"(speech) balloon", as in the comics

[Paul Frank]

On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 9:44 PM, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
> Â  Â  Â  Â The air balloon, thought to be the model for "speech balloon,"
> dates back only to 1783, so it seems quite unlikely that "speech
> balloon" was used any earlier than that, even though "balloon" was used
> in other senses prior to that time. Â I'm pretty sure that Griffy was
> referring to speech balloons themselves (which, as claimed, date back at
> least to the 18th century), and not to the term.
> John Baker

"Speech balloons" are sometimes called "speech bubbles" or "text
bubbles." And then (off-topically) there are the "dream bubbles" of
the kibyoshi comics in Edo Japan. Adam Kern has interesting things to
say about them on pages 237-238 of this book:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EjzAZtoxfx8C&pg=PA237&dq=%2B%22dream+bubbles%22+%2Bedo&hl=en&ei=vt4eTZ6QCo-j4QbmzM2GAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%2B%22dream%20bubbles%22%20%2Bedo&f=false


Paul

Paul Frank
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