I actually did try to comment about this to someone who frequently writes their comics like that.
But he was a popufur, so there ended up being a lot of anger from all sides, and not in any order.

Does he have a lot of otaku fans who don't mind that sort of thing? That'd explain it.

I believe "Manga" comics do that by design, but I don't think any other media is intended to be read right to left.

You beat me to the punch.

Ah, but if you take the pic to be in "manga format" (not all manga does this, but for a while it was popular for the otaku crowd), then the order isn't wrong, as that format is from right to left in order to avoid messing with the panels too much (much like the original Japanese comics/mangam because Japanese text is read from right to left).

I've heard about that. Manga nuts who write their English-language fan comics right to left because that's how it's done in Japan. Strikes me as some kinda ridiculous misguided cargo cult linguistics, if you ask me.

It should match the language. English has left-to-right lines read in top-to-bottom order; Japanese has top-to-bottom lines read in right-to-left order. Comic balloon order should thus follow the convention of the language it was originally written in (exceptions may be made for translations, but not fan comics originally in the other language!!).

And when translating, it's a simple enough issue to deal with: flip the art L to R. Then, not only the balloons, but also the panels read in the right order!

Yup! I've read a few manga that had the art flipped like that.

However, purists don't want the art to be flipped, and I can't blame them. You're literally reversing the artist's intentions.

It's the most basic and simplest form of localization.

Flip the art, and promptly have Rally Vincent driving down the left side of the streets of Chicago.

Flip the art, and have a nation of people wielding swords with their left hand.

Flip the art, and have buildings all wrong because the tower is now in another corner.

I don't care. Do it anyway!

Seriously, a few mistakes like cars on the wrong side seems to me like a small price to pay

read like this . . . . . . . . . . . . having the text . . . . . . . . . . . . to avoid

And anyway, the comic above is not about localizing manga. It's about English-speaking artists making the above mistake in their own work.

It's not inherently an error, especially if it is being done properly with the word balloons following the rule of "highest first". Frankly, in comics it's hard to avoid having to go from right to left to get to the next bit of speech from time to time.

And yes, the impact of having the art backwards is often a high price to pay. Especially when you have artists who have "gets all those little details right" as part of their claim to fame. It's also not always as simple as just mirroring the pages, you can also end up having to go into the art and have to redraw all sorts of stuff like logos and livery.

Getting the speech balloons to read properly is a skill that is worth learning if one wants to be a cartoonist. If it's done wrong, the comic becomes too confusing to be worth reading.

And "highest first" doesn't work if the first balloon is way the heck farther right than the second one and only like 1/4 inch higher. I shouldn't have to go fetch a ruler or T-square just to be able to read a comic.

What you are complaining about is bad word balloon layout, not that the first one to read is to the right.

(Also, ¼ inch is a lot more on a comic page than you might think. I measured a few actual comics and that's like 10-15% of the height of a typical panel in an individual issue, 15-20% in a TPB collection.)

YES. I am complaining about bad word balloon layout. I am not interested in quibbling over what YOU consider bad word layout. If you're not interesting in listening to what I'M talking about, please just go away.

I'm disagreeing with you that "first one to read is to the right" is inherently bad layout. Your examples to back up your position have either not been bad or are bad for other reasons.

I get what you're saying, I just think that you are wrong.

All right, look. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry I let you trick me into talking about manga, because that's not what the cartoon is meant to be about.
It's about laziness. The laziness when an English-speaking artist, drawing for an English-speaking audience, draws two figures exchanging single lines of dialog, then realizes that the first one to speak is standing to the right, but rather than redraw it, flip the art, or at least position the speech balloons vertically, shrugs, puts the first balloon to the right of the second one and doesn't give a crap.

So yes, the cartoon is specifically about cases when "the first one to read is to the right" IS bad layout. Not translated manga. Not clever layouts where the first balloon is at top right and yet it WORKS somehow. I'm talking about *lazy* layout.

It's often like stumbling on a curb at the beginning of a comic. It can really throw you off...

...dab s'taht kniht uoy fI

¿ʇɐɥʇ op qnoʎ p,ʍoɥ

My biggest desire for it is consistency. If there isnt at least that, I spend more time sorting that out than outright reading the comic.

Ive read enough manga that going right to left doesnt bug me

How freaking nice for you.

(Seriously, it bugs *me*, and... I dunwanna hear it!)

Sorry.

Who bothers to comment anymore anyway?

I dunno... I mean, we know you. I assume it's intentional.