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Thought balloons were very popular but faded away. Recently they have started to reappear again. Why did they leave and where did they go? What was their purpose and do we really need them anymore?

I was reading a comic a few days ago that had something different in it. It had some thought balloons. Remember thought balloons? They’re these bubbles that float over a character that tell us what the character is thinking. Sometimes it’s an inner monologue other times it’s just the character stating the obvious. While it surprised me it did make me curious as to where all the thought-balloons have gone.

I started reading comic in the nineties. By that time most thought-balloons had started to fade away. Seeing one in a recent comic got me to try and recall the last one that I had seen before. The only thing I could remember was my trade paperback of “The New Mutants”, which contains issues originally printed in the eighties. This was thought-balloon gold. The writer used a lot of though-balloons. This gave me evidence as to how thought-balloons were being used.

Reading the thought-balloons in “The New Mutants” aided the story. They were used to help reveal the inner thoughts and worries of the characters. The characters were teenagers who were being trained in the use of their powers along with the other problems that arise from being a teenager. It made sense for the writer to be using thought balloons to express their thoughts. If they’re so helpful why aren’t they seen anymore?

What has caused thought-balloons to fade away? Just thinking about this question I’ve come up with many possible theories; writers don’t know how to use thought-balloons effectively anymore, they don’t serve the same purpose as they once did, or artists have gotten better at expressing emotions making thought-balloons a mute point. My last theory seems to make reasonable sense.

Think about it this way, if a character had just gotten shot in the chest what kind of reaction do you expect? In a visual medium we should expect to see something. What better way to express a characters inner emotion than by drawing out an expression of shock and pain. Sure a speech balloon with the character yelling might help as well but where would a thought-balloon fit in? How about another scenario that might be a cause for a thought balloon? What if we have a character who has to make a choice between disarming a bomb or saving team members from a vat of acid? I can see a thought-balloon emerging from the character trying to rationalize a decision, but instead I can also see panels focusing on the bomb timer counting down and the team mates closer into danger. This leads me to believe that story telling has evolved to a point where thought-balloons aren’t necessary. If thought-balloons aren’t necessary why did the writer choose to use them in the comic that I mentioned at the beginning of this column?

The writer specifically wrote in thought-balloons, but it isn’t clear why. In comic I read the inner-monologue of the character is just an explanation of his powers, which isn’t necessary because he’s a familiar character whose powers have been explained multiple times. Later, the inner-monologue serves to tell us that the character is aware that he was a victim of a surprise attack, I’m aware of that too because of the panels - not the thought-balloon. At this point I’m questioning their purpose in the story. What can this inner-monologue tell me that I can’t tell by looking at the panels? Nothing. I’ve read the comic twice and the thought-balloons weren’t necessary. I could tell what was going on by looking at the art.

The only time that a thought-balloon would have been nice would have been when the character was alone. Instead of talking to no one, the character could have had a good inner-monologue, instead the character talks out loud, which is ironic considering his thought-balloons occurred when he wasn’t alone.

So where did thought balloons go? They faded away when writers and artists figured out that by working together they could show what a character was thinking. At times when artists couldn’t draw something, I guess the writer would rely on thought-balloons. Art has evolved to such a point that while thought-balloons can be used they are only being used rarely. It’s a shock to see thought balloons now in comics, especially when they don’t offer anything insightful about the story or the character. If a writer is going to use thought-balloons they should be used with a purpose. They should be used for something that an artist can’t draw. If an artist can draw a character that is sad, I don’t believe it’s necessary for a thought-balloon to be present saying “I’m sad.” I get it and I think everyone else does too.