"Fig. 2: Example of blackletter emphasis using the technique of changing fonts"
Here.
Here.
It takes a little bit of time, I think, to get used to reading comics. The pacing is way different, for example, than prose-reading. There are pictures to content with. You get the idea.
The worst, though, is coming to grips with the peculiar way seemingly-random words are bolded. That took me a long time to get used to. If you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, let me present this panel of the Sunday Funny Dick Tracy (via The Comics Curmudgeon):
I'll let Josh (the Comics Curmudgeon) detail the problem:
I spent longer than I care to recount staring at the final panel of this cartoon, trying to figure out what Dick was getting at. Was there some other way to pronounce “perfume” that would cause this apparent play on words to make some sort of sense? “Especially because you’re making perfume for my wife. Or is it per-foom-ay? Just like your house went a-boom-ay? Wait, no, hold on a second…” Eventually, I figured out that the final word panel should be read as “Or is it perfume?” I don’t want to single out Dick Tracy, because Random Bolding Syndrome is an affliction that strikes virtually every comic ever created, though some more than others (*cough* Mark Trail *cough*). Here’s a helpful tip for comics artists: try reading your dialogue aloud, adding emphasis, before committing it to word balloons, OK?
|