The Importance of Dialogue when Dismantling and Progressing Time

November 20, 2020

The role of dialogue within a comic is a very large part of the medium, though it is not completely necessary to tell a story. Stories and single issues have been able to communicate their entire plot without the use of dialogue. Such as Congress of the Animal [Woodring.2011] by Jim Woodring, which is entirely silent, or Batman #433: The Many Deaths of Batman Part One [Byrne & Aparo.1989] by John Byrne and Jim Aparo, which only contains the phrase “Get Out” [Byrne & Aparo.1989:19] in the entirety of its 22 page story.

With print, the spoken word is already given visual representation, as McLuhan discusses in his 1964 book Understanding Media [McLuhan.1964], but this notion of a visual representation of speech, also comes with the property of speech. A reader has an understanding of how long it takes to say the words they are reading. Therefore, when a panel depicts a character speaking, the audience can experience that panel temporally. The application of dialogue within comics comes in the form of “carriers”. As Cohn discusses in his book The Visual Language of Comics: Introduction to the Structure and Cognition of Sequential Images [Cohn.2013], “thought bubbles and speech balloons actually belong to a broader class of “carriers”, which all interface between text and image similarly […]. Carriers function to encapsulate text (or images) that interface with a “root” through a “tail”. With speech balloons, […] the balloon is the carrier, the speaker is the root, and the tail is the tail of the balloon” [Cohn.2013:35]. The purpose of a carrier, specifically speech balloons, is to convey to the reader that someone is speaking, to get across who is speaking, and what is being said. The person or the source of the dialogue is there for referred to as the ‘root’, the speech balloon is the ‘carrier’, the ‘tail’ gives a clear direction between the carrier and the root, while the ‘content’ is the dialogue actually being spoken.

It is important to remember that there are various forms of ‘carrier’ that creators can use. Each of which is portrayed in a different manner and gets across a different relationship between the content and the root. Each of these different forms of carrier coincide with two different categories of classification. These are Root Awareness (RA) and Adjacent Awareness (AA) [Cohn.2013:35]. A carrier can be any mixture of these two categories. This includes both +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, then the source is unaware. An unaware root would include radios and televisions that project a sound but are not consciously making the sound. For something to be +AA (Adjacent Aware) then the sound being produced can be heard by the characters around the source. The previously stated radio may be -RA as it doesn’t consciously understand the dialogue, the characters listening to it are aware. Meaning the dialogue produced by a radio is -RA/+AA. However, a carrier that is -AA can not be heard by those around them. A prime example of this would be thought bubbles. The root of the thought is aware of it, but characters around can not hear it. A carrier that is both -RA and -AA would be carriers that are solely for the purpose of the reader, such as a narrative caption.

For the purpose of looking at how dialogue effects the progression of time within comics, it’s every category except -RA/-AA that would affect this. If the ‘root’ is aware of the audio, as well as the characters around it, then time must be passing for them to hear this audio.

As Cohn notes in his 2010 paper, The Limits of Time and Transitions: Challenges to Theories of Sequential Image Comprehension [Cohn.2010], “balloons spoken by two separate people in the same panel must represent different instances in fictive time, insinuation its progression” [Cohn.2010:131]. This expands the idea and takes not only the notion of a back and forth conversation but questions the concept of a panel containing a single moment. Weather using a single speech balloon, or a series of balloons, the act of introducing dialogue and sound augments the notion of time within a panel. Giving the reader a tangible, and almost measurable aspect to the time elapsing within said panel. In the case of a conversation, this would be a series of +RA/+AA carriers. With the inclusion of music or film, particularly real-world music and film, this idea can be measure in a more precise manner, though would likely come from -RA/+AA sources, such as a television or a radio. With an existing artefact that is being referenced, the exact time elapsing can be calculated rather than approximated.

For an example, during the first issue of Watchmen [Moore & Gibbons.1986], Dan Dreiberg walks home, passing a pair of knot-tops as they play music loudly on their stereo [Moore & Gibbons.1986:10]. In this case, the carrier from the stereo would be -RA/+AA, as the stereo is unaware, but both the Knot-tops and Dan can hear the music it transmits. The lyrics shown are “look down your back stairs, buddy, somebody’s lignin there an’ they don’t really feel the weather” [Moore & Gibbons.1986:10]. These are lyrics from the song Neighbourhood Threat by Iggy Pop [Pop.1977]. The lines shown come in at 0:33 seconds and lasts until 0:43 seconds. This is exactly 10 seconds of measurable time. Having the lyrics appear in just this one panel implies that it is only playing here. The question is, does the panel last for 10 seconds, or does it take Dan 10 seconds to get from this position to the position shown in the next panel? As Cohn states in his paper Pow, Punch, Pika and Chu [Cohn.2016], “sound effects use the same structural features as ‘regular’ text in captions, speech balloons, or thought bubbles. All of these representations have three primary structural features […] the carrier (the thing holding the text), the root producing the sound, and the tail connecting the two” [Cohn.2016:094]. Cohn goes on to say that “whether a carrier has a wavy, jagged, square or other shaped border may determine additional specificity about its meaning. For example, jagged edges mean loudness, whether used for ‘yelling’ in speech balloons or a loud sound of a sound effect” [Cohn.2016:095]. The carrier coming from the stereo is noticeably jagged, implying that the knot-tops are playing their music at a very high level.

Elements such as speech bubbles structure, dialogue, and music give the reader a quantifiable idea for the time passing within the panel.

With 1994’s Zero Hour: Crisis in Time [Jurgens & Ordway.1994], the overarching plot revolves around time itself being destroyed. At the climax of the fourth issue, time has now come to a stop, as Zero Hour is implemented. This action resonates through the tie-in issues taking place at the same time. With both Zero Hour #1 [Jurgens & Ordway.1994] and Action Comics #703 [Michelinie & Guice.1994], we see two different perspectives of time ending. What’s noticeable however is that both use dialogue in this moment to help convey time ending.

With Zero Hour #1, the destruction of time is implemented by Hal Jordan, acting as the villain Parallax. While he is fading away, it’s his dialogue that is the last to go. Given speech is quantifiable time within comics, speech being the last thing to disappear makes sense. However, it is noticeable that while the carrier is present, as well as the contents, the final instance lacks a tail as the root has now vanished. This implies that the speech was completed before Parallax vanished but is audible after. The tie-in issue Action Comics #703 shows time disappearing from a different perspective. Now we see Lois Lane witnessing the events from Metropolis. However, the idea of time and dialogue being connected is played up to an interesting effect. Lois’s final words “Clark – I Love You” [Michelinie & Guice.1994:20] appear in disintegrating speech balloons. The fact that the speech balloon itself is disintegrating, suggests that time is being erased as she is speaking, as the carrier is unable to form fully.

During the final issue of Zero Hour, time begins again, and after three blank pages, the first thing to return is dialogue. A quantifiable element of time within comics. However, the dialogue that is shown comes in the form of thought. Something that emanates from Parallax given their context. “I used to be the errand boy for the guardians of the universe. It was a thankless job” [Jurgens & Ordway.1994:117]. With it being a thought balloon, this would count as +RA/-AA. Consciousness now exists and is able to experience time through thought.

While subtle in its dialogue, Zero Hour provides what is possibly one of the best examples of dialogue as quantifiable time within comics. Its use at both the end of time and beginning book ends the effect. Its use within the Zero Hour tie-ins, such as Action Comics #703 compounds this, as the effect is consistent.

To look into this further, it is necessary to look at the other tie-in issues to Zero Hour, as well as compare its usage in Crisis on infinite Earths [Wolfman & Perez.1986], Infinite Crisis [Johns & Jimenez.2006] and Final Crisis [Morrison & Jones.2009].

Bibliography:

• Byrne, J. & Aparo, J. (1989) Batman #433: The Many Deaths of Batman Part One. DC Comics: Burbank.

• Cohn, N. (2010) The Limits of Time and Transitions: Challenges to Theories of Sequential Image Comprehension. Studies in Comics, 1.1. pp. 127-147.

• Cohn, N. (2013) The Visual Language of Comics: Introduction to the Structure and Cognition of Sequential Images. Bloomsbury Academics: London.

• Cohn, N. (2016) Pow, Punch, Pika and Chu: The Structure of Sound Effects in Genres of American Comics and Japanese Manga. Multimodal Communication. 5 (2) pp.93-109.

• Johns, G. & Jimenez, P. (2006) Infinite Crisis. DC Comics: Burbank.

• Jurgens, D. & Ordway, J. (1994) Zero Hour: Crisis in Time. DC Comics: Burbank.

• McCloud, S. (1993) Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Harper Collins Publishing: New York.

• McCloud, S. (2000) Reinventing Comics. Harper Collins Publishing: New York.

• McLuhan, M (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. McGraw-Hill Education: New York.

• Michelinie, D. & Guice, J. (1994) Action Comics #703: Chronocide! DC Comics: Burbank.

• Moore, A. & Gibbons, D. (1986) Watchmen. DC Comics: Burbank.

• Morrison, G. & Jones, J.G. (2009) Final Crisis. DC Comics: Burbank.

• Pop, I. (1977) ‘Neighbourhood Threat’ Lust for Life. [CD] RCA: West Berlin.

• Wolfman, M. & Perez, G. (1986) Crisis on Infinite Earths. DC Comics: Burbank.

• Woodring, J. (2011) Congress of Animals. Fantagraphics Books: Washington.