O   texto abaixo é um recorte do artigo de Forceville e nos ajuda a compreender mais claramente como se dá a apresentação de algumas metáforas visuais em gibis. Nesse sentido, Charles Forceville (2011) usa de grande maestria  no trato com as imagens. Para mais detalhes visite o site http://dare.uva.nl/document/216458 

According Forceville, the following is a pre-proof version of a paper published as:
Forceville, Charles (2011). “Pictorial runes in Tintin and the Picaros.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 875-890. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.014. Please quote from the published version only! 

Abstract: Speed-lines, movement-lines and emotion-enhancing flourishes (“pictorial runes”) may contribute, marginally or substantially, to the potential meanings to be inferred from a comic’s panel. It seems plausible that pictorial runes convey their meanings in patterned ways, but hitherto little systematic research appears to have been done to investigate them. The primary aim of this paper is to present the first version of a model to 

research pictorial runes by inventorying and categorizing all specimens occurring in a single Tintin album and to generalize tentatively about their meaning. In this manner, the model can be further tested, refined, elaborated, or refuted, in further research. Such research will aid both comics scholarship and cognition studies based on visual stimuli. 

Keywords: pictorial runes, comics, visual language, conceptual metaphor theory.

Fig. 1. Speed lines behind Tintin’s motor 

bike, Tintin et les Picaros, panel 1.2.1. 

1 - Movement lines.

 Movement lines are slightly curved, short lines that appear mostly parallel to a body part, and sometimes parallel to an inanimate object, to indicate motion. It is not always easy, or even possible, to distinguish between movement and speed lines, since both designate the trajectory and direction of a movement. By and large, movement lines differ from speed lines in emphasizing a movement of something relative to an entity to which it is physically connected. The typical example is the movement of a body part, caused by bending a joint (wrist, neck, knee, ankle, middle, shoulder). By extension, the lines indicate restricted movements in objects that are part of larger wholes, such as an opening door, turning on its hinges. 

2 - Droplets. 

Unlike the other runes discussed, droplets can have a purely literal, mimetic meaning: that of little units of liquid, for instance in the form of water, sweat, tears, and spit. Examples of such literal uses in Picaros are 8.1.1 (Nestor, the butler, perspiring in embarrassment when caught drinking Haddock’s whiskey), 16.2.4b (Haddock spewing unpalatable whiskey), 16.3.2 (Calculus bathing), and 44.4.2 (Alcazar, bleary-eyed because of a tear gas grenade).  

Fig. 3. Emotion droplets. Tintin 

 et les Picaros, panel 50.2.2.

But droplets are also used in a way that warrants labeling them as runes, namely when they depict something non-literally. Specifically, they are used to suggest that someone is emotionally affected. Droplets occur in multiples (up to eight, as in 3.3.3), and the range of emotions they convey includes surprise or consternation (1.4.3, 5.4.3, 9.4.3), anger (13.4.3, 40.1.1), anxiety (3.3.2, 3.4.4, 50.2.2 [fig. 3]), and fear (10.3.3) – although it is not always possible to pinpoint the precise emotion(s) communicated in a specific panel. Even if the runic droplets should originate in beads of sweat, at the very least they have in their present halo-form developed into a strongly hyperbolic version, since in real life droplets of sweat do not defy the laws of gravity in the way they do here.

3 -  Spiky lines around (part of) an object.

Often, a circle or semi-circle of straight lines is drawn around something. I propose to distinguish between three subtypes: (a) a semi-circle around a person’s head, in halo-like fashion; (b) a circle around an onomatopoeia or a semi-circle around a sound-producing body part or device; (c) other cases. In type (a) the meaning appears to be similar to that of runic droplets: generic affect – and indeed straight lines are sometimes used in alternation with droplets (just as spirals are). In type (b) the primary function appears to be to enhance the idea that a sound is produced. This can be a knock on the door, a radio, or an onomatopoeia (in 48.3.3 [fig. 4] the spikes occur in both varieties). In type (c) the spikes draw attention to a salient item that otherwise might escape the viewer’s attention. In panel 17.4.1 we 

see the proverbial banana over which the guard Manolo is about to slip surrounded by these lines, and in panel 18.2.1 they appear around Haddock’s pocket, where he searches for his tobacco. In 11.1.2 the straight lines are the most important cue that Nestor is not just standing behind a door but is actually eavesdropping, and in 28.1.1 the monkey that is – diminuatively far ahead – crossing the road also is haloed with spikes. Sometimes, it is difficult to tell the sound-enhancing and attentionenhancing types apart. In 19.3.1, the spikes were counted as the latter, but one could argue that the turning key produces a sound as well, and   the same could be said of the helicopter in 35.4.3 and 36.4.3. As in other cases, the ambiguity is functional. It is to be noted that in the transition from 23.3.2 to 23.3.3 the onomatopoeia for “knocking” becomes louder, which is partly indicated by bolder font spikes. Thus this rune allows for grading. 

Fig. 4. Spike lines to indicate both sound 

and surprise, Tintin et les Picaros, panel 48.3.3.

4 - Spirals.

 Spirals are corkscrew-like flourishes that occur usually in multiples. They always “emanate” from somebody or something. In Picaros they manifest themselves (a) around a character’s head (8.3.1 [fig. 5]); (b) from a music or sound-producing source; or (c) parallel to a body part or a vibrating object; (d) differently than in (a-c). The most frequently occurring variety is around people’s heads or faces, just as the droplets and the spikes. In almost all these cases, they convey a generically negative emotion, such as anger, disgust, or frustration. In some cases, the spirals alternate with droplets around a person’s head.  A second clear-cut situation where spirals are used is to convey sound or music. In the latter case, the panel usually also has the “musical note” pictogram. This variety of the spiral rune occurs for instance when Bianca Castafiore is singing (2.3.2; 21.4.3; 48.2.3); when Haddock is whistling (16.1.2b); when there is music on the radio (59.1.1); and at the Carnival parade (59.2.2). Non-musical sound spirals occur with a ringing telephone (3.1.1, 9.1.2) and a loud claxon (50.4.3).

Fig. 5. Anger spirals around 

Haddock’s head. Tintin et les 

Picaros, panel 8.3.1. 

Fig. 6. Anger spirals around Tintin’s 

foot, Tintin et les Picaros, panel 28.2.2.     

Sometimes a body part or an object has one or two spirals parallel to it. This variant of the spiral rune is used in Picaros to convey sustained exertion or shaking. Six cases have been identified: a TV set shaking when Bianca Castafiori is seen singing on it (2.3.1, 2.3.2; note that in both cases the “shake lines” have communicated themselves to the contour of the TV itself), a ringing telephone (3.1.1), a tipsy Snowy (4.1.1); and a hard-pulling Haddock (17.2.1, 17.2.2). It is important to note that the movement is not only repetitive but also involuntary, unlike the situation in movement lines.  Some spiral uses fit neither of these three categories, however. In these cases (in table 2 rated as “other”), the rune’s meaning is less specific, but it appears to have negative connotations. In 2.4.4, the spirals emanate from the feet of Thomson and Thompson falling off stairs, probably hinting at “pain” (see also 17.2.3). Panel 18.2.4 shows spirals around the hand of Haddock, impatiently searching for his tobacco in the pocket of his jacket.  The multiple communicative purposes that spirals can serve allow, as do other runes, for a degree of creative ambiguity. Thus the spirals surrounding the TV set on which the dictator Tapioca inveighs against Tintin and his friends (8.4.1) suggest both “sound” and “negativity.” Two panels with spirals deserve some discussion. The first is 23.4.2, where Tintin has “angry” spirals when first seeing his old friend Pablo; but in the next panel he smiles. We can account for this by assuming that Tintin is at first unpleasantly surprised to see his old friend Pablo with the enemy, but immediately changes mood. A somewhat similar situation occurs in 23.3.1, where from the spirals around Calculus’ head we are invited to infer that his mirth is mixed with malice. 

 5 - Twirl. 

A twirl resembles a spiral, but is visually distinguishable from it by being broader, and by having at least one open loop. Moreover, a twirl usually functions on its own, whereas a spiral almost always occurs in 

multiples (its use as “shaking line” being the main exception). There are two primary locations for a twirl: (1) behind the feet or legs of walking or running people and behind, sometimes alongside, moving vehicles, in a parallel (i.e., usually horizontal) orientation to these feet etc.; (2) above or around a person’s head, in an orientation that is typically at right angles to the head. In the first case it signals movement, and an indication of the direction from which the agent has come – similar to speed lines; in the second case it signals dizziness, drunkenness, confusion, or unconsciousness. In 26.2.3 (fig. 7) the twirl appears in both varieties.

Fig. 7. Two twirls, one indicating 

dizziness, the other movement and 

direction, Tintin et les Picaros, panel 26.2.3. 

As for the movement twirl, behind walking and running persons or animals it always occurs singly, whereas behind moving vehicles sometimes more than one twirl is used. The dizziness twirl is found as a 

multiple of three or more in four panels (10.1.3; 17.3.3; 19.4.3; 37.3.2 – three of which pertain to Haddock); multiples here presumably suggest intensification of the rune’s meaning. 

6 - Special cases.

By far the majority of the runes found in Picaros are accounted for by the categories presented above. However, some runes do not, for various reasons, unambiguously fit into these categories. Panel 2.1.3a shows three wavy lines above Tintin’s glass which most likely are to be seen as “smell lines” (Walker [2000: 29] suggests the name “waftarom” for them), although they could also be understood as “spirals,” with “negativity” as their meaning. Note that if we opt for the latter interpretation, it is Tintin’s expectation of foul smell that appears to be connoted, not the actual foul smell – for it turns out there is nothing wrong with the whiskey (see 2.1.4). As suggested above, this suggests the possibility that runes may convey a subjective point of view. A more difficult case is the pair of identical flourishes appearing in 13.4.3. Are these runes conveying the heat of the dish? Its smell? And is there a jocular hint at the “anger spiral” in the flourish that appears above the guard’s head? Similarly ambiguous are the bulbous flourishes appearing parallel to Tintin and Calculus’ heads in 34.1.1 (fig. 8), 34.1.2, and 34.3.1 after eating from the spicy Arumbaya food and (in Tintin’s case) drinking from the whiskey that Calculus made unpalatable. The narrative situation suggests the characters’ physical discomfort, which we then are likely to see enhanced by the flourishes, but since these are the only instances appearing in the album, it is unclear how to describe and define this flourish. Lastly, the lines around the man’s head in 9.2.3 function as spiral shaking lines, but are graphically dissimilar to these. 

Fig. 8. Irregular bulbous rune, Tintin et les 

Picaros, panel 34.1.1.

A category of lines that, after consideration, I decided to exclude from the “rune” catalogue are “reflection lines.” Windows often have diagonal lines that indicate their transparent and (partly) reflective nature. Shiny floors in posh buildings invariably feature small vertical lines under the objects standing on these floors. Presumably, the lines reflect those objects. By no means all floors have them. Indeed, in pages 29-54, which depict jungle scenes, the only three reflection lines identified are on Jolyon Wagg’s coach. Besides characterizing windows and floors, reflection lines also typify other objects: mirrors, TV screens, and shiny tables. I have taken such lines as hints that suggest objects’ visible “texture,” on a par 

with the token crease to indicate cloth, the token leaf to indicate foliage, and the token tuft of grass to suggest a lawn. For the record I note that not all windows have reflections, while conversely there are other means besides runes to indicate mirroring: colored patches, for instance, or (in outdoor scenes) shadowy contours of reflected buildings.