Sure, we all know of “crash” or “bang” or even “kapow”, but what happens when you need some fancy onomatopoeia for something a little more exotic, like say, the sound duct tape makes coming off the roll? Well, you could just wing it I suppose, or you could make it up, maybe throw together a bunch of random consonants… Or you could just avoid the issue through dialog if possible… But let’s face it, sometimes there’s just no substitution for sound effects. So what do you do then?

Personally, I’m terrible at figuring out onomatopoeia. Yet what did I do? I decided to make a comic that takes place in the future, and not only that, but a comic that also involves a lot of crazy machinery and weird partially robotic boys.

Needless to say, it wasn’t long before I ran into my first sound effect problems (electrical sound effects can be tricky!) What did I do? I hit up google. I didn’t just google onomatopoeia though… I googled ‘comic onomatopoeia’, and there, in those search results, was the solution to all my sound related problems… KA-BOOM! A Dictionary of Comic Book Words, Symbols, & Onomatopoeia. Needless to say, I bought it.

From my experience, I can say, if anyone has every had problems trying to create the proper sound effect, this book is a life-saver. The book is basically divided into two parts. The first part, is an A to Z list of a very large number of sound effects with mention of which comic books from which the author pulled them. It’s an interesting read (if you’re into that sort of comic nerdery), but where KA-BOOM! is really worth the money, is in the second half of the book (technically the last 1/3) which is titled: “BZZURKK! The Thesaurus of Champions.”

Do you need to know common means of spelling out the sound of a ricochet? How about the sound toxic waste makes? It’s all there. Words can be pulled right from the thesaurus, or it can be a great tool to help with the onomatopoetic process.

Basically, If you’ve ever been stuck on just how to spell out that electrical effect you’re imagining, this is the tool you need.

Honestly, there isn’t much more I can say about the book, than to mention that it’s a fantastic resource, for what otherwise tends to be a rather overlooked aspect of cartooning.

I recommend it.

As reported in The NOW Newspaper

Hey, comic book fans, good news. At long last there's a new dictionary and thesaurus of those odd words you only find in comics.

KA-BOOM!: A Dictionary of Comic Book Words, Symbols & Onomatopoeia (Mora Publications, 124 pages, $19.95), compiled by Kevin J. Taylor, covers all those comic words, sounds and also includes the companion work BZZURKK! The Thesaurus of Champions.

Want to know what RINK-RIK means, how about BRAKK or KLUD? This book holds your answers. Taylor, who put 10 years of work into this compilation, has cited the comic books where the sound effects were used, cross referenced entries and defined them.

The thesaurus is a quick guide, minus the definitions. An appendix gives a list of base forms, which is interesting in itself, particularly as some base words have either extra letters or missing letters to indicate such attributes as magnitude, volume or duration of the sound.

Before you dismiss this work as too esoteric to be much use, it's worth noting that comic books encourage reluctant readers to read more and some teachers have found the book to be useful in vocabulary lessons, such as A. Simpson, an English language arts teacher from West Virginia. She said she wants to incorporate a lesson where students create their own dictionaries in the vein of KA-BOOM!

Taylor is also the author of two other books, Souls Arriving and Seize the Stage! A Little Book on Creating Poetry.