Speech balloon (nonfiction)

Hieroglyph for "grain" (see Pefsu problem), which resembles a speech balloon.

Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing the speech or thoughts of a given character in the comic.

Description

There is often a formal distinction between the balloon that indicates thoughts and the one that indicates words spoken aloud.

The balloon that conveys subjective thoughts is often referred to as a thought bubble.

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Cartouche

External links

• Speech balloon @ Wikipedia