View source for The Lexicon of Comicana

{{Short description|Book by Mort Walker}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Refimprove|date=December 2017}}
{{More footnotes|date=July 2010}}}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = The Lexicon of Comicana
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = LexiconofComicana.jpg
| caption       = Front cover art
| author        = [[Mort Walker]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| series        =
| subject       = [[Reference]]
| genre         =
| publisher     = [[iUniverse]] (2000)
| pub_date      = 1980, 2000
| media_type    = Print
| pages         = 108
| isbn          =0-595-08902-X
}}

'''''The Lexicon of Comicana''''' is a 1980 book by the American [[cartoonist]] [[Mort Walker]]. It was intended as a [[tongue-in-cheek]] look at the devices used by [[Comics|comics cartoonists]]. In it, Walker invented an international set of [[symbol]]s called ''symbolia'' after researching cartoons around the world (described by the term ''comicana''). In 1964, Walker had written an article called "Let's Get Down to Grawlixes", a satirical piece for the [[National Cartoonists Society]]. He used terms such as ''grawlixes'' for his own amusement, but they soon began to catch on and acquired an unexpected validity. The ''Lexicon'' was written in response to this.

The names he invented for them sometimes appear in [[dictionary|dictionaries]], and serve as convenient terminology occasionally used by cartoonists and critics. A [[2001 in comics|2001]] gallery showing of comic- and street-influenced art in [[San Francisco]], for example, was called "''Plewds! Squeans! and Spurls!''"<ref>[http://www.stretcher.org/posts/plewds_squeams_and_spurls/ "Plewds! Squeams! and Spurls!"]; published November 29, 2001; retrieved June 4, 2018</ref>

==Examples==
* '''''Agitrons''''': wiggly lines around a shaking object or character.
* '''''Blurgits, swalloops''''': curved lines preceding or trailing after a character's moving limbs.
* '''''{{vanchor|Briffits}}''''' (💨): clouds of dust that hang in the wake of a swiftly departing character or object.
* '''''Dites, hites and vites''''': straight lines drawn across flat, clear and reflective surfaces, such as windows and mirrors. The first letter indicates direction: diagonal, horizontal and vertical respectively. Hites may also be used trailing after something moving with [[Speed line|great speed]].
* '''''Emanata''''': lines drawn around the head to indicate shock or surprise
* '''''[[Grawlix]]es''''' (#, $, *, @): typographical symbols standing in for [[profanity|profanities]], appearing in dialogue balloons in place of actual dialogue.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2457|title=Language Log » Obscenicons a century ago|website=Languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu|accessdate=30 December 2017}}</ref>
* '''''Indotherm''''' (♨): wavy, rising lines used to represent steam or heat.
* '''''Lucaflect''''': a shiny spot on a surface of something, depicted as a [[Paned window (architecture)|four-paned window]] shape.
* '''''Plewds''''' (💦): flying [[sweat]] droplets that appear around a character's head when working hard, stressed, etc.
* '''''Quimps''''' (🪐): A special example of the grawlix, a symbol resembling the planet [[Saturn]].
* '''''Solrads''''': radiating lines drawn from something luminous like a lightbulb or the sun.
* '''''Squeans''''' (💫): little starbursts or circles that signify [[Substance intoxication|intoxication]], dizziness, or sickness.
Additional symbolia terms include '''whiteope''', '''sphericasia''', '''that-a-tron''', '''spurls''', '''oculama''', '''crottles''', '''maledicta balloons''', '''farkles''', '''doozex''', '''staggeratron''', '''boozex''', '''digitrons''', '''nittles''', '''waftaroms''', and '''jarns'''.

Comics scholar [[Maggie Thompson]] has noted that these symbols were originally described and named by Charles D. Rice in the 1950s; Thompson further observed that, although Walker did cite his sources ("Charlie Rice of ''[[This Week (magazine)|This Week]]'' magazine") in his 1975 book ''Backstage at the Strips'', "many [including Thompson herself] (...) assumed [that this] was [Walker's] joke about an imaginary scholarly attribution."<ref name=Thompson>[https://www.comic-con.org/toucan/maggies-world-009-research-obsession-and-obsessive-research Maggie's World 009: Research, Obsession, and Obsessive Research], by [[Maggie Thompson]], at the ''[[San Diego Comic-Con]]''; published September 3, 2013; retrieved May 22, 2023</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Comics}}
* [[Cartoon physics]]
* [[Glossary of comics terminology]]
* [[Manga iconography]]
* [[Sniglet]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Steve Edgell, Tim Pilcher, Brad Brooks, ''The Complete Cartooning Course: Principles, Practices, Techniques'' (London: Barron's, 2001), pp. 50–51, {{ISBN| 978-0764113185}}

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline|Grawlixes}}

{{Profanity}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lexicon of Comicana, The}}
[[Category:1980 books]]
[[Category:Books about comics]]
[[Category:Cartooning]]
[[Category:Comics terminology]]
[[Category:Constructed languages]]
[[Category:Linguistics books]]
[[Category:Symbolism]]
[[Category:Symbols]]