- We all love Marvel movies,
television, and games,
but some people--
I'm not naming names, Kyle--
find comic books a bit,
well, intimidating.
There are just so
many comics over 80
years of Marvel history,
and where do you even start?
Great question.
I've got the terms, the
tips, and I'm going to make
you sound like a comics pro.
This is "How to Read
Comics," and we're starting
with the basics, words.
Some of this stuff may seem
pretty obvious, like, hey,
there are words.
I read them, the end.
But I'm going to show you
how text in comic books
does a lot more than that.
So, let's do it.
The words on the page are
written by the writer,
but then drawn by a person
called the letterer.
They create the artistic
styling of the words
or what we call "lettering."
Lettering is a lot
more expressive
than just some old basic font.
Sorry, Helvetica, if
that is your real name.
Characters like Thor even
have their own special
Asgardian-style lettering.
Hello, mortal.
Lettering, in addition to
giving us something to read,
can also tell us how a character
feels or what they sound like.
Today, I feel worthy.
But where do the words go?
Usually, in panels.
The panel is this box containing
all of the action and sound
from a moment in time.
But, we can't just have words
floating around in space,
can we?
Absolutely not.
Well, usually.
The first way we contain
words is caption boxes.
These little boxes fill in
important context to the scene.
It might tell us if
we're on another planet
or in an alternate universe.
It might let us know
that we're in the past,
the present, or the future.
And sometimes, the caption box
is the voice of the editor,
there with helpful
information or to cite
a comic where something
important happened previously.
Oh, look.
It's editor Devin Lewis.
Hi, Devin.
 Hey, Lorraine.
This video takes
place on Earth-1218.
Reality in the Marvel universe.
 Thanks, Devin.
Generally, think of captions
as the hotspot for narration.
 Hot, hot, hot, hot.
 But, our characters
also like to talk,
and that's where word
balloons come into play.
Characters' dialogue appears
inside each word balloon,
with the tail facing
the character speaking.
Oh, good tail.
The way it's drawn
can also tell us
about the character's volume.
When we talk very quietly, the
outline becomes dashed to let
us know it's a whisper balloon.
Or, it becomes very spiky to let
us know it's a scream balloon.
But sometimes, we just need to
hear our characters' thoughts,
so we use thought balloons.
Thought balloons are
distinguished from word
balloons by this
chain of diminishing
size circles instead of a tail.
These let us know only the
reader and the character
are privy to what's in
their head, you know,
unless there's a pesky
psychic sneaking around.
By now, you may be
asking yourself,
don't these words ever
just get to be free?
Well, yeah, they do.
Some sounds are too
big to be contained.
These are sound effects
that explode onto the page
in big beautiful word form.
Some of my favorite
iconic sounds
include Spider-Man's "thwip,"
and Wolverine's "snikt."
Kabooom, flarp, oh, that's fun.
A ton of work goes into
bringing all of those words
to a comic book page.
That was just our first
lesson on how to read comics,
but there is a whole lot more
we're going to dive into.
So, what part of comics would
you like me to explain next?
Art layout?
Continuity?
The multiverse?
Tell us with the hashtag
EarthsMightiestShow.
Plus, if you want to know
even more about this topic,
I highly recommend checking out
"How to Read Comics the Marvel
Way Number 1," which is
a charming Spider-Man
and Mysterio story
that breaks down how
to read comics along the way.
It's really, really delightful.
And that's it.
I'll see you next time.
I'm Lorraine from
Marvel, your universe.
