SOUND EFFECTS AND ONOMATOPOEIA: Doing Even More For Your Comics Than Making Noise!

Before we started the lesson, we each said first thing that popped into our heads with this question: What is the first sound that comes to mind when you hear the names of these animals?

PIG (Oink!)

TIGER (ROAR!!)

DOG (Ruff Ruff, Woof Woof, Yap Yap, Arf Arf  –!!)

CAT: Reowr, meow!  Notice anything?  These sounds are all SPELLED just the way they sound.  There’s a word for this.  And you might have learned about it in school.

The word we learned about was “Onomatopoeia.”  Originally, the word is from Greece.  And Onomatopoeia, and other sound effects, get used a lot in comics and cartoons.

The laugh sound, which in English, is always “Hahaha,” “Hehehehe,” “Hee Hee,” or “HoHoHoHo” (if the character is a certain person who comes around during Christmas time), is COMPLETELY different sounding in Korean or Japanese.   We talked more about Japanese style sound effects later.Interestingly enough, ONOMATOPOEIA sounds are not the same in every language!

Often, in Manga (comics from Japan) the laughter sound is “HuHuHuHu!”  And in Manhwa (comics from Korea) a little giggle is written as “Kekekekeke!”

Here’s another example.  In English, “Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock–” the sound for a clock’s hands moving around– is much different from “Di-Da, Di-Da, Di-Da”– which is the same sound, but written as it sounds in Mandarin Chinese.  That same sound in Japanese, for a ticking clock, is “Katchin, Katchin, Katchin, Katchin.”

AND, in Onomatopoeia, you can EXAGGERATE sounds, depending on your characters. 

For example: A tired cow could say “…Mooooooooo….,” Continue reading »