In comic book dialogue, why are some of the words bolded? It seems arbitrary.
It’s usually to emphasise an important word. Can you give us an example of an occasion where it isn’t???!
Unless the writer is completely clueless, the bolded text is used to convey more believable emotion in an attempt to mimic the speech patterns people actually use. In most comics I’ve read, it’s used a lot more sparingly than in the sentence I just finished typing.
Hmmm…this sounds like a job for Cafe Society! Any bets on how long it takes to get moved?
Actually, the OP is quite correct; before computer-lettering took over the industry in the last 10 years or so, all but the very best letterers often mis-bolded words constantly so that it did appear arbitrary. It just wasn’t that exact a science. Lettering is tough, it was done by hand – and sometimes by several people in one issue (that’s why you’ll sometimes see a letters credit for “Manny Hands” or “M. Hands”) – and it just wasn’t very consistent. This was exacerbated by the fact that most comics through the late 80’s were printed on only slightly better than newsprint-quality paper and the printing was sometimes inconsistent as well. Inks tended to run and spread out after they were put on the page, so a small excess blot of ink near the middle of a word could darken the whole thing so it appeared bold when the letterer hadn’t drawn it any different than the surrounding words. (If you take a look at modern reprints of comics from the 70’s and 80’s you’ll sometimes see that the colors are dotted and spotty for the same reason – during the original printing, the printing press laid down dots of color which spread out and created a consistent field, but when the issues are reprinted on better paper from the same color guides, the ink doesn’t run and the spots maintain their individual integrity.)
–Cliffy
The question remains, though: why are comic books bold-happy while the other forms of 20th century print media are not? (Except maybe advertising.)
It would be interesting to know the story how the convention became established.
Because:
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Comic books are economical with words, and showing emphasis allows the writer some shortcuts.
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Where typeset matter would use italics, poor print quality made bolding a safer bet (it’s also why, until very recently, nearly all dialog in comic books/strips ended with exclamation points! (or ellipses…) to the exclusion of periods, which didn’t show well).
Theory: some words were bolded when the illustrator(?) got a little jerky with the writing and used bold as a cover-up