This is an extract from my current research and is unfinished.
With print, the spoken word is given visual representation. As McLuhan discusses in his 1964 book Understanding Media (McLuhan.1964), the notion of visual representation of speech also comes with the properties of speech. However, due to print only being able to show what is said, timing and tone are missing and must be implied based on context. A reader understands how long it takes to say the words they are reading due to lived experience and their own understanding of context. Therefore, when a comic depicts a character speaking, the reader uses both the printed text and implications of the art to experience that panel temporally.
The application of text in comics comes in the form of ‘carriers’, a form of carrying information to the reader. As Cohn discusses in his book The Visual Language of Comics: Introduction to the Structure and Cognition of Sequential Images (Cohn.2013), carriers function as a way for information to interface between images and text similarly (Cohn.2013:35). The purpose of a carrier, specifically speech balloons, is to convey to the reader that someone is speaking, to indicate who is speaking, and what is being said. This can be shown through the anatomy of a carrier. Despite changing their appearances depending on their purpose, their anatomy remains largely the same. The carrier being the form taken, for example a speech balloon, or thought bubble. The content being the words being spoken, with a tail giving a clear direction towards the text’s root. Finally, the root is the source of the dialogue being spoken, typically a character.
There are various forms of ‘carrier’ that creators can use to portray a different relationship between the content and the root. Each of these different forms of carrier take on distinct appearances depending on their purpose, giving a visual distinction to the relationship between root and content. Speech Balloons are the most common, denoting that a person is speaking. These consist of a solid oval with a tail attached. To indicate that the person is shouting rather than speaking at a calm tone, the oval becomes jagged, alternatively, if a person is speaking at a low level, such as when they are whispering, the line becomes a series of dashes. These small distinctions provide the reader with a clear visual indication of the tone and intent of the dialogue. Thought bubbles indicate a person’s internal thoughts and appear typically as a cloud with the tail now replaced with a series of smaller clouds leading from the root to the content. Finally, narrative captions do not have a root as they are intended for the reader rather than as part of the characters storyworld. As such, the caption does not contain a tail and can appear in a rectangular box. While there are exceptions to each of these, the basic structure remains and is informed by the anatomy described here.
Each of these different forms of carrier coincide with two different categories of classification. These are Root Aware (RA) and Adjacent Aware (AA) (Cohn.2013:35). A carrier can be any mixture of these two categories, including + RA, – RA, + AA, and – AA. If a carrier is + RA (Root Aware) then the source of the dialogue is fully aware of it. However, if the carrier is – RA (Root Unaware) then the source is not aware. An unaware root would include radios and televisions that project a noise but are not consciously making the sound. Conversely, if a carrier is + AA (Adjacent Aware) then other characters within the storyworld are able to hear the content being spoken. If a carrier is – AA (Adjacent Unaware) then the characters are not aware of it and it cannot be heard by them.
An example of a + RA / + AA carrier would be the speech balloon, a representation of clear speech, as an extension of this, whispering and shouting would also be + RA / + AA. Thought Bubbles would be considered + RA / – AA due to them acting as a character’s internal dialogue and purposely designed to only be heard by the root. A carrier that is – RA / + AA would be any coming from a root that is unaware or conscious of what it is saying, but audible to the characters surrounding it, such as a radio or television. Finally, a – RA / – AA carrier exclusively applies to an element that is purely for the readers benefit and does not affect the flow of time or characters within the story.
The following chapter looks at the four case studies and their tie in issues to see how these elements have changed between 1985 and 2009. For each case study, the core story issues will be analysed first, with a clear count of both carrier types and the RA/AA classifications shown. Observations from both a close reading of the issues and the data will be discussed before comparing the findings with the tie-in issues. The tie-in issues will provide a greater view of normality in superhero comics at the point of publication. This is due to the tie-in issues, while relating to the main story, being written, and illustrated by different teams than the primary issues. Once all four case studies have be analysed, the collective data will be compared to see how carriers have changed across three decades. These case studies will be looked at in chronological order, beginning with Crisis on Infinite Earths (Wolfman & Perez.1986), followed by Zero Hour: Crisis in Time (Jurgens & Ordway.1994), Infinite Crisis (Johns & Jimenez.2006) and finishing with Final Crisis (Morrison & Jones.2009).
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Across 12 issues, Crisis on Infinite Earths contains 5622 individual carriers. Of the four RA / AA classifications, + RA / + AA is the most prominent with 4,368 Root Aware and Adjacent Aware carriers. The second most common is – RA / – AA with 708 Root Unaware and Adjacent Unaware carriers. This shows a large discrepancy between the first and second most used types of RA / AA carriers, as there is a 3,660-carrier difference. Thirdly, + RA / – AA appears with 431 Root Aware and Adjacent Unaware carriers. Finally, the lowest number of carriers appearing in Crisis on Infinite Earths is – RA / + AA, with 115 Root Unaware and Adjacent Aware carriers. This gives us a difference of 4,253 carriers between the highest recuring RA / AA type, and the lowest recuring.
The fact that + RA / +AA is the most prominent is not surprising as it includes speech, shouting and whispering. Out of the 4,368 + RA / + AA carriers, 4,175 are speech balloons, 184 indicate shouting, and 9 indicate whispering. Despite all three being Root Aware and Adjacent Aware, the volume and tone is suggested by the shape of the carrier. The high number of + RA / + AA carriers indicates a heavy amount of discussion throughout the story, each of which have a quantifiable element of time attached. As readers, we are able to extrapolate both what is being said, and how it is presented to give an approximation of how much time is passing in most carrier heavy panels of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The amount of – RA / – AA carriers present are all indicative of narrative captions, meaning there are 708 counts of narrative captions present. As narrative captions are neither Root Aware nor Adjacent Aware, they do not carry temporal weight in the comic. With 708 narrative captions, this implies a large number of carriers are not intended for the characters but are rather entirely for the benefit of the reader. While not carrying temporal weight, they do explain elements that are perhaps not clear through a close reading of the art alone.
Of the two lesser seen RA / AA carrier types, + RA / – AA appears more frequently. These appear as thoughts produced by the character but are inaudible to the surrounding characters in the storyworld. At 431, this implies a strong need for the audience to understand a character’s thought process. Despite the root being aware that they are thinking, it is more difficult to discern a measure of time due to the adjacent characters not being able to hear it, and thus time not progressing in a measurable way in the storyworld. This leaves + RA / – AA carriers, such as thought bubbles, with an ambiguous connection to time. Unlike Root Aware Adjacent Unaware carriers, – RA / + AA carriers do imply a progression of time, despite being the least used in Crisis on Infinite Earths. These Root Unaware and Adjacent Aware carriers appear as broadcast transmissions from either televisions or radios. The inclusion of these carriers in Crisis on infinite Earths lends itself to the magnitude of the story as they primarily appear as news broadcasts. These show a progression of time not only in the story but imply to the reader that the storyworld’s general audience is also invested in how the story is progressing and want continuing updates.
The count for each of these carrier types was taken based on intent implied by context. While the majority of these carriers follow Cohn’s description for how specific carriers should look, such as speech balloons being round, thoughts appearing in bubbles, and narrative captions in boxes, there are several instances that feature a carrier serving one purpose but taking on the appearance of another. I shall refer to these as divergent carrier appearances, as they diverge from what is expected.
The first of these divergent carrier appearances is what I refer to as ‘Narrative Speech’. These are carriers that posess the properties of a speech balloon, but appear in the same boxes as narrative captions. These are denoted by quotation marks around the text, indicating that this is a quote or an act of contiuning speech. The information regarding the root is implied through context and requires reader involvement. Despite appearing similarly to a narrative caption, which does not hold narrative weight, it instead gives the reader an element of measurable time. This can be seen in the image below, which depicts Harbinger at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths. As the primary events of the story have drawn to a close, Harbinger[1] recounts the consiquences. Harbinger has become a narrator to events, with her words now replacing the narrative caption. Due to this, it is appropriate to refer to these as narrative speech, narration with the temporal properties of speech.
The second case of divergent carrier appearances is with the carriers relating to the character Brainiac[2]. As previously noted, dialogue coming from machines, such as radios and televisions, appear as a – RA / + AA carrier, meaning that the machine is not aware of what it is saying. However, the character of Brainiac appears as a sentient machine, an extra-terrestrial android with extreme intelligence. Unlike the other speaking characters, who are organic life forms, Brainiac takes on an android body. This characterisation of Brainiac extends to the choice of carriers used to denote his speech. While containing the same anatomy as a typical speech balloon, the form it takes is square instead of circular or oval. This extends to the tail, as it contains strict straight lines creating a triangle, rather than curved lines. In addition to this more rigid look, a light purple boarder is added to distinguish it, which gives it both a more obvious visual distinction and allows for cases of Brainiac using narrative speech to be clear to the reader. The comparison between Brainiac’s carriers and the standard carriers can be seen in the image below with Brainiac and Lex Luthor[3] addressing a series of other DC Comics villains. Luthor’s speech balloon can be seen in the upper right, with a carrier of Brainiacs directly below. This gives a clear comparison between the more curved carriers of organic life forms and the harsh structure of Brainiac’s speech.
Finally, the last divergent carrier of Crisis on Infinite Earths to discuss are carriers relating to the hero Firestorm[4]. Firestorm is a hero made up of two characters, in this case, the high school student Ronnie Raymond and Nobel Prize winning physicist Martin Stein. When forming Firestorm, one character makes up the physical body, while the other works as a driving conscious and voice of reason. Despite this clear split within the hero, both characters are fully conscious and frequently speak to each other while as Firestorm. This means that carriers between Firestorm’s two halves take on a different relationship with time. Thought bubbles created by Firestorm primarily come from Ronnie, but are audible to Stein. This creates somewhat of a paradox, a + RA / – AA carrier is audible to another character. In contrast, speech by Stein is audible to Ronnie, but not to others around them. In the case of Firestorm’s thoughts, we can consider these to still be + RA / – AA, as the two beings are sharing one body, making one root. With Stein’s speech, the root and adjacent elements now must be considered internally, as Firestorm’s brain is made up of two people. In this case, the root is Dr Stein, while the adjacent element is Ronnie. In both cases then, time must be passing as someone is conscious of words being ‘spoken’.
With the carrier breakdown from Crisis on infinite Earths considered, comparing them to the tie-in issues will give a comparison between these twelve event comics, and the average issue coming out during this period. While all of the core issues and tie-ins were released between 1985 and 1986, the tie-in issues served a different purpose, and importantly, were written and drawn by different creators.
Bibliography:
- Bates, C., Hamilton, E. & Swan, C. (1964) Superman #167: The Team of Luthor and Brainiac! DC Comics: Burbank.
- Binder, O & Plastino, A. (1958) Action Comics #242: The Super-Duel in Space. DC Comics: Burbank.
- Cohn, N. (2013) The Visual Language of Comics: Introduction to the Structure and Cognition of Sequential Images. Bloomsbury Academics: London.
- Johns, G. & Jimenez, P. (2006) Infinite Crisis. DC Comics: Burbank.
- Jurgens, D. & Ordway, J. (1994) Showcase ’94 #9. DC Comics: Burbank.
- Jurgens, D. & Ordway, J. (1994) Zero Hour: Crisis in Time. DC Comics: Burbank.
- McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw-Hill: New York.
- Morrison, G. & Jones, J. G. (2009) Final Crisis. DC Comics: Burbank.
- Siegel, J. & Shuster, J. (1940) Action Comics #23: Europe At War Part II. DC Comics: Burbank.
- Wolfman, M. & Perez, G. (1983) New Teen Titans Annual Vol. 1 #2: The Murder Machine. DC Comics: Burbank.
- Wolfman, M. & Perez, G. (1986) Crisis on Infinite Earths. DC Comics: Burbank.
[1] Harbinger – First appearing in1983s The New Teen Titans Annual #2 (Wolfman & Perez.1983), Harbinger was created specifically for Crisis on Infinite Earths and acts largely to explain the plot at the beginning of the story, and crucial to the story’s conclusion.
[2] Brainiac – Originally appearing in 1958s Action Comics #242 (Binder & Plastino.1958) as a green skinned alien. He was later explained to be a robotic entity created by the computer tyrants of the planet Colu (Bates, Hamilton & Swan.1964).
[3] Lex Luthor – created as a master villain for Superman, and first appearing in 1940s Action Comics #23 (Siegel & Shuster.1940), Luthor has been portrayed as both a mad scientist and a ruthless businessman.
[4] Firestorm – first appearing in Firestorm the Nuclear Man #1 (Conway & Milgram.1978) the hero was born through an accident involving nuclear fusion, he is created when Highschool student Ronnie Raymond, and Physicist Dr Martin Stein PhD combine to form one being.
Mikayla J. Laird 