Talking About Speech Balloons: Thought Balloons

In the sixth part of the speech balloons series, thought balloons is the discussion topic.

Thought balloons are a character’s internal speech dialogue shared with a reader. They are commonly displayed in cloud/circular shaped or fuzzy balloons, with a tail that are an increasingly smaller chain of circles in the direction of the character of origin.

Cloud-Shaped Thought Balloon

A cloud-shaped thought balloon is used when a character is thinking internally, or cannot speak, like having their mouth covered. They are also used for characters who cannot speak, like animals. This is the most common shape used for thought balloons.

Elliptical Thought Balloon

Some artists use an elliptical balloon instead of a cloud-shaped for a thought balloon. Not as common since they are similar to speech balloons with the only difference is the tail is composed of a small chain of circles.

Fuzzy Thought Balloon

A fuzzy balloon is a collection of spokes close to one another. They typically do not have tails and are near the character who is thinking the thought.  They are more commonly used in manga.

Next time: Placement and Location (part 7 of 7) will be discussed.