Mute characters

[Sleepyowl]

How do you handle them in comics? I'm very interested in hearing different perspectives!

How do you feel towards characters that use an external thing to speak for them, like a vocaliser or telepathy or something? It seems to be common with characters who do not/cannot speak.

[PotooGryphon]

I have a mute main character, Oops. He accidentally sacrificed his voice inorder to bring back his best friend.

Oops pantomimes a few things when he really wants to communicate but for the most part he talks through expressions. He wears his emotions on his sleeve.

With mute characters that have no way to communicate (Oops can't write/read/sign language/telepathic) exaggerated acting and emotions tend to be important. There are some occasions where his best friend Plague talks for him, whether or not it's what Oops really feels/thinks. Plague in general is a big mouth that can talk enough for the both of them.

Mute characters tend to be more thoughtful and when they do communicate it holds more weight because they never do talk. They can be a very strong character in a story if done right, but it's also easy for them to become uninteresting and boring if done wrong.

[keii4ii]

I'd be more interested in mute characters who don't/can't magic-speak and don't even "think out loud" (i.e. thought bubbles so their thoughts are visible to the readers) most of the time. It's cool to see what kind of approaches creators do to carry emotions, etc. across. The main character from Tyree is a very promising example of this, and Cyndi's Oops is also a good example!

If the character has a very convenient way around their muteness, then I might not even notice any difference. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, just a potential missed opportunity to try something uncommon.

[Puppisama]

You can use different forms and colours of speech bubbles, for example in my comic VCvsDvsCFAD, Giga, one of the characters, talks with telpepathy, I represent that putting a black speech bubble. You can even use a different font or a especific form of bubble. If a character is mute and has no way of communicating you could try using signal language or more dramatic expresions on his face.

[NickRowler]

I have a mute character in Robot Zombie, he just doesn't say anything. Yet in someways, the other character speaks for him.

My other series, Crow's Worth has a character who is not really mute but does uses a very limited vocabulary (of like 2 words, Yeah and Yesh). He communicates more with his face.

[Kura]

How I handle them in my comic:

I have one mute character in my comic, Bast, but most of the time she's in the form of a cat, not a human which is actually a plot point to how she deals with it. She's mute in both forms of course, but she tends to prefer her feline form as no one expects cats to talk to them. While when you're human on the other hand it's kind of expected that you communicate, and if you have trouble doing so, explain why. So to avoid that, cat form it is.

Being unable to talk was not something that was always a reality to her, she was able to do so before but has since lost the ability, so she has trouble communicating a lot of the time, and in general gets easily frustrated with trying to, though she can express her general feelings or basic things she still runs into trouble with how to communicate, she either not knowing how to properly communicate in a way that can be understood. It's often like a second language, sometimes you're just not sure how to express or even the motion that will correctly translate or express what it is you want to say.

Osiris, the character closest to her. Is often speaking directly to her without expecting a response regardless of her form, and is the best at reading her actions and manners to guess or assume her mood or what it is she is trying to communicate. He speaks for her when necessary, or at least tries to, as he can't always figure out everything she's trying to express and will get things wrong, then of course if she refuses to try and communicate there is very little he can do about that. (which she often does, sometimes it just gets frustrating trying to get someone to understand you to the point you don't want to bother)

My opinion on vocaliser, thought bubbles or telepathy:

While I don't have issues with it, as I've seen it handled pretty well sometimes, I do however think it's a missed opportunity to work with and have a character that can run into these troubles with communication, and just how much it can add to the story and character.

If you're afraid that a character unable to provide dialog would be hard for people to relate to, understand, like or even enjoy, like @CyndiFoster said this character can also be a very good character that a lot of people are going to love if done right. Currently, I have a character popularity poll for my comic going, and Bast, the one who has never said a single word, and only communicated through actions or expressions, is at the moment taking second place.

[60Six]

I do have a mute character coming up fairly soon (Not yet though, so I can't show her!). She mostly communicates through body motions (mostly waving her arms around and pointing) and occasionally when she REALLY needs to actually say something, she carries around some chalk that she can quickly scribble out her words on a wall with.

However, one thing I'm interested to see is if anyone has any characters that communicate through sign language? I have another character coming up further in the future that's suppose to be fluent in it and uses it, but I'm really unsure how I'll actually illustrate that when the time comes to show him. It's one of those bridges I was gonna cross and ask about when it got closer to showing him in the comic, but I'd love to see how other people have handled sign language in a comic format.

[PotooGryphon]

However, one thing I'm interested to see is if anyone has any characters that communicate through sign language?

Oh I know the perfect series for this and @shazzbaa is probably already writing a fantastic rely for the thread, but I can't contain my need to promote and blurt out RUNEWRITERS. Shazzbaa's mute character uses sign language and I think how Shazz conveys this is masterful!

[efdvorsky]

I was JUST going to recommend @shazzbaa 's Runewriters actually as a good example of ASL hahaha

--

A lot of characters in my comic, Cosmic Fish, are mute. It's sometimes difficult, especially when I want to write about them having a disagreement, but I usually use a lot of body motion and pantomime since they ALSO lack mouths so a lot of the expression is through eyes and gestures you can emulate through them. (One of them has no face minus two strikes like a clock, so that's fun too)

Some characters interact with them as they can understand them but you only see "..." coming from their speech bubbles, but again, these are just a few characters who can understand them, so the reader would then need to fill in the blanks based on the responses.

Sometimes, if it's too important, I'll draw a visual in the speech bubble, and sometimes might use ASL but that would be later in the series. (And the examples I have are all unscanned thumbnails, sorry...)

But yeah usually just expressions and body motions. Silhouettes go a long way!

[shazzbaa]

My comic has Jonan, who accidentally sealed his mouth shut! (Communication issues are kind of a running theme in my comic)

I'd echo a lot of what Cyndi said about acting and expressions being more important than pantomime! Communicating information is difficult, but communicating feelings and reactions is vital.
I actually think Jonan and Oops are a cool comparison because while Oops is emotionally open and wears his heart on his sleeve, Jonan is very emotionally closed off and is more likely to quietly seethe rather than communicate, or just glare to get his point across -- but both are really expressive. Any kind of personality type can be expressive!

Another thing that becomes extra important when you have a character who can't communicate easily is: how much information does the audience have? I don't use thought bubbles; the only way we know what Jonan's thinking is for us to be on the same page, and have enough information to understand his reaction.
So what the audience gets to see becomes really, really important, and that's kind of my favourite part of writing a character who has difficulty communicating. I don't think the audience should always have enough information to understand... sometimes struggling to understand another character's perspective can be really powerful, too.

However, one thing I'm interested to see is if anyone has any characters that communicate through sign language?

OH HI HELLO! I also have Tareth, who's deaf, so sign language happens in RW too:

( also omg @efdvorsky & @CyndiFoster you guys have me pegged, thank you so much xD )

The biggest things I use are the translation brackets to show it's another language, and the fact that the speech balloons point at the characters' hands to try to mitigate "hearing" the signed dialogue as their voice -- nothin' too fancy! :>

[Strontium]

Another thing I want to throw into the mix here is that you can have a character who is selectively mute! Selective mutism involves someone not being able to talk in certain situations, like stress, sensory overload, depression, ex. This is usually because of a disability.
You might also have a character who isn't mute per say, but instead non-verbal. A non-verbal character might not be able to speak in words, but they can still talk and communicate! They might use an assistive communication device that speaks for them, they might use sign language, or they might use sounds that the people who know them understand. A lot of disabled people who you might think of as being "mute" are better classified as non-verbal and they definitely have their own ways of communicating!

That might be more in the realm of writing than presentation in comics but I personally think it's interesting to consider the ways that people communicate outside of speech. Coming up in my comic there will be a featured character who's selectively mute who has a bunch of friends who know his cues.

[NickRowler]

I actually knew someone from my childhood who was non-verbal and fully capable of talking but instead would sometimes use basic sign language.

[eslameldeeb]

My comic Enkido is a silent comic, so i deal with facial expressions, body and hand gestures every single day

[Inspector_Spinda]

I have an elf character who is mute. He prefers to keep everything to himself. He's a silent hunter, but still very compassionate.

[60Six]

Thank you for the response! This helps a lot. I kind of wondered if other artists generally just show maybe just one word in the sentence (through the hands of course), and that seems to be what you're doing here?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but are "translation brackets" like...an official thing done in other comics? Or is that something you made up for this particular scenario? That seems like a good approach that I might take up with my own ASL speaking character, but I don't want to be stealing something you came up with yourself! ;v;

[shazzbaa]

Yeah, it's basically just showing one sign out of the dialogue for that panel! Occasionally I cheat and show two hand positions, like transitioning between two signs. I figure with spoken dialogue, you're only seeing a fraction of how their face moves through their dialogue, so it's not that different.
Oh, actually, here's What QQ doing something similar!
I might show each sign of a sentence if I wanted to emphasise that someone is signing clumsily or very un-fluent, since adding panels adds so much time, and treating each sign in ASL as a "word" makes sentences sound pretty awkward.

Re: translation brackets: not dumb at all! ;u; I don't know if they're Official, but I picked them up after seeing them for foreign languages in a few other comics and used it because I figured it'd be a device others were familiar with, so it's definitely not unique to me! Knock yourself out! :>

[AnnaLandin]

I've got a selectively mute character in Grassblades!

Akane knows how to speak - her vocal chords are functional, and she's capable of forming words and speaking them out loud - but she's got a psychological block that prevents her from doing so very often. Thus far in the story, she has only spoken on three separate occasions, all of them prompted by some form of distress or worry - and she has only spoken to the other main protagonist. She is silent with everyone else.

And honestly, she's silent with Masahiro a lot too, even when he asks her questions.

She mostly communicates through vague gestures - not sign language, just general gesturing - and facial expressions. She's also pretty physically affectionate, doling out hugs and pats on the head and hand-holds and such. But as of yet, there's no "workaround" for her semi-muteness, and I don't plan on it either; her selective mutism is a big part of her character and how she interacts with the world. Giving her some way to verbalise effectively would feel a bit like cheating, especially since her being mute isn't a physical thing, or some magical curse; it's a psychological thing triggered by trauma she has suffered.

You can go a long way in communication between a mute and a speaking character if you let the mute character act out their emotions. Akane is a pretty expressive kid, who will smile widely when she's happy, frown when she's worried, cry when she's sad, etc., etc. and who has no problem gesturing wildly when there's a need for it. It does occasionally lead to some misinterpretations, but she's also a small child, and there's not a whole lot that is demanded of her in terms of complex explanations of stuff.

Emphasize action, emotion and body language with mute characters, and you might find that you don't need to give them some kind of telepathy or vocalizer to help them communicate. If worst comes to worst, and they're literate, they can always write down what they want to say, and have people read it.

[hades]

ooooooooooooh this is my kind of topic aha
[also thanks @keii4ii for the boost <3 ]

Mutism is actually a pretty big part of my comic Tyree due to the fact that the MC is mute! He's actually selective mute to be accurate. His vocal chords are fine, he just prefers not to talk due to severe anxiety. It started early on in his childhood and even though he has improved on the anxiety front his mutism is so ingrained he doesn't bother to speak per se. So those that grew up with him are already accustomed to it. He communicates through body language, gestures, expressions, sign language, and the occasional thrown shoe.


...i wasn't joking on the shoe part.

I PERSONALLY refuse to ever use thought bubbles to communicate a mute [or talkative] character's dialog. To me it feels unnatural and an easy way out. I hardly like stories that use this method and so I avoid it in my work.

Echoing what is already been discussed just put emphasis on what makes them...well...them and think outside the box. How would YOU communicate if you didn't have a voice? : D

[misterloki]

Hey! There's a deaf character in my comic Until the Last Dog Dies who only speaks through sign language. It is a bit difficult since I have to look up sign language for all of his dialogue and it was important to me to depict it accurately, even if that means using a lot of panels for him. I did not simply want to draw a vague hand gesture and word bubble through the rest as it would not have the same effect in the comic or to other deaf readers.

[Momomori]

well I have a comic where the only 2 characters in the entire world are mute. they can't vocally communicate at all, but their relationship is and personality is based around their actions. and honestly it's harder to pull off because there are scenes where I don't know if people will see how their really feeling, like when their sad or angry. (it's especially hard since they don't have tears.)
It's called Silence if you wanna see how I try to make it work.