alright so i wanna make a comic and well a pretty good chunk of the cast have different languages they use and theres even some language barriers like i have a lot of billingual characters and they use different languages for different purposes (in one scene they may be speaking the country they are ins main language while at home something else etc etc) im personally billingual and a bit more so i know that if you often switch back and forth etc , but i also dont want pe0ple who may not speak the languages to have to sit and read my thing with a dictionary, but making them all in canon speak english just. does not make sense and would create plot holes. basically most of the main cast speaks at least 2+ languages, and they are constantly switching back and forth depending on context. cause thats a thing thats p common, and most of the cast have different nationalities so yeah :/ so is there a clever visual way to deal with this?? ive considered the idea of just making the speech bubbles indicate the language kinda something like this (rough example ovbs) but i cant decide if its tacky or nah but i also dont wanna verbally point out whenever there is a language change if that makes sense?? this is so confused aha but id love yalls opinions thanks
I've seen comics do things like putting <sentences or words in other languages like this>, so the reader can still understand it but knows the other characters necessarily can't. But I guess you have to point out that that's what that means first nwn; But I like the flag idea! It would depend on how it looks with the scene
hmm that would make sense but it would also require them to be like, familiar with those symbols and also some characters know the languges and some dont its complicated ahah hmm yes id put down the opacity and try to make it mix well with the scene. if it looks wonky id probably try to fix it with gradients but i also only want it as like a weak thing in the background?? just an indicator that isnt too distracting
<This shit seems to be the generally accepted way from what I've seen>. If you want the reader to know the stuff being said, but also know that it's not in English. If more clarification is needed an * is added to the end of the sentence and a note is made at the bottom explaining what language it is. Alternatively using the bubble outlines can be a very good idea. Bubbles get colored and shaped differently a lot in comics as a way of differentiating who is speaking, if it is thoughts, or how something is being spoken. Robots will occasionally get their own special "robotic" text bubbles to differentiate how they sound compared to the rest of the cast.
hmm ive never seen that before but then again im pretty new to comics and stuff so the * can technically work but if theres a lot of back and forth it may get cludded and hard to follow if its on a bottom line (i know the layout of multiple *s but i also wanna make it easy to follow just by looking at the page if that makes sense? I havent tried it in pracitse tho so i unno the speech bubble lines seem neat, ive seen it be used in comics ive read before, especially thoughts and screaming etc, the only issue id see was if it was like a flag with a symbol in the middle or other design that wouldnt get covered by the lines
You'd basically note it once per issue or something and then not again. Not sure how that'd work with like webcomics though? The best bet that doesn't seem like it'll be a hassle is definitely the bubble thing as far as I can see. Though I'm not sure the best route for it. The flag thing might be a bit messy. Hrmmmmmm. I would say make the outline and then the inside of the bubble two of the colors of the language in question. So like the Spanish bubbles would get like a red outline and a yellow center or something. But the issue with that is a lot of flags share colors...
using different fonts is a possibility? or italics/bold being used to indicate it's in a different language? the flags could work but they do look kinda messy and i think having a pattern behind the words might be too visually distracting?
I've also seen usage of fonts to indicate different languages! In Discworld, the fonts thing was even used to indicate when a character had a foreign accent: a Klatchian speaking Morporkian had Klatchian-font H's, and a Morporkian speaking Klatchian had Morporkian-font H's.
And if you want someone to be unintelligible, like, an alien or something? Use a weird font, like Daedric or Wingdings! Also works for in-universe conlangs, as well as just really weird languages. It's most common in the Undertale fandom, because one character (almost certainly W.D. Gaster) speaks at least partially in Wingdings. All he says is [REDACTED]. Like. The actual word 'redacted'. In capslock Wingdings. Gaster is weird.
i wanna make it as easily acsessible as possible so theres the least confusion like, a person can jump into it and go "yeah alright that makes sense" yknow? i like the font idea too, i may consider that too! i can try to do some test pages once i have the rest of the chapted scribbled down also re: flags with similar colors: also i know this sounds weird but im a very visual person and id personally think that different fonts would feel messier than a flag layover?? this is just personal preference imo tho, i am kind of a "clean black lines and simple layout" person aha,
i mean in the end it boils down to personal preference, and its about testing stuff out but im appreciating all the feedback
Hmm. If you can get little flag icons, the size of two or three capital letters together, maybe use them to start a line of dialogue, or bracket a line? Or country/language two-letter codes. [FR] These Romans are crazy! [IT] What did you just say? [IT] Ah, sorry. I said you have very good roads here.
I mean I really like the flag backgrounds for the speech bubbles, it just might be hard to recognize them with letters over them if they're faint enough that the letters show up. Worth a try though, I thinkl to see how it turns out.
A couple other examples for your perusal :) One comic which uses language barriers to great effect is Stand Still, Stay Silent, which frequently has Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, and Finnish happening all on the same page. Minna uses the flag system, but keeps a little legend at the bottom of the page in case you forget which flag is which. It's also usually quite clear in the comic who understands whom, and it helps that Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian are (roughly) mutually intelligible. Megatokyo has always used the <> way of doing things, and it works well. (granted there are only really two languages (Jp/Eng) going on, and there are only a few characters who can't understand both of them anyway.) Personally, I usually end up forgetting about the language barrier half the time, or just sort of keeping it in the back of my head that "oh yeah not everyone can understand everything" - in my experience, if it's relevant to the moment, it usually gets mentioned in-comic, just because that's the way the conversation leads.
thanks for the feedback! i browsed thru a few pages and didnt find an example right ahead tho, also yes the scandinavian languages are basically understood by everyone here, funny example to use bc im norwegian lol yeah your last point is also a good one tho, ill think more abt it
http://www.sssscomic.com/index.php this comic is great at that i recommend checking it out (plus its amazing)
depending of the situation, if the point of view is through a character who doesnt understand all the languages it may be better to leave them untranslated, because that's what it would feel like to be the character?
