Who Is Saying What?! Word Bubbles and Order

[Lady_T_Musings]

Soooo I just wrapped up the first chapter of my comic MagicalMashup! (developer side, I literally just started posting pages last month) and on the last page of chapter one I couldn't help but notice just how verbose it was. Junah, protagonist, is on a call with her three parents and there are chat bubbles crowding most of the page. Not only is it a wordy panel, but I also worry about readers being able to tell who is talking @.@. Each character has a unique way of speaking, but I'm not sure that's enough to tell who's saying what for bubbles that have shorter responses. I was going to go back and rework it (which would entail adding another 2-3 pages of chewing the fat that I don't want to burn any more time on) but I have a time schedule to keep so I'm going to leave it.

For now...

Anyhow, I wanted to know how you all tackle the issue of word bubbles for characters off panel, or panels with lots of wording, as fellow comic creators (or connoisseurs of the comic art form)? Do you add/prefer color to tell who's talking so never worry about this? Do you prefer/like little symbol to indicate a specific character is speaking? I'm curious to hear ya'lls thoughts and approaches to this. Examples welcomed!

TLDR: What approaches do ya'll take (or prefer) when it comes to differentiating word bubbles between multiple characters speaking when some are off panel or crowding into one panel?

[Pommie]

sometimes i do a chibi head because when it comes to colors and trying to differ from one chara to another would confuse me too much. [I can't handle too many different colored bubbles in a colored comic for example, it'd overwhelm my senses...]
or have the bubble point it to the following chara in the next panel over.

or i really show who is talking thru the bubble direction.

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

I color code all my speech/thought bubbles. Every character has a signature color selected from their pallet that I make all their speech bubbles match. That way readers always know who is talking implicitly. Maybe this doesn't help colorblind readers, but I think this is a good solution for the majority of people.

[Legendofgenii]

I struggle with this too. It’s like a puzzle sometimes. I use black and white bubbles - slightly different for my bad guy (squared edges and brownish). Different for thoughts. But if lots of people are chatting...

My husband thinks it’s weird that I don’t have the bubble points (technical term?) coming out of their mouths. Is it?

And apparently one of my main characters did a fascinating fart once. 🤣

[Caro]

Sometimes I’ll do a little face in the speech balloon if it’s appropriate (usually when there’s a convo “off screen” and comedic).

(ignore that it was a bad lil doodly comic pls!)

But for the most part I just try to keep things in the correct order with tails in the directions they need to go and as close to the speaker’s mouth as possible (tho thats not a hard n fast rule for me) I’m not a big fan of colored in speech balloons personally!

[likhoradka]

I never understood the 'rule' of having the tail point to the mouth. As long as it's clear who's talking and when, then who cares where it points?

As for off screen dialogue, if it's clear who would have the next line (just two people talking), then I have a triangle slice cut into the bubble. If it's unclear, then I'll put an emoji styled head on it. Since I've gone a different route with thought bubbles for my current comic (no clouds or tails), I've color-coded the line with the character's horn or saturated wing color.

[CttMaurice]

The one thing that I learned with story telling, is to never have more than three characters talking at a time. If there are more than that, have "representatives" for each person saying what is on the collectives mind. Having many characters speak over each other is not only confusing for you, but it is confusing for the reader.

If you must have multiple characters speak, then have small character pops be the representative as many others have said.

All said and done its a matter of personal preference, if you want to have the pops then please do. Have representatives? Go ahead!

[alextsarace]

Well, I just make them visually different (especially when it's only one character in the panel). So then it should be more easy for reader to make a distinguish between two speakers.

Or when I have many characters (like the one attached) I try to almost reach their heads to make it clear who is saying what.

What about coloring - I'm planning to use it in vol 2 when it's going to be 2 characters in 1 body. But for this lifehack you need to start carrying out color associations in advance (color = character) in order to readers be ready when time comes.

[nostalgicroxas]

Chibi heads help or like the "details". ie if one wears glasses, a little drawing of glasses with a mouth/chin attached like an emote. If colors can't work that is - since sometimes it's hard for colorblind people.

[Lady_T_Musings]

Nice! The chibi head idea is so cute!! I like the idea of multiple colors for balloons to indicate a character, but I can definitely see how that could be sensory overload. I've thought about it though, but at the end of the day It's just something extra that would add more time to the editing phase of the comic and I'm trying to cut that as is.

[Lady_T_Musings]

I really enjoy seeing that done when it's not distracting from the test itself, and admire the extra step for sure! Defiantly nice to not have to worry about who says what when everyone has a signature color :)!

[Lady_T_Musings]

That is a fascinating observation. Though for real that's to funny on the fascinating poot XD! That's some grade a memorable scene making right there. I agree with @likhoradka for sure when it comes to where the tail is pointing. So long as I can tell who it's pointing too I don't mind when I'm reading. Looking at my old pages I noticed that I do try to get the tails pointing towards the mouths, but when they aren't It doesn't bother me.

UNLESS it was pointed at someone's crouch, that would make my eyes cross from laughing.

[Lady_T_Musings]

Bad lil doodle comic my let tit! I'm digging the style and those are some hands I'd like to shake!

Your little heads look great! I like the little heads execution a lot bc it gives more recognition to who is speaking with 0 room for confusion since all off panels character are attached to their statement.

Thanks for sharing :)!

[Lady_T_Musings]

Yeah for sure, I literally just ran into this issue on my last page and was like WHAT IS ALL THIS clutter!? But shiz happens sometimes and I'm learning as I go for sure so appreciate the advice.

I'm seeing the character pops more and more for multiple characters talking in a panel and that's what's up!

Thanks for the input!

[Lady_T_Musings]

Ahhh thanks for the examples. I can see what you're talking about with making the speech bubbles visually different. That's pretty neat! on the last panel, even with all those people on the page I think It's laid out pretty well for being able to tell who is saying what (even if I can't read a word of it :D)!

Playing with color is something I enjoy, and I do like to see it when it's done in comics (so long as there is enough contrast so that the text stands out!).

Thanks for the input ^_^!

[Lady_T_Musings]

OOohhh recognizable short hand graphics!! Minimalist, but still gets the point across for who is talking. I likeeeeee.

And true, thinkin about accessibility is pretty important for me as well.

Thanks for input!

[WOSTR]

Just finished this, this is what I've been doing.🥰

[Lady_T_Musings]

You got a lil everything going on! Colors and symbols, Ok then!

I really like the person with the glasses on icon. So sassy!

Ty for sharing

[Rhonder]

Just to lead off this post, this is a big part of why I tackle lettering pretty much in full during the thumbnail process of my comic- I've been burned way too hard in past projects by just guesstimating how much space everything will take up and running too low on space or having awkward positioning/cover ups as a result I try not to write off on a panel composition until all of the speech bubbles are comfortably and accurately located.

That said, I do a lot of the same methods that other people have mentioned. Some work out pretty cleanly, others... end up being awkward even if you're careful about it lol. Here are some recent panels that I've done with some speech bubble gymnastics going on:

I'm a big fan of those thin lines that connect multiple speech bubbles by the same speaker which can allow you to space them apart more but still make sense. Also reduces the amount of tails you need. This one also has a chibi pop in like others have talked about. I sometimes do the little chibi heads as well!

This one was rough and really relies on the left-to-right reading order to work. It's not as clear as it could be but I hope it makes enough sense as-is @u@;; This was one where I tried out a few different compositions/angles for the top panel and settled on this one because it allowed for the bubbles to be close enough to the corresponding characters to work out okay. I also like those thin connecting lines to connect between panels sometimes!

This one is a little sketch with no tails or other indicators other than the fact that it's continuing a coversation from the previous panel... I may edit this before I post tbh LOL. Basically though the left/right relationship of the characters and their speech bubbles was establsihed in the prior panel and it's fairly obvious who is saying what with context but... chibi heads may be in order.

Last example. The upper panel here is another kinda sketchy example. The 2nd bubble doesn't fit well in the composition but I wasn't sure where else to put it so I just used a really long tail @u@;; I like the little overlap thing in the lower panel tho!

[Lady_T_Musings]

That's some pro layout advice. I do thumbnails, but only generally put in words since I do the thumbnails by hand and my handwriting is just kinda big lol. I really like how your text bubbles are also integrated into the flow of your panels too. They are a part of the story telling too, so always nice to see them treated that way too.

I really like the layouts you got going on, very clear and easy to follow too.

And yasss connectors are the bees knees! I love those noodely lil fellas!

Thanks for the info