SPELLING SOUNDS
Onomatopoeia. I remember this word being on my fourth grade spelling test. Who knows whether or not I actually got it right, but I do remember feeling its power. Six distinct syllables, a poem with steps, resolved with a mysterious clutch of open vowels.
Onomatopoeia. It’s a term for a word that represents a sound. Onomatopoeias show up a lot in comics, though they’re most well-known by their appearance in the Batman tv series from the ’60s, or from the 2010 film, Scott Pilgrim vs The World.
WORDS IN ACTION
I thought it would be fun to take a look at the way different comics have utilized onomatopoeia in their stories, so enjoy this scroll through onomatopoeia throughout the pages…
CALVIN AND HOBBES (BILL WATTERSON)
HELLBOY (MIKE MIGNOLA)
SPIDERMAN (STAN LEE & STEVE DITKO)
KRAZY KAT (GEORGE HERRIMAN)
FAR ARDEN (KEVIN CANNON)
FORMING (JESSE MOYNIHAN)
WOLVERINE (LEN WEIN & JOHN ROMITA, SR.)
BONE (JEFF SMITH)
VARIOUS COMICS (CHRIS WARE)
MORE ONOMATOPOEIAS
Kevin Cannon’s Far Arden is packed with over 250 onomatopoeias–271, to be exact! Some of them are pretty funny, and they take me right back to making comics in my seventh-grade math class. Check out a full list of Kevin’s onomatopoeias here, and feel free to share some of your own examples below.
Related articles
- New Onomatopoeia Handbook- #Writer (donnalsadd.wordpress.com)
- 12 Onomatopoeias from Around the World (mentalfloss.com)
- A Partial Alphabet of Thai Onomatopoeia–Words for Usually-Unusual Noises (longstreet.typepad.com)
If you’re interesting in learning how to write and draw your own comics, check out my book Let’s Make Comics! An Activity Book to Create, Write, and Draw Your Own Cartoons.
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From a working cartoonist and comic book making instructor, this all-ages activity book uses humorous and informative one-page comics and exercise prompts to guide young readers (and readers who are young at heart) through easy-to-master lessons on the skills needed to make comics. The activities cover a range of essential comics-making tasks from creating expressions for characters to filling in blank panels to creating original characters and placing them in adventures of their own. Each exercise can stand on its own or work together with others in the book to stimulate creativity via the comics medium. In the end, readers who complete the activities inside the book itself will have created several comics of their own, and will have generated many ideas for more sequential art creations.
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jesssmartsmiley.wordpress.com 
Thanks for the link up, Jess. YIPES! I forgot all about Krazy Kat! :0)
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Thanks for posting this, Jess!
I was searching for “Calvin & Hobbes Onomatopeia,” and this was the first result.
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Oh, good! I’m happy I could help.
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Yeah, it was a big help. my new book series has a lot of sound effects in it, so I was looking at Calvin and Hobbes stuff for reference. What’s your latest book that you’ve published?
PS: You don’t happen to speak Spanish, do you?
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I was really in need of onomatopoeia examples for an article, and these sources were great! I owe you one man
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sup guys this is Ryan Reynolds here no joke where are my deadpool comics at man come on I need my COMICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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