime today work with a more lenient seasonal release, where they'll start relatively soon after a manga series starts just like the old days, but make new seasons of 20 od so chunks of episodes every couple or so years, which makes filler basically obsolete, they still do some, but not to the degree where entire story arcs are made up because the manga is being published at a much faster pace with monthly and especially weekly chapter releases so unless a bunch of hiatuses slowing down work happen, the anime stuff are golden. There's also series that aren't based on spurce material which obviously have better pacing, especially the older stuff since they're in full control of where the story goes, but they're absolutely not as common as manga adaptations in the industry are.
You know, I'd never actually noticed the lack of thought balloons in modern comics until now. Talk about a glass-shattering moment! Thanks for putting this video together, it's such an interesting subject that I've never seen anyone else talk about.
In my own comic I use thought balloons together with caption boxes and for a very specific reason-they serve two different purposes-the self-aware character vs the unselfconscious character. I use word balloons to depict internal reactions the character does not have control over whereas caption boxes are the character remembering the situation after the fact. This sets up a dynamic for me where the character is a somewhat unreliable narrator and I can show that. The caption box may say a situation occurred one way while the panel (depicting the immediate moment) shows something else and the thought balloon can relate the same piece of information but unfiltered by memory or the desire to cultivate one’s appearance. For instance, the caption box may say: “I didn’t like his tone and I told him so” while the thought balloon will say, “I really don’t like this guy’s tone”. It becomes clear the character _wanted_ to tell the guy off but didn’t actually. The panel now indicates to the reader that this character tells white lies about events and are insecure enough to retell a story differently to make themselves look better. This is the root of a lot of jokes. Now, I don’t exactly stick to the classic thought balloon. Mine are kind of wobbly rectangles of focused lines (more like Manga) so I’m clearly not entirely comfortable with campy traditional balloons, but I still find them very necessary to the storytelling.
I just started really reading comics, and when you said there really weren’t any more thought bubbles I was shocked. I hadn’t even really processed that they weren’t there despite not ever really reading anything WITH fluffy bubbles! After this video, I’m sure seeing the caption boxes will have a whole new dimension
Me not realizing this is Especially surprising since I’ve been reading most of the books featuring Stephanie brown, where she becomes a secondary main character in the Robin books (and essentially shares top billing with Barbara Gordon in batgirl) and her internal monologue is separated from Tim drake and Barbara by having a unique style/ color. Particularly in Robin it’s shown in script, designed as diary entries. It’s just super fascinating to me that I just internalized this stuff without really thinking about it!
Now I want to read a comic that uses both captions and thought balloons, but most of the captions are just making fun of their past self’s thoughts. (“I think I cracked a rib”) [“It was three ribs”] (“And a leg”) [“Both legs”] (“And an arm”) [“That’s just me being dramatic”]
In European comics, which is mostly humour and adventure stories rather than super heroes, the thought balloon is still going strong. The narration boxes are still dedicated to the all-knowing narrator. So whenever I pick up American super hero comics after I've been away from them for awhile, I need to remind myself that all the boxes aren't pure narration, but a character's thoughts. I think just using the character narrations the same way but in cloud shapes instead of boxes would make it more clear and wouldn't crave the death of the classic narration also.
so much this, european comics have squares for the all knowing narrator, thought bubbles for thoughts and speech ballons for spoken words, and honestly i like them this way. This combined way is simple yet effective and very clear for the reader!
All the reference books I've read and the pros I've talked to call them all "balloons." Never heard anyone in the business use the word "bubbles" for anything.
I have always been scratching my head over “Batman: The Long Halloween” (1996) being loaded with thought captions, but there being one solitary thought balloon. Admittedly, I feel like it does contextually work.
I'm pretty new to comics but I LOVE details like this that get overlooked so much when they really are so crucial. As a newer reader I notice a lot just how little details like these can make a difference in whether or not I can even easily read or follow along without difficulty.
I think it’s also interesting to view the temporal aspect from how that portrays the character too. First person narration usually seems like a character presenting themselves how they want to be viewed, whereas thought bubbles can be a contrast to that, seeing those same characters’ more impulsive and less measured thoughts. It‘s really valuable for exploring a character’s self-perception/deceptions
Yeah, FPN feels more like something that happened in the past and is recontextualized to the narrator's benefit. Bubbles make it seem more personal and like you're there with the character at the time of the event.
My personal, earliest awareness of this is the Punisher’s “War Journal” monologue which did feel unique and weird mixed in with regular speech and thought bubbles. But it’s interesting that “bubbles” and “balloons” are seen as too silly for the medium. They just refer to how it looks, not the content of the thoughts. It’s one thing for the Punisher to be so self-serious, but as a general practice it feels like too much grimdark and insecure. Like, calm down - no one is going to disparage your literature because you dot your i with a heart.
I read a lot of comics and it genuinely surprises me that the difference between thought balloons and narration boxes was anything other than cosmetic.
So there's a point in gweenpoole strikes back issue 4 where she's talking to the reader through Morse code and it's like this yellow box was a little arrow coming from it pointing to the origin of the Morse code and underneath it is her pink caption boxes (which represent her thoughts in this comic) which spell it out what she is saying, which seems like a lot of space being taken up for her to just do this one gag it only lasts for like 3 panels, but it's very interesting
But Gwen poole knows she's in a co,ic and that we are able to see her thoughts in the frist places like hyper aware and yet she chooses to uses mores coad Wich leads to her getting caught so what is even going on?😵💫
I always loved Bart Allen's imagery-based thought bubbles! It fits perfectly for comics and I really wish more series/characters used them in a similar fashion.
The great thing about those is that they seemed less like your typical inner monolgue and more like something quickly going through Bart’s imagination.
This got me thinking of Komi Can't Communicate where the titular character Komi-san communicates using written words on a book. Are those words supposed to be seen as speech or thoughts? This is her primary way of speaking to others, so it can be seen as speeches, but it is still written, disconnecting it from actual speech and can be seen as thought bubbles.
A video on comic book pacing would be pretty cool. Another topic that I think would make for an interesting video would be on the matter of how certain plot elements and sensibilities get recycled every 20 years as a result of young writers instinctively falling back on whatever era of comics that they grew up with. For example, a few recent X-Men writers have expressed their fondness of Grant Morrison's run. Not to mention that Donny Cates is a self-professed child of the 90's and that shows in a lot of his work.
I miss thought balloons. They where always interesting to read, even if they where just exposition machines sometimes. But, I’m more sad about the death of the omniscient narrator.
Eh, disagree on the omniscient narrator thing. I feel like a narrator is nearly completely unnecessary in a visual medium like comics. And the examples where the narrator just describes what's happening on page is really annoying IMO.
@@PlayerZeroStart There is more to narration than just describing what's happening. The narration can enhance the atmosphere, add details that can't be drawn or seen etc. Chris Claremont and Doug Moench with the classic moonknight run are good examples how to do great narration.
This actually is something I've thought about. You don't see a lot of wordy clouds anymore, especially for main characters. Stan Lee's overuse of the things may have contributed to the realization that comics could do without them. The thought bubble bubble burst, if you will.
I love using caption boxes as narration and thought balloons in conjunction with each other, especially to show a disconnect between what a character wants us to think and what’s really going on in their head. It’s especially fun when the captions and thought balloons say the same thing in the same panel as if they’re two separate people reacting in real time. The disconnect is a wonderful tool
(As a newspaper comics fan from way back, what actually mostly comes to mind is that thought bubbles are traditionally how animal characters like Snoopy or Garfield, who cannot diegetically talk, talk to the reader.)
On the topic of character-specific caption boxes in the Poe Dameron comics (I don't remember the specific issue) there are a few pages of two offpage characters recounting past events. The caption boxes are colored and lead you to assume what characters are talking. Only for it to be revealed it wasn't who you might have expected to be talking. It's hard to explain outside the context of the comic and I don't wanna give it away. But it worked incredibly well when reading it.
When I was writing my comic that I’m working to self publish there was quite a bit of inner monologue and the question of what happed to old school thought balloons crossed my mind several times so it’s cool that you made this video.
I now feel like I owe thought balloons an apology. I will say I actually really dig the diary entry approach to caption boxes. Even in cases where it wouldn’t make sense for the character (which it still should), it feels like you’re reading what the character actually feels is important for you to know instead of the selection of an unseen hand. Granted, maybe they’re not overused the way regular caption boxes are in American comics. (I remember reading The Walking Dead and thinking “this would be such a worse book if you saw any given character’s unspoken inner monologue.” I can’t believe the average superhero comic has more prose than THE zombie comic) One of my least favorite approaches is the radiotelepathy in The Authority. Like, it’s already in a blue border to separate it from the regular dialogue, but someone thought they had to change the font to... this sans-serif thing. It was very off putting.
I'm rereading the Dark Phoenix Saga after recently rereading Watchmen and some Scott Snyder Batman, and I was shocked at how different the presence of so many thought bubbles make the whole book feel, when compared to the monologue boxes and the narrator boxes.
I never thought that caption boxes were even thoughts! I always assumed that it was the character telling us the story. Except with Marty Pasko’s run on Saga of Swamp Thing and the previous use of the same character where it is obviously his thoughts.
Just knowing what I do about you from your videos I am 90% sure that spot on the top of your head is driving you nuts. You look fine buddy the video was interesting and well done. Don't put so much pressure on yourself.
That's interesting how different countries are. Here in Brazil we still use thought balloons all the time in comic books. Also speaking, screaming and whispering balloons and narration/speaking boxes for when the character is not on the page. Normally the thought balloons comes from the top of the head (as in the brain) and the others from the mouth, but not always. Sometimes they come from the general direction of the head.
I was reading old Superman a little while back and was literally wondering what the fuck happened to thought bubbles in comics, interested to see this video!
I miss thought balloons, and I blame Frank Miller. In the publicity for the then-upcoming Ronin mini-series, Miller talked about how he was reexamining comics language (not just thought balloons, but speed/movement lines, and other such devices). That's why he eliminated thought balloons in his work. And when a well-respected, trendsetting creator does something, well, others follow his lead. I'd like to see you examine captions though out comics history and how they changed. Examples could include the Superman/Batman title where both of the main characters shared their thoughts with the reader, giving readers insight to their differing personalities, as well as Marvel's experimentation with captions in the early/mid-'70s (specifically Master of Kung-Fu, Marvel Premiere [Iron Fist], and Werewolf by Night). And yes, turn your script into "something," please.
Funny this was brought up..Just last night I was reading some old Silver age Green Lantern and Flash comics and it took me forever to get thru because of the near never ending thought bubbles popping up..So many thoughts describing exactly what u see in the actual panels..brutal
I think Hass's Strip Panel Naked channel deserves a bigger plug. If you want to see someone break down comics, to see how artists control action and pacing, how layouts and panels themselves make such a huge difference to how a comic reads, you'll definitely enjoy it. All the things you don't think about or take for granted are laid out beautifully. His videos on Moon Knight and Hawkeye are a treat.
I think The Dark Knight Returns overcame the tail limitation by using color coded speech and thought balloons. My favorite use is when the captions are from the "present" where the story is being told or recorded, but the thought balloons are "in the moment" whenever the story's happening. Best of both worlds. *EDIT:* _Of course_ as soon as I write this, the video brings it up too.
Hey Scott, I think you should do a Comic Pacing video. I’ve noticed that golden and silver age comics all have more story packed into 32 pages. Modern comics have such little story actually happening. It’s a lot of inner dialog telling instead of showing us through the page.
The captions always feel like I'm watching the events happen with the protagonist sitting next to me, giving a commentary about what he was feeling after the fact. Fun effect, and that's probably why it feels more personal and less immediate.
Been awhile since I watched this channel, several years in fact, and the content is much better than I remembered. Great improvement, dude. Keep up the good work!
I feel like Garfield comics have a very interesting take on the thought bubble to the point where it almost feels as tho Jon and Garfield are dialoguing with each other. It's a bit confusing really
Scott should make a video on the mess that was the Archie Comics Sonic The Hedgehog series, the lawsuit, and the fallout from it which is still impacting the franchise over a decade later.
I seem to recall a move that Roy Thomas made way back in 1970 when he wrote the Conan comic, to avoid thought bubbles. That might have got the ball rolling.
I remember when the thought boxes first started coming out it really threw me. Because text boxes use to be exclusively for editors notes or narrators.
Hell yeah, another banger vid! I've been working on a few comics lately myself and the typography and lettering side is so much more complex then one might think. Good to get some insides 👀
I call it the day where heroes lost their souls. One of the things comics could do, that movies and such can't, was give us insight into the thoughts of the heroes as they would happen in real life. Claim: Peter Parker would never have become as popular as he was without giving the readers insights into his thoughts and struggles. Movies preach "Show, don't tell" but comics need to have both. I love your Earthworks microphone. They're soooo damn pretty and super good.
I love it when manga uses thoughts WITHOUT balloons, like a quick reaction shot of them going "Wow he's so fast!". It helps to keep the pacing going without using thought balloons or narration.
This is probably the best video, of something that I inherently understand, and didn’t know that I needed an explanation of. But I so needed the explanation
The full interview with Has on Nebula was absolutely fantastic. Has is one of the best critical voices in comics, in addition to being a delightful letterer.
I always called them "thought bubbles" because when a comic maker wanted to break the fourth wall character A would look at character B lost in thought and pop their thought bubble breaking them out of their trance. I've also heard on a more rare occasion "thought cloud" more when it's a solo thought and a character wants to stop thinking they blow it away or brush the sky so the bubble evaporates away like a cloud
Best use of thought balloons and narration along with dialog - The Dark Knight Returns. Specifically, the moment Batman snaps Joker's neck. The use of color and style of these of all 3 is clearly obvious how things actually played out at that moment which oddly caused debates about Batman killing.
At 20:36, I thought: "So, this is the difference between a 3rd person narrative which states a character's thoughts and a first person narrative in which a character's thoughts are part of the narration?" And so, I pondered the difference. . . Yes. I think that is the difference. Yes. It does feel different. Even when both are first person narratives. And, the first person narration is more direct. . Thank you!
This video made me realise that I've read very few books older than Crisis on Infinite Earth's so have very little exposure to this sort of thought bubbles (or balloons, for that matter)
My favorite variation of word balloons being subverted is in the comic strip Hogan's Alley, where the thoughts & dialogue of The Yellow Kid were expressed & displayed on his oversized yellow shirt! ❤️
I've always felt like caption boxes are the characters remembering the scene...like they don't remember the details but they have had more time to think on the whole of the thing
In Norway we call them "thought bubbles" and "speaking bubbles", gracefully side stepping the whole balloon vs bubble war. Y'all should try it in English too, if only to trip people up and making some annoying people really really mad about something not very significant
Love these kind of videos, and I'd definitely watch one on pacing! The internal mechanics of how comics work are so interesting, and underestimating their complexity is a reason comics as a medium is underrated by a lot of people, I think.
Rorschach's journals, being something he's intentionally writing later rather than thinking to himself in the moment, also give some narrative flexibility thought balloons wouldn't
Scott and Hassan seem like good friends :) Video was enterntaing easily consumable and full of fun little jokes and stayed informative through it all, good job Scott.
You've pretty much summed up why I prefer prose written in the third person over the first person. First-person prose (like comics with thoughts in caption boxes) give the feeling that you're being told a story after the fact. Third-person prose (like thought balloons) give a feeling of immediacy, like you're an observer.
Another great episode! Funny I was thinking about Marvel Horror Spider-Man that Scott did today. On people's reaction to the She Hulk trailer. Many focused on the "bad CGI". Could it really be that she is a sexy woman and half monster?
Something I find interesting is that my favorite comic series invincible barely uses thought balloons at all. Like there’s a narrator sometimes but other than that it’s almost all dialogue
@15:42 So I work at a comic shop and a few weeks ago I was inspecting a couple of Jack Kirby Jimmy Olsen books we had. Someone asked me what I was doing and I said “Oh, just checking my Jimmies.” Send bail money.
I want to share some of the best use of thought balloon I've seen. The first example comes from a spanish comic in which two characters have a conversation but what they say is not exactly what they think and the thought balloons are used to show this. The name of the comic is "El Vecino". I don't know if there's an English translation of it. Another example is from "Asterios Polyp". Here there are moments where the thought balloons don't have text but images.
Great vid! Very informative. Personally, I do the Berke Breathed "all tails, no balloons" in my own work and really only use caption boxes when I'm actively parodying things that make frequent use of them.
When you first asked why it was "Word balloon vs. Thought bubble", I got the picture of the traditional word balloon as resembling a real🎈. With thought bubbles the picture is like an old bubble pipe, particularly the 3-4 leaf clover design, where bubbles can either issue singly or in masses. This goes to the more ephemeral nature of thoughts - they just float in our heads, unvoiced. The fact that writers let us see characters thought process (sometimes) makes a intimate connection to the reader, no matter the style chosen to depict them.
I might have just been a dumb kid, but I did have to have it printed out to me that the cloud shaped bubble was a thought rather than a vocal thing. I don't think I ever had that issue with the disconnected square guy, though...
💜 Huge thanks to Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou for providing his lettering wisdom for this video! Check out his channel: th-cam.com/users/StripPanelNaked
💜 Also thanks to Lady Emily for voicing all the quotes in the video: th-cam.com/users/LadyEmilyPresents
Thanks for another awesome upload mr.niswander I have greatly missed your work and I am thrilled to see you on my feed again
Can I just say, I love these thumbnails! Perfect, not in your face but still intriguing
Strip Panel Naked is a GREAT channel. Everyone should check it out
Has is fantastic and a well of comics knowledge
HOPE I GET PINNED for pointing out
that the Manga Tomo-chan is a Girl is using Panels
and Speech-Bubbles and Writing-Tricks to astonishing, miraculous Effects,
as explained in the video '9 Ways Tomo-Chan uses Panels well'.
I always thought it was "Speech Ballon" and "Thought Bubble" respectively based on the '"tail" of each. The "Balloon" having a full and connected neck/tail, and The "Bubble" having smaller bubbles that sort of percolate up to the main bubble.
I've always called them both bubbles. Speech bubble, thought bubble.
I call them both bubbles
The best thought balloons were Silver Age Superman explaining to the audience that he was doing something completely bonkers. "I'll use my SUPER-VENTRILOQUISM to make it APPEAR as if YOU, the AUDIENCE can HEAR MY THOUGHTS!"
silver age superman has such weird powers that it makes you wonder if the writers just wanted him to be the most well-rounded superhero ever.
lmao
Hey, I remember that from the Jimmy Olsen comics!
@@ProjektTaku Savage Dragon creator had cool deconstruction/parody character of Superman with premise that was basically : not-Superman was first ever superhero, so when other superheroes started to appear and had cooler superpowers than his "jump high, punch hard and be invincible" he would kill them and steal their powers, that's how he "learned" to fly and heat vision, x-ray, etc.
I may typed something wrong, but I am definitely right about premise.
But also historically/canonically Superman always had power extension/upgrade since his creators, because already by his creators he had his for example hearing upgraded from normal hearing when he had to hang behind window to hear shit (also it's why Clark Kent works as reporter, because OG Superman couldn't just hear crime around his city let alone whole world like in more modern interpretations) to legit superhearing when he could hear stuff that were behind many walls and galsses and doors.
Also Superman is perhaps only Superhero that was substantially retconed by creators as well, when they added Kents to his origin in Superman #1 (originally he grew in orphanage)
@@FirstnameLastname-my7bz wow, not-superman sounds really cool.
I like to think superman's powers just grew as he learned more about himself and his limits, since he does train.
Now I'm having the idea for a sort of immortal knight character, whose thoughts are conveyed in stylized ribbons that billow and fold around them, and hang off them loosely. Like there's a panel looking down from the top of the building, and their feet step in and are wrapped in their thought ribbons. Or they've shouldered their huge broadsword, and the ribbon is coiled around the blade. Occasionally the ribbons act as the borders of panels. And there might be a dramatic moment where they're swing their sword at someone, with the ribbon following the arc of the blade, conveying their thought of "Die, Thing of Evil! Return to the Pit!".
It would be a lot harder to implement because it's not a balloon or caption box hanging in space. It would be integrated into the art itself, and require a lot of careful planning with the letterer to make it work. But I think it would be cool as heck.
I’m surprised we didn’t get some examples of non-standard thought bubbles. Like Impulse’s picture thought bubbles, which made it seem less like thinking in words and more like something running through Bart’s rampant imagination. Or even the thought bubbles in Bendis’s Mighty Avengers, which always seemed like spur-of-the-moment thoughts and even sometimes purposely contradicted what the character was actually saying.
Jimmy Palmiotti & Amanda Conner also used stylized thought balloons during their runs on Harley Quinn (usually constructed out of diamond shapes to match her motif) and Starfire (who occasionally did picture bubbles like Impulse).
Plus, there have been other ways to represent telepathy like in Morrison's JLA where the telepathic bubble was a lumpy, wavy version of a speech callout.
Bart Allen is the cutest and the best for that 😭💜
there's also Sandman where the balloons of the Endless are all* unique from humanity's
Another problem with narration boxes: they can be confused with narration text boxes. If you have an unseen narrator (assumed to be the writer) who might have a bit of personality (Stan Lee being a major one), then when you see a text box saying "What's this?", you might be confused as to whether it's the narrator or the character. Sure, different colors and the like, but a thought bubble (I prefer "bubble" over "balloon") makes it clear it's the character, and the narrator can continue to be personality driven and quirky in the text boxes, without confusion in the slightest.
Related: I remember that when I was reading the current Batgirls comic, which has its own snarky narrator. But for the longest time I assumed it was Steph cause it sounded most like her and I was so used to narration boxes that I assume the narrator is a characters thoughts.
Yeah I feel that's more a case of badly executed rather than problem with the tool. As you say there are ways to avoid such an issue. This toe feels like if I was looking at a panel where two characters have there heads close to each other and it's unclear who's head the thought bubble Is coming from and calling it a problem of thought bubbles
@@ethansmall581 that's funny, Batgirls is the first thing that came to my mind too.
Plus it literally looks like bubbles foaming up. Why are people even triggered by it's name?
This and several other reasons might be why the narrator voice has dissapeared. A narrator with a strong personality will pull you right out of the story and make your remember that you are just reading a story. This is why youtubers who narrate using an idiosyncratic speech pattern (the snarky or ironic voice for instance) draw too much attention to themselves when the attention should be on the informative content.
Apologies for the couple of random music volume spikes. Not sure what happened there, but I'll watch out for those in the future. There are captions in case you can't hear what I'm saying.
Hassan's comment about the pacing of manga being much faster than western comics actually made a lot of sense to me as a dyslexic reader! It's very easy for my eyes and attention to "slide" across a page too quickly to absorb western books and sometimes comic books, but the speed fits EXACTLY with manga. Thanks for helping me figure out why that works!
I felt this, even as a non-dyslexic reader. The speed of manga is one of the main draws - and one of the reasons I tend to prefer manga to anime, where the pacing is "one major story unit per episode," no matter what happens in that story unit.
yeah. Manga flows very well page to page. Its probably because of the better panelling aswell.
Yeah, this derives from Osamu Tezuka's cinematic techniques that are really the foundation of all modern manga. Following his emergence there was a great deal of thought about this kind of thing and different methods used to achieve it among the generation that was negotiating the forms of manga and gekiga.
but, yeah, manga flows
That explains why I get sleepy reading comics, but not manga.
@@stephenbradford8524 depends also on whether you're watching an old or new anime series, the latter in most cases used to get started a couple or so years after the manga it's based on starts and then release episodes weekly from there alongside the manga that also pubblishes chapters weekly, issue is that one chapter alone doesn't fill the 20 minute runtime of anime episodes without some serious stretching, an episode usually encompasses 3 manga chapters, which obviously means that they must they'll eventually run out of material to adapt if they don't slow down, which means slowing the pacing down and adding filler content not present in the source material is a necessity, anime today work with a more lenient seasonal release, where they'll start relatively soon after a manga series starts just like the old days, but make new seasons of 20 od so chunks of episodes every couple or so years, which makes filler basically obsolete, they still do some, but not to the degree where entire story arcs are made up because the manga is being published at a much faster pace with monthly and especially weekly chapter releases so unless a bunch of hiatuses slowing down work happen, the anime stuff are golden.
There's also series that aren't based on spurce material which obviously have better pacing, especially the older stuff since they're in full control of where the story goes, but they're absolutely not as common as manga adaptations in the industry are.
You know, I'd never actually noticed the lack of thought balloons in modern comics until now. Talk about a glass-shattering moment! Thanks for putting this video together, it's such an interesting subject that I've never seen anyone else talk about.
In my own comic I use thought balloons together with caption boxes and for a very specific reason-they serve two different purposes-the self-aware character vs the unselfconscious character.
I use word balloons to depict internal reactions the character does not have control over whereas caption boxes are the character remembering the situation after the fact. This sets up a dynamic for me where the character is a somewhat unreliable narrator and I can show that. The caption box may say a situation occurred one way while the panel (depicting the immediate moment) shows something else and the thought balloon can relate the same piece of information but unfiltered by memory or the desire to cultivate one’s appearance.
For instance, the caption box may say: “I didn’t like his tone and I told him so” while the thought balloon will say, “I really don’t like this guy’s tone”. It becomes clear the character _wanted_ to tell the guy off but didn’t actually. The panel now indicates to the reader that this character tells white lies about events and are insecure enough to retell a story differently to make themselves look better. This is the root of a lot of jokes.
Now, I don’t exactly stick to the classic thought balloon. Mine are kind of wobbly rectangles of focused lines (more like Manga) so I’m clearly not entirely comfortable with campy traditional balloons, but I still find them very necessary to the storytelling.
Shout yourself out and your comic, dude
Sounds like some cool stuff bud
That's perfect! You're really smart.
I just started really reading comics, and when you said there really weren’t any more thought bubbles I was shocked. I hadn’t even really processed that they weren’t there despite not ever really reading anything WITH fluffy bubbles! After this video, I’m sure seeing the caption boxes will have a whole new dimension
Me not realizing this is Especially surprising since I’ve been reading most of the books featuring Stephanie brown, where she becomes a secondary main character in the Robin books (and essentially shares top billing with Barbara Gordon in batgirl) and her internal monologue is separated from Tim drake and Barbara by having a unique style/ color. Particularly in Robin it’s shown in script, designed as diary entries. It’s just super fascinating to me that I just internalized this stuff without really thinking about it!
"Thinks" Cloud is what I've known them as for a while.
Now I want to read a comic that uses both captions and thought balloons, but most of the captions are just making fun of their past self’s thoughts.
(“I think I cracked a rib”)
[“It was three ribs”]
(“And a leg”)
[“Both legs”]
(“And an arm”)
[“That’s just me being dramatic”]
In European comics, which is mostly humour and adventure stories rather than super heroes, the thought balloon is still going strong. The narration boxes are still dedicated to the all-knowing narrator. So whenever I pick up American super hero comics after I've been away from them for awhile, I need to remind myself that all the boxes aren't pure narration, but a character's thoughts. I think just using the character narrations the same way but in cloud shapes instead of boxes would make it more clear and wouldn't crave the death of the classic narration also.
so much this, european comics have squares for the all knowing narrator, thought bubbles for thoughts and speech ballons for spoken words, and honestly i like them this way.
This combined way is simple yet effective and very clear for the reader!
I still can't get over the fact people call them a "thought balloon" like aren't they bubbles or clouds? 😅😂
Yeah I'm so used to bubble that hearing "balloon" is just strange to me.
Yes
Yeah that's super weird to me, I've only ever called them thought bubbles.
All the reference books I've read and the pros I've talked to call them all "balloons." Never heard anyone in the business use the word "bubbles" for anything.
I have always been scratching my head over “Batman: The Long Halloween” (1996) being loaded with thought captions, but there being one solitary thought balloon. Admittedly, I feel like it does contextually work.
I'm pretty new to comics but I LOVE details like this that get overlooked so much when they really are so crucial. As a newer reader I notice a lot just how little details like these can make a difference in whether or not I can even easily read or follow along without difficulty.
wow i didn't even notice thought balloons were phased out in comics until this video
I think it’s also interesting to view the temporal aspect from how that portrays the character too. First person narration usually seems like a character presenting themselves how they want to be viewed, whereas thought bubbles can be a contrast to that, seeing those same characters’ more impulsive and less measured thoughts. It‘s really valuable for exploring a character’s self-perception/deceptions
Yeah, FPN feels more like something that happened in the past and is recontextualized to the narrator's benefit. Bubbles make it seem more personal and like you're there with the character at the time of the event.
My personal, earliest awareness of this is the Punisher’s “War Journal” monologue which did feel unique and weird mixed in with regular speech and thought bubbles.
But it’s interesting that “bubbles” and “balloons” are seen as too silly for the medium. They just refer to how it looks, not the content of the thoughts. It’s one thing for the Punisher to be so self-serious, but as a general practice it feels like too much grimdark and insecure. Like, calm down - no one is going to disparage your literature because you dot your i with a heart.
I read a lot of comics and it genuinely surprises me that the difference between thought balloons and narration boxes was anything other than cosmetic.
So there's a point in gweenpoole strikes back issue 4 where she's talking to the reader through Morse code and it's like this yellow box was a little arrow coming from it pointing to the origin of the Morse code and underneath it is her pink caption boxes (which represent her thoughts in this comic) which spell it out what she is saying, which seems like a lot of space being taken up for her to just do this one gag it only lasts for like 3 panels, but it's very interesting
But Gwen poole knows she's in a co,ic and that we are able to see her thoughts in the frist places like hyper aware and yet she chooses to uses mores coad Wich leads to her getting caught so what is even going on?😵💫
A thirty minute video about thought balloons is exactly why I come back to the channel. Nice work.
I always loved Bart Allen's imagery-based thought bubbles! It fits perfectly for comics and I really wish more series/characters used them in a similar fashion.
The great thing about those is that they seemed less like your typical inner monolgue and more like something quickly going through Bart’s imagination.
This got me thinking of Komi Can't Communicate where the titular character Komi-san communicates using written words on a book. Are those words supposed to be seen as speech or thoughts? This is her primary way of speaking to others, so it can be seen as speeches, but it is still written, disconnecting it from actual speech and can be seen as thought bubbles.
A video on comic book pacing would be pretty cool. Another topic that I think would make for an interesting video would be on the matter of how certain plot elements and sensibilities get recycled every 20 years as a result of young writers instinctively falling back on whatever era of comics that they grew up with. For example, a few recent X-Men writers have expressed their fondness of Grant Morrison's run. Not to mention that Donny Cates is a self-professed child of the 90's and that shows in a lot of his work.
I miss thought balloons. They where always interesting to read, even if they where just exposition machines sometimes. But, I’m more sad about the death of the omniscient narrator.
Strongly agree.
Eh, disagree on the omniscient narrator thing. I feel like a narrator is nearly completely unnecessary in a visual medium like comics. And the examples where the narrator just describes what's happening on page is really annoying IMO.
The Watcher died?
@@PlayerZeroStart There is more to narration than just describing what's happening. The narration can enhance the atmosphere, add details that can't be drawn or seen etc. Chris Claremont and Doug Moench with the classic moonknight run are good examples how to do great narration.
This actually is something I've thought about. You don't see a lot of wordy clouds anymore, especially for main characters.
Stan Lee's overuse of the things may have contributed to the realization that comics could do without them. The thought bubble bubble burst, if you will.
That's very clever
I love using caption boxes as narration and thought balloons in conjunction with each other, especially to show a disconnect between what a character wants us to think and what’s really going on in their head. It’s especially fun when the captions and thought balloons say the same thing in the same panel as if they’re two separate people reacting in real time. The disconnect is a wonderful tool
That helps explain why I find modern comics so confusing . I’m not sure if I’m reading a dialogue box or a thought bubble expression.
(As a newspaper comics fan from way back, what actually mostly comes to mind is that thought bubbles are traditionally how animal characters like Snoopy or Garfield, who cannot diegetically talk, talk to the reader.)
On the topic of character-specific caption boxes in the Poe Dameron comics (I don't remember the specific issue) there are a few pages of two offpage characters recounting past events. The caption boxes are colored and lead you to assume what characters are talking. Only for it to be revealed it wasn't who you might have expected to be talking. It's hard to explain outside the context of the comic and I don't wanna give it away. But it worked incredibly well when reading it.
When I was writing my comic that I’m working to self publish there was quite a bit of inner monologue and the question of what happed to old school thought balloons crossed my mind several times so it’s cool that you made this video.
I now feel like I owe thought balloons an apology.
I will say I actually really dig the diary entry approach to caption boxes. Even in cases where it wouldn’t make sense for the character (which it still should), it feels like you’re reading what the character actually feels is important for you to know instead of the selection of an unseen hand.
Granted, maybe they’re not overused the way regular caption boxes are in American comics. (I remember reading The Walking Dead and thinking “this would be such a worse book if you saw any given character’s unspoken inner monologue.” I can’t believe the average superhero comic has more prose than THE zombie comic)
One of my least favorite approaches is the radiotelepathy in The Authority. Like, it’s already in a blue border to separate it from the regular dialogue, but someone thought they had to change the font to... this sans-serif thing. It was very off putting.
I'm rereading the Dark Phoenix Saga after recently rereading Watchmen and some Scott Snyder Batman, and I was shocked at how different the presence of so many thought bubbles make the whole book feel, when compared to the monologue boxes and the narrator boxes.
I never thought that caption boxes were even thoughts! I always assumed that it was the character telling us the story. Except with Marty Pasko’s run on Saga of Swamp Thing and the previous use of the same character where it is obviously his thoughts.
Just knowing what I do about you from your videos I am 90% sure that spot on the top of your head is driving you nuts. You look fine buddy the video was interesting and well done. Don't put so much pressure on yourself.
That's interesting how different countries are. Here in Brazil we still use thought balloons all the time in comic books. Also speaking, screaming and whispering balloons and narration/speaking boxes for when the character is not on the page. Normally the thought balloons comes from the top of the head (as in the brain) and the others from the mouth, but not always. Sometimes they come from the general direction of the head.
Can't wait to watch this one after work. Thanks for putting out THOUGHT provoking content for years!
Relate to this so hard 😂
I was reading old Superman a little while back and was literally wondering what the fuck happened to thought bubbles in comics, interested to see this video!
I'm so glad to see my two favorite bald comic book TH-camrs collaborating!!! You both do awesome work, keep it up!
I miss thought balloons, and I blame Frank Miller. In the publicity for the then-upcoming Ronin mini-series, Miller talked about how he was reexamining comics language (not just thought balloons, but speed/movement lines, and other such devices). That's why he eliminated thought balloons in his work. And when a well-respected, trendsetting creator does something, well, others follow his lead.
I'd like to see you examine captions though out comics history and how they changed. Examples could include the Superman/Batman title where both of the main characters shared their thoughts with the reader, giving readers insight to their differing personalities, as well as Marvel's experimentation with captions in the early/mid-'70s (specifically Master of Kung-Fu, Marvel Premiere [Iron Fist], and Werewolf by Night).
And yes, turn your script into "something," please.
Funny this was brought up..Just last night I was reading some old Silver age Green Lantern and Flash comics and it took me forever to get thru because of the near never ending thought bubbles popping up..So many thoughts describing exactly what u see in the actual panels..brutal
"And for this I interview my totally real friend who isn't just me with glasses"
trying to pull of a clarck interviewing superman I see...
I think Hass's Strip Panel Naked channel deserves a bigger plug.
If you want to see someone break down comics, to see how artists control action and pacing, how layouts and panels themselves make such a huge difference to how a comic reads, you'll definitely enjoy it.
All the things you don't think about or take for granted are laid out beautifully. His videos on Moon Knight and Hawkeye are a treat.
Not even finished and loving this video (look, a mid-video thought)! Please make a comic book pacing video. Always such an interesting subject.
you know what I like, when they add the symbol of the hero to the box caption. it looks cool and it makes it clear.
I think The Dark Knight Returns overcame the tail limitation by using color coded speech and thought balloons.
My favorite use is when the captions are from the "present" where the story is being told or recorded, but the thought balloons are "in the moment" whenever the story's happening.
Best of both worlds.
*EDIT:* _Of course_ as soon as I write this, the video brings it up too.
I have to pause the QnA episode of Probs not aliens to watch this, really torn between the two
Not so much a "NerdSync" mug per se, but I'd definitely buy a "words are thought fossils" mug
Hey Scott, I think you should do a Comic Pacing video. I’ve noticed that golden and silver age comics all have more story packed into 32 pages. Modern comics have such little story actually happening. It’s a lot of inner dialog telling instead of showing us through the page.
The captions always feel like I'm watching the events happen with the protagonist sitting next to me, giving a commentary about what he was feeling after the fact. Fun effect, and that's probably why it feels more personal and less immediate.
Been awhile since I watched this channel, several years in fact, and the content is much better than I remembered. Great improvement, dude. Keep up the good work!
Hi Scott! Glad you're still making thought provoking videos about comics. I hope you're taking care of yourself. Sending good vibes!
I feel like Garfield comics have a very interesting take on the thought bubble to the point where it almost feels as tho Jon and Garfield are dialoguing with each other. It's a bit confusing really
Scott should make a video on the mess that was the Archie Comics Sonic The Hedgehog series, the lawsuit, and the fallout from it which is still impacting the franchise over a decade later.
I believe he made a video on that a few years ago.
@@renjigraal4970 It seems that there was a Super Suits video on it five years ago, but I feel there's so much more to it than was discussed there
I seem to recall a move that Roy Thomas made way back in 1970 when he wrote the Conan comic, to avoid thought bubbles. That might have got the ball rolling.
I’d love a video about comic book pacing! Been something I’ve been thinking about for a while
I've never really thought about the difference between thought balloons and caption boxes, but I sure will now
I remember when the thought boxes first started coming out it really threw me. Because text boxes use to be exclusively for editors notes or narrators.
Hell yeah, another banger vid! I've been working on a few comics lately myself and the typography and lettering side is so much more complex then one might think. Good to get some insides 👀
I call it the day where heroes lost their souls. One of the things comics could do, that movies and such can't, was give us insight into the thoughts of the heroes as they would happen in real life.
Claim: Peter Parker would never have become as popular as he was without giving the readers insights into his thoughts and struggles.
Movies preach "Show, don't tell" but comics need to have both.
I love your Earthworks microphone. They're soooo damn pretty and super good.
I love it when manga uses thoughts WITHOUT balloons, like a quick reaction shot of them going "Wow he's so fast!". It helps to keep the pacing going without using thought balloons or narration.
That's how i tend to represent thoughts when I comic. Just floating words, almost part of the environment
This is probably the best video, of something that I inherently understand, and didn’t know that I needed an explanation of. But I so needed the explanation
I blame David Lynch's Dune for killing thought bubbles to voice-overs
The full interview with Has on Nebula was absolutely fantastic. Has is one of the best critical voices in comics, in addition to being a delightful letterer.
I hope it wasn't restricted to my country and behind a paywall
There's a whole issue of Spider-Ham where he tries to get his thought balloons back.
I would’ve never thought about this difference between caption boxes and thought balloons!!
I think about how efficient themed Captions are whenever I see that 2 page origin spread from Batman/Superman. It's really good
I always called them "thought bubbles" because when a comic maker wanted to break the fourth wall character A would look at character B lost in thought and pop their thought bubble breaking them out of their trance.
I've also heard on a more rare occasion "thought cloud" more when it's a solo thought and a character wants to stop thinking they blow it away or brush the sky so the bubble evaporates away like a cloud
Best use of thought balloons and narration along with dialog - The Dark Knight Returns. Specifically, the moment Batman snaps Joker's neck. The use of color and style of these of all 3 is clearly obvious how things actually played out at that moment which oddly caused debates about Batman killing.
At 20:36, I thought: "So, this is the difference between a 3rd person narrative which states a character's thoughts and a first person narrative in which a character's thoughts are part of the narration?" And so, I pondered the difference.
.
.
Yes.
I think that is the difference.
Yes. It does feel different. Even when both are first person narratives. And, the first person narration is more direct.
.
Thank you!
I think you're on to something, but I think it's closer to third person omniscient vs third person limited
Scott has such a great voice, and seeing him communicate with another human was quite an experience
This video made me realise that I've read very few books older than Crisis on Infinite Earth's so have very little exposure to this sort of thought bubbles (or balloons, for that matter)
My favorite variation of word balloons being subverted is in the comic strip Hogan's Alley, where the thoughts & dialogue of The Yellow Kid were expressed & displayed on his oversized yellow shirt! ❤️
As a comic strip artist, I can’t imagine ever giving up my sweet, sweet thought bubbles. You will pry them out of my cold, dead hand, comic industry!
Your channel makes me so happy in so many ways. Whatever direction you take this channel, I love hearing your thoughts & ideas.
I've always felt like caption boxes are the characters remembering the scene...like they don't remember the details but they have had more time to think on the whole of the thing
In Norway we call them "thought bubbles" and "speaking bubbles", gracefully side stepping the whole balloon vs bubble war.
Y'all should try it in English too, if only to trip people up and making some annoying people really really mad about something not very significant
Love these kind of videos, and I'd definitely watch one on pacing! The internal mechanics of how comics work are so interesting, and underestimating their complexity is a reason comics as a medium is underrated by a lot of people, I think.
been a fan of both mugs and you for years, would love for them to come back.
I have never read a single comic but I love the unnecessarily technical side of art. So your videos are always fascinating. Thank you.
Rorschach's journals, being something he's intentionally writing later rather than thinking to himself in the moment, also give some narrative flexibility thought balloons wouldn't
Scott and Hassan seem like good friends :)
Video was enterntaing easily consumable and full of fun little jokes and stayed informative through it all, good job Scott.
25:33 power records!
come to think of it, the fact those versions had abridged dialogue speaks more to the temporal differences in mediums
I really appreciate how in-depth these videos are and definitely don’t mind the length since it gives me a lot of content to digest
You've pretty much summed up why I prefer prose written in the third person over the first person. First-person prose (like comics with thoughts in caption boxes) give the feeling that you're being told a story after the fact. Third-person prose (like thought balloons) give a feeling of immediacy, like you're an observer.
Another great episode! Funny I was thinking about Marvel Horror Spider-Man that Scott did today. On people's reaction to the She Hulk trailer. Many focused on the "bad CGI". Could it really be that she is a sexy woman and half monster?
My thought balloon is mostly "I wonder what Sparta is doing right now? How's he living, what's he thinking about?"
The delivery of the line “a little balding boy tried to kick a football” will live in my mind rent free for the rest of my life
Excellent analysis. For some dumb reason I thought comic creators had to choose one or the other.
Something I find interesting is that my favorite comic series invincible barely uses thought balloons at all. Like there’s a narrator sometimes but other than that it’s almost all dialogue
To have Sparta - who can't speak human - to appear and have a lot to say during the *thought bubble* episode, is incredibly fitting in my opinion.
@15:42 So I work at a comic shop and a few weeks ago I was inspecting a couple of Jack Kirby Jimmy Olsen books we had. Someone asked me what I was doing and I said “Oh, just checking my Jimmies.”
Send bail money.
I want to share some of the best use of thought balloon I've seen.
The first example comes from a spanish comic in which two characters have a conversation but what they say is not exactly what they think and the thought balloons are used to show this. The name of the comic is "El Vecino". I don't know if there's an English translation of it.
Another example is from "Asterios Polyp". Here there are moments where the thought balloons don't have text but images.
Great vid! Very informative. Personally, I do the Berke Breathed "all tails, no balloons" in my own work and really only use caption boxes when I'm actively parodying things that make frequent use of them.
Already saw the interview on Nebula, and you know what, I think it’s pretty great.
When you first asked why it was "Word balloon vs. Thought bubble", I got the picture of the traditional word balloon as resembling a real🎈. With thought bubbles the picture is like an old bubble pipe, particularly the 3-4 leaf clover design, where bubbles can either issue singly or in masses.
This goes to the more ephemeral nature of thoughts - they just float in our heads, unvoiced. The fact that writers let us see characters thought process (sometimes) makes a intimate connection to the reader, no matter the style chosen to depict them.
I might have just been a dumb kid, but I did have to have it printed out to me that the cloud shaped bubble was a thought rather than a vocal thing. I don't think I ever had that issue with the disconnected square guy, though...
I watched this on Nebula and just came by to say Great Job! and Thank You!