Did It Get Cold In Here?

Something I recently realized I liked about comics is the icicle speech balloons. That's probably not a good term for them, but you know what I mean. Speech balloons where the bottom of it is jagged, like icicles hanging off a gutter. There's an example over to the side, from Amazing Spider-Man #622 (written by Greg Weisman, art by Luke Ross, lettering by Joe Caramagna). It should get bigger if you click on it.

Maybe that isn't even what they're supposed to represent, but that's how I've always read them. They show up when a character's seen or heard something they aren't happy with, and they're being a little passive-aggressive about. Not outright screaming about how angry they are, but keeping a cold edge to their tone that's easy to pick up on. You've probably used it, or been on the receiving end of it, at some point in your life. I love to use it, partially because I don't like screaming, but it's also highly effective at getting a person's attention. They notice the abrupt shift*, the way emotion is being restrained, it makes it more dangerous. A rabid dog straining to break it's tether.

Well, in comics, it takes on a physical property. Emotions, happy ones, angry ones, put a warmth, so the effort of restraining them, only letting them out a little, if that, lowers the ambient temperature to the point the balloon partially freezes. OK, I'm talking silly, but I do find it a great visual. It's not just for repressed anger, it can work for disdain, disgust, disenchantment, I'm sure some other words that start with "dis-".

There's one example I usually laugh at from JMS' run on Amazing Spider-Man. The issue with the tailor to the costumed set? He criticizes Spider-Man's uniform, then asks who makes it. There's a panel of Spider-Man staring at him, then the next panel he says 'I did,' with the frosty voice balloon. Granted, what makes that particular example really work is the tailor doesn't act embarrassed for insulting the guy's sartorial skills, he just goes on with what he was saying, how you shouldn't leave a job like that to amateurs. Still, Spidey's irritated, resentful, maybe a little angry about the criticism, and the voice balloon has to convey that because his mask is covering almost his entire face**, so the only other cue would have been if Romita Jr. drew him gritting his teeth, which he may have, I don't have the issue to check. Still, the bubble tells the reader the emotion of the panel, very effectively.

I don't know who started that trend. For some reason, it feels to me like something developed during the Lee/Ditko Amazing Spider-Man run, after Peter does something that riles Liz Allan or Betty Brant. That seems like an appropriate place, but it probably predates that title. Maybe it started with earlier romance comics?

* I really like talking in a jovial tone to start, then switching mid-sentence to jar them. It's fun!

** He had the mask pulled up to expose his face because they were having coffee at a diner at the time.