The Thought Bubble and Its Vicissitudes in Contemporary Comics

Abstract

The Thought Bubble and Its Vicissitudes in Contemporary Comics Vera J. Camden (bio) In a 2017 New York Times article, Jonah Bromwich asks the question: "Why are all of our words in bubbles?" Pointing to the decision by Apple, Facebook, and Twitter to put all messages in the comics form of bubbles, he notes how the rounded edges convey a softer, more receptive graphic format in which to receive information. So, Bromwich consults comics expert Scott McCloud, who explains the psychology of such a graphic design decision: "bubbles created a consistent amount of negative space around words, which was desirable from a graphic standpoint." Bromwich then suggests, "The rounded edges of text bubbles also gave messages a soft, friendly connotation. That's an element especially useful in texted communication, where tone and body language are absent" (2017). Such negative space in the text bubble cushions the ambiguity or other anxious effects of uncontained text, softening the sharp edges of letters by friendly, rounded shapes. The rounded shapes of a Facebook Messenger or iMessage text derive from the comics page; the rounded shapes of thought bubbles and speech balloons draw forth "tone and body language." Yet the thought bubble and the speech balloon are quite distinct devices and serve very different functions in the comics medium. My discussion of the vicissitudes of thought bubbles pivots on the uniqueness of this comics convention. As I take up the particularly embattled fate of the thought bubble in contemporary comics, my claim will be that the current, demonstrable trend in mainstream comics publishing to banish this friendly and familiar vehicle of expression in comics not only limits the expressive range of comics as a medium, but also, from a psychoanalytic standpoint, reveals a reaction against and a purging of affect and thought itself from the comics page. I will conclude by gathering up a few [End Page 603] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Sina Grace, Nothing Lasts Forever, 2017, p. 77. [End Page 604] hopeful and creative examples of contemporary comics that deliberately resist the trends of corporate comics publishers. While keeping up with current comics style, these comics artists deliberately retain the centrality of the thought bubble and the complex internal life to which it points. The parallel grammar of comics and text messages juxtaposed on the page from Sina Grace's graphic memoir, Nothing Lasts Forever, shows the thought bubble and the speech balloon in spontaneous reciprocity (Figure 1). But this dynamic also highlights that the two devices are different: they come from different places in the comics' character and they work differently in the narrative progression. The thought bubble precedes the text message. It is literally in a bubble and private—we can see rotating bubbles when someone is typing a response to our message, suggesting the other person is now thinking. The text message encapsulated in a shape akin to the speech balloon records thought—as in diary keeping—but it is not thought. The text message has the status of speech in this comic. It aims to replicate speech with its back and forth pattern. Thought, on the other hand, leads to more thought, associatively, and unless it is put into words and speech, privately. The play between the thought bubbles and the speech balloons in this panel capture how the character's internal anxiety, desire for support, and hope for a response gets conveyed in speech in the immediacy of the move from internal to external. As suggested by this comics panel, Grace debates whether or not to text his ex-boyfriend, Cash. Through the dialogue of texts, he realizes that he needs Cash. The thought bubbles provide access to the internal pain of the character and his neurotic thoughts, while his texts translate almost instantaneously into text message "speech balloons" that reach out to his friend. Both devices reveal human motivation, both depict human desire, and both, as Grace says, "advance the narrative, in any event" (2017, p. 77). But this contemporary example clearly illustrates the contrast between the two different domains of process and product. Thought bubbles have traditionally functioned in comics to offer insight into the life of a character even...