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Labels that reveal what a pictured figure is speaking have appeared in Western graphic art since at least the 13th century. More recognizably modern "speech balloons" begin appearing in 17th century printed broadsides. With the development of the comic book industry in the 20th century, the appearance of speech balloons has become increasingly standardized, though the formal conventions that have evolved in different cultures (US as opposed to Japan, for example), can be quite distinct.
The most common is the speech bubble. It comes in two forms for two circumstances: An in-panel character and an out-of-panel character. An in panel character (one who is fully or mostly visible in the panel of the strip of comic book that the reader is viewing) uses a bubble with a tail-like point, directed towards the speaker, coming out of it.
From left to right: A western bubble, a manga bubble and a bubble in the style of those used in Persepolis
An out-of-panel character (the comic book equivalent of being "off screen") has several options, some of them rather unconventional. The first is just a standard speech bubble with the "point" of the bubble pointing to the side of the panel that the speaker is closest to. The second option, which is currently only used in manga, has the point of the bubble pointing into the bubble, instead of out. The third option appears to be the creation of graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi (author of Persepolis), and replaces the point with a sort of bottleneck that connects with the side of the panel.
Thought bubbles come in two forms: the "fuzzy" bubble and the chain thought bubble.
The chain thought bubble is the almost universal symbol for thinking in cartoons. It consists of a large, cloud-like bubble containing the text of the thought, which is connected to the area next to a character by a chain of increasingly smaller circular bubbles.
Another, less conventional thought bubble has emerged: the "fuzzy" thought bubble. Used in manga (by such artists as Ken Akamatsu), the fuzzy bubble is roughly circular in shape (generally), but the edge of the bubble is not a line but a collection of spikes close to each other, creating the impression of fuzziness. Fuzzy thought bubbles do not use points, and are placed in the area of the character who is thinking.
Text boxes are generally used for narration purposes. They are generally square and connected to the edge of the panel. Often they are also colored yellow to indicate the difference between them and the bubbles used by the characters.
120px Yellow Kid's words appear on his shirt Some characters and strips use highly unconventional methods of communication. Perhaps the most notable is the Yellow Kid, an early comic strip. His (but not the other characters') words appear on his large, smock-like shirt.
Also noteworthy are the many variations on the form created by Dave Sim for his comic Cerebus the Aardvark. Depending on the shape, size, and position of the bubble, as well as the texture and shape of the letters within it, Sim could convey large amounts of information about the speaker. This included separate bubbles for different states of mind (drunkenness, etc), for echoes, and a special class of bubbles for one single floating apparition.
A similar tactic is used in the reoccuring "Monroe" comic strip in MAD Magazine, in which certain words are written larger or in unusual fonts for emphasis.
An early pioneer in experimenting with many different types of speech ballons and lettering for different types of speech was Walt Kelly, in his PogoThis article is not about the pogo stick, the pogo (dance), the pogo skateboarding trick, nor the Pogo (food). Pogo was a daily comic strip by Walt Kelly as well as the name of its principal character. Pogo Possum" was an opossum who lived in Okefenokee S strip.
In japanese Manga, there is a tendency to include the speech necessary for the storyline in ballons, while small scribbles outside the balloons add ironic comments.