Speech bubble

Although the exact details were not necessarily set when the first volume was published, Girl Genius, like many modern comics, uses different specific fonts and outline shapes in speech bubbles (also known as word balloons or dialogue balloons: the large white shapes with writing on them that indicates what the characters are supposedly saying; a source of amusement to some, especially on pages where the characters' other pneumatic bits are not depicted) to indicate different types of speech. Comicraft is credited as the source for most of the fonts used in the creation of the Girl Genius comic.

Speech types in Girl Genius

In particular, the bubble can be used to recognize The madness place or the Command voice.

Early mad dialog

Gil's dialog from 2002-12-18 (Wednesday) ✣ .

In the first volume, lettering with letters of irregular size was used to indicate the voice of a Spark in the active state.

In the second and subsequent volumes:

Standard

Standard speech bubbles use the Comicraft typeface Comicrazy

Whispering, Shouting

A speech bubble with a broken line indicates someone is speaking quietly, usually whispering or a sotto voce comment, while angled bubbles indicate a raised voice.

Mad

The Comicraft font Spookytooth was used for utterances made by Sparks in the madness place ✣ , as well as other speeches by characters who were angry or who were imitating a Spark, typically accompanied by an irregular bubble.

Examples of standard, broken, angled and irregular can all be seen on a single page in Vol 8 ✣ .

Standard

Quiet

Loud

Mad

Off Panel

Dialog by a character that does not appear in a panel is typically shown in a square box. Typically it is necessary to infer the character by context, although occasionally color coded text is used.

Specific Characters

• Spookytooth is also used for dialog by Castle Heterodyne and The Beast, with a distinctive double squared bubble for the Castle, and an irregular bubble for the Beast.

• The alternate characters from the Comicraft font GrimlyFiendish were used for most utterances ✣ by von Pinn; and

• The standard (unshifted) characters from the Comicraft font GrimlyFiendish were used for dialogue by the Geisterdamen when speaking their own language ✣ .

• Albia's telepathy features lines emanating from the bubble ✣ .

• Franz Scortchmaw has irregular bubbles with jagged 'stalactites' underneath.

• Artificial speech often has a square or rounded square bubble, sometimes with rectangular artifacts.
  • Square: Mister Tock ✣ , Rescue Clank ✣ , Snapper Boikov ✣ , Fashion Clank ✣
  • Rounded Square, regular text: the less damaged Muses (Prende ✣ , Orotine ✣ , Anevka ✣ ) have rounded square bubbles, but use the conventional Comicrazy font.
  • Rounded Square, Spellcaster font: Some clanks, e.g. Humongulus ✣ , Krakow Clank ✣
  • Rounded Square with artifacts: Rudolf Selnikov ✣ , Train Ulm ✣ , Dome broadcast ✣
  • Rounded with artifacts: Copterbot recordings ✣
  • Square with artifacts: Othar's watch ✣
  • Tinka ✣
  • Madame Desmana ✣ , however, has her own thing going on.

Thought bubbles

Thought bubbles, which have the outline of a mass of air bubbles or a cumulus cloud, represent a character's unspoken thoughts. They are used only rarely in Girl Genius. This is slightly inconsistent with the work's limited (i.e., not omniscient) point of view as discussed in the article on the "canon".

From their scarcity, it would be reasonable to conclude that the artist prefers to convey information through pictures and dialogue, but sometimes finds a thought bubble necessary to convey a character's mental state. Either that, or they just appear when having one would be funnier.

Speculators find thought bubbles particularly useful because characters who might prevaricate in a speech bubble would have no motivation to do so in a thought bubble.

See Also

• List of thought bubbles

External Links

• The Lexicon of Comicana: A Wikipedia article about the 1980 book by the American cartoonist Mort Walker, which was intended as a tongue-in-cheek look at the devices used by comics cartoonists.
• Comic Book Grammar & Tradition: A list of the dialogue balloon styles used in mainstream American comics, explaining how they are used, with examples.