Categories
Sound of Comics

Music

Much like a drummer in a band, music can set the rhythm and pace of a comic. The most common depictions of music in comics involve singers or instruments. The difference between these two groups is their visuals; whereas lyrical songs rely on speech bubbles to signify the presence of a sound, instrumental songs involve onomatopoeia-style depictions. Both groups rely on standard musical notation symbols, as well. In terms of the purpose of music in comics, music serves to drive the narrative of a comic, amplify the surrounding environment both visually and temporally, and characterize various figures. The first page of this section explores vocal and instrumental visualizations, as well as several other types of visualizations, and the second page delves into the three main purposes. 

Explore Visual Forms
Explore Purpose

Visual Forms

Vocals

Music with vocals conveys sound through speech bubbles. Due to the fact that speech bubbles primarily depict dialogue, their usage for lyrics is logical because both lyrics and dialogue are, in a sense, spoken words. However, the speech bubbles for vocals differentiate between spoken and sung words. These manipulations can include changes in font, changes in the shape of the bubble, and the incorporation of music notes. 

Instruments

In contrast to vocals, instruments and instrumentalists convey music through onomatopoetic indicators. Such a form of expression comes from the idea that onomatopoeiae express impact and movement, and the physical act of playing instruments aligns with these concepts. For instance, “BANG!” could be used to depict a drum because the performer is hitting the instrument, making it the sound of an impact. Explosion or movement lines can accompany these depictions to reinforce the sense of action.

Singers wearing explorer costumes pose around Elvira, who wears a similar explorer costume. Each singer has a speech bubble with song lyrics. From left to right, there are five speech bubbles. The first bubble says," considering that/ we're sore/ considering that/ we've had a job to do/ in order to/ make it pay/ well, we'd/ need/ to follow Elvira's lead." The second bubble says, "considering that/ we're bored/ just sifting through san isn't that int'resting/ if we didn't love/ our boss we'd scram/ bam!/ scramble home on the lam." The third bubble says, "we're dealing with faded maps and sunsroke and some muscle pain/ while out on this bleak terrain/ yet hark:/ there isn't a one of us who'd beg off on the fun we gain with the Mistress of the dark." The fourth bubble says, "considering that/ we're done/ we finally gained/ our quest/ elvira's come to lead us to victory." The last bubble says. "so give her a hand/ and strike up the band/ considering that/ she's the best". A text box in the bottom right says, "sung to the tune of Consider Yourself."

Elvira Mistress of the Dark #139, “Broadway Sorcery of 2004,” November 2004
Writer: Frank Strom
Artist: Anna-Maria Cool
Letterer: Thom Zahler
Publisher: Claypool Comics
Page 6

In this issue of Elvira Mistress of the Dark, Elvira inserts herself into a musical and then enchants the performers to follow her music and stage directions. This panel of several singers posing around Elvira as they sing to her features an allusion to the song “Consider Yourself” from the musical Oliver. Such a panel is a prime example of the difference between the depictions of lyrics and instruments. Lyrics like the ones sung by the swing cast are enveloped within a speech bubble and surrounded by musical symbols. In addition, the speech bubbles are rippled, as opposed to the smooth and rounded nature of conventional speech bubbles, which illustrates that the words are not spoken but instead have some other quality and inflection, in this case being sung.

Horn players wearing helmets blow into their instruments. The text box at the top says, "as a trio of Asgardian trumpeters sound the call to combat." The sound effect, "tup-roo" appears in bright red at the bottom.

Dazzler #16, “Black Magic Woman,” June 1982
Writer: Danny Fingeroth
Penciller: Frank Springer
Inker: Vince Colletta
Colorist: Don Warfield
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Page 14

This page from Dazzler #16 illustrates the common depiction of instruments in comics. The horns of the Asgardians are drawn with conventional sound effects stylings, including a bold font, capitalization, and enlarged letters that zigzag across the bottom of the panel. Likewise, the word “tup-roo” is, in and of itself, an onomatopoeia. As evidenced by this panel, music that comes from instruments is closely associated both aurally and visually with sounds of onomatopoeia and is therefore drawn to emulate them, especially when put in contrast with music that is sung and performed by vocalists. 

Other Types of Visualizations

Musical depictions exist beyond these conventional forms, however. Comics adopt unique symbols and styles to reinforce the presence of music in ways other than music notes or onomatopoeiae. In addition, the facial expressions of a performer can suggest the presence of music within a scene and reinforce the diegetic nature of the sound. 

The upper half features a piano. The lower half has Charlie Parker playing the saxophone as pink squares of different sizes float around him. There are eight green text boxes that descend. The first box at the top says, "Fepending on who you talk to, one of us invented that music." The second box says, "I think everyone on that scene did." Box three says, "See, I fucked around on the piano. I was obsessed with finding new harmonies - new combinations of notes." The fourth box says, "Bird didn't play the piano, which was odd because it's so foundational." The fifth box says, "So visual." The sixth box says, "I never once saw him play it, which was amazing considering what he could hear-" The seventh box says, "-what he coild play-" The eighth box says, "What he could imagine."

Chasing the Bird: Charlie Parker in California, 2020
Author: Dave Chisholm
Colors By: Peter Markowski
Publisher: Z2 Comics
Page 22

Sometimes, creators, such as those that developed Chasing the Bird, illustrate sound through nontraditional symbols in order to convey the contrast from one performer to another. For example, the music of Charlie Parker, known as a revolutionary jazz saxophonist, is depicted as a series of floating pink rectangles of varying size and width. Such a depiction accentuates Parker’s diversion from the norms of music, as well as the improvisational style of jazz. In addition, while the music of other performers is also portrayed with squares, they are never pink, which further underscores Parker’s unique qualities as a musician. In terms of facial expression, Parker’s mouth conforms to meet the mouthpiece of the saxophone, which heightens the realism of his composition and suggests to the audience that he is truly blowing on his instrument.

View More Examples of Visualizations

 

Image one of two. A punk rock band sings a song on stage. The lyrics are, "There was a time, before things fell to bits - ah, when we shacked ip together, I and he..." A man in the crowd says, "I wish he'd come back." Yellow music notes bracket the lyrics.
Image two of two. A series of four panels. In panel one, a man in a tie says to a woman with spiky hair, " My cock's regrowing. I could leave, join the army. What do you think?" The band's lyrics float in and say, "...or throw me down the stairs and break my arm..." In panel two the woman turns to the man. The band sings, "He had his ways, then, if lacking in charm." In panel three, the woman leaves the concert. The band's lyrics are, "he said that fisting would be the cheapest way..." In panel four, the woman walks up stairs. The band is still heard as singing, "when that went wrong he called a woman that he know... ...and in the end we flushed it down the loo." Yellow music notes bracket all of the song lyrics.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century, “1969: Paint it Black,’ July 27, 2011
Writer: Alan Moore
Artist: Kevin O-Neil
Colorist: Ben DiMagmaliw
Letterer: Todd Klein
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Pages 38-39

In addition to the distinction between sung lyrics and music from instruments, there can also be distinctions between different genres of music and comics. In this scene, two characters meet at a bar with a band. The grunge of the clothing of the band members and the bar suggest the punk-rock style of the band, which is reinforced by the formatting of the music. While the speech bubbles in the scene are smooth and in a conventional comic style font, the song lyrics have a larger, sharper font and are within jagged speech bubbles, accentuating their difference from both the spoken words and other styles of music. The music notes are also the only source of color in the comic, which could perhaps visually represent the way that the music punctures and interjects within the scene.

The portraits of musical composers Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Chopin, and Liszt in a line. Sections of their pieces float above their heads. There are six green text boxes. The first text box says, "you can hear those notes, the upper notes in the chord - past the root, the third, the fifth in that old music." The second box says, "-Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Chopin, Liszt - all those old cats." The third box says, "Every now and again, they'd throw in those fresh notes. Ninths, Elevenths, Thirteenths, you know?" The fourth box says, "When you're talking about the actual notes we were playing, it's just a fuckin' language, dig?" The fifth box says, "and we could both speak it fluently." The last box says, "poetically."

Chasing the Bird: Charlie Parker in California, 2020
Author: Dave Chisholm
Colors By: Peter Markowski
Publisher: Z2 Comics
Page 23

Depictions of music can also differ in terms of the music selection itself. Sometimes, comic creators will include songs that they wrote for their specific work, while others include music that already exists in real-life. In Chasing the Bird, for example, several famous European composers are depicted to show the changes in music over time. These composers include Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, and Chopin. In addition to illustrating their portraits, the graphic novel includes staves of music that flow from each of the heads of the composers. However, instead of a series of disconnected notes or musical symbols, these staves are actual selections from the composers’ most famous works. Therefore, in this case, the creators chose preexisting music that help characterize the composers and their musical abilities. 

A close-up of Charlie Parker's head, who plays the saxophone. A pink bird flies from behind his head to the mouthpiece of his instrument. The bird is within a series of pink boxes.
Charlie Parker plays the saxophone while a bird flies around his body in a series of pink rectangles.
Charlie Parker stands on a stage and faces an audience that looks up at him. A pink bird flies in a series of pink boxes from behind his head into the audience.
A bird inside a series of pink boxes flies over an audience that watches a band on stage.
Charlie Parker plays his saxophone on stage with his band. A pink bird flies around the band in a series of pink boxes.
A close up of Charlie Parker's head as he plays the saxophone. A bird flies around his head and starts within a series of pink squares but later breaks out of the squares.
A close-up of Charlie Parker's eye. A pink bird flies around his eye.
A pink bird flies around a black backdrop in a repeated pattern.

Chasing the Bird: Charlie Parker in California, 2020
Author: Dave Chisholm
Colors By: Peter Markowski
Publisher: Z2 Comics
Pages 137-155

At the end of Chasing the Bird, the depiction of instrumental music is once again conveyed through unconventional symbolic representations of music. Instead of just the pink squares from the rest of the novel, Charlie Parker’s performance begins with a bird that is at rest enveloped within a pink box. The bird and box begin by sitting on the back of his head and then both shift to the mouth of his instrument and then across his body, making their way into the audience. As the bird soars through the performance hall, its wings expand and the boxes start to lose their uniform shape. By the end of the sequence, only the bird remains, and even the background environment and Charlie himself have disappeared. In this case, the bird is a new symbolic portrayal of music that captures the free, loose, and unhindered nature of his playing. The selection of the bird is also important because it is a reference to his nicknames, which were “Bird” or “Yardbird,” so drawing it within the musical depictions suggests that Parker is putting his whole self into his music in this final performance.
Click on the blue circles to progress the pages.

A series of 7 panels that depict a school talent show. In the first panel, a kid is sweating. The text below reads, “This is it.” In the second panel, an older figure says, “Okay, Rusi, you’re up!” In the next panel, the kid climbs steps to a stage. In the fourth panel, there is a boom box on a stage. The narration reads, “I placed the CD carefully in the boom box and set it to track 10. The number flowed familiarly like all the times I had played it on repeat in my bedroom.” In between panels four and five, a text box says, “and 1, 2, 3… Go!” In panel five, the kid sings on a stage a plays air guitar. Lyrics from the boombox read, “Well I can see my teenage father standin’” and music notes surround the lyrics. An arrow points to the kid’s hands and says, “air guitar.” The sixth panel has song lyrics that read, “can you imaging/for a second/doin’ anything’just cause you want to? Well that’s just what I do so hooray for me… and fuck you!” The singer has exaggerated facial features and an open mouth. In the final panel, the kid stands on stage and faces the audience. There are three claps from the audience.

Side A: The Music Lover’s Graphic Novel, “Last Act,” 2006
Writer and Artist: Rebecca “Ruji” Chapnik
Page 15

Often, the presence and style of music are also conveyed in comics through the facial expressions of the performer. These expressions can reinforce the genre of the music or the intensity of the moment. On this page, for example, the singer is drawn with exaggerated facial expressions and sharp shadowing, both of which are qualities commonly associated with punk rock, which is the style of the vocalist. In addition, the harsh lyrics work in tandem with the intense facial expressions to illustrate to the audience that the singer is passionate about their work.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Continue onto Page 2 to explore Music and Purpose