Strange Planet’s Brilliant Use of Dialogue for Characterization

I’ve talked about characterization through dialogue before, but when I come across a great example, I have to share. And Strange Planet is a great example of how to use dialogue for characterization (and humor, as well).

What Is Strange Planet?

If you haven’t heard of it, Strange Planet is a comic about aliens. It features similar or parallel experiences to regular human life through the alien’s life frame, resulting in a deeply nuanced, often subtle, and generally humorous commentary on life and the world.

If you have heard of it, Strange Planet is still a comic about aliens, and the rest is still true, as well (blah blah blah see above).

Strange Planet‘s Dialogue Style

As a comic, Strange Planet relies heavily on dialogue. In fact, these comics rely solely on the images and the dialogue for all aspects of the story since Nathan Pyle (the author/artist) generally doesn’t use any exposition text (AKA background text that explains aspects of the comic but is not actually said by a character).

And while that’s true of many comics, Strange Planet‘s dialogue style plays an extra-important role in the comic. It…

• Helps establish the characters as aliens,
• Gives a different perspective or twist on the action(s), and
• Creates or supports the humor.

All that out of a single dialogue style? Yep.

How Does It Work?

When Nathan Pyle made his comic, he decided to give the aliens a distinctive way of talking. Generally, he made them more formal, but it’s more than that. When they speak, the aliens use…

• Longer, less common and less casual words
• A scientific / analytical approach to description
• Little or no onomatopoeia
• Emotionally-neutral language
• Describing the emotion felt rather than acting as if feeling it

Yes, the last one goes hand in hand with the scientific approach to description, but while there is overlap, they’re not exactly the same. The scientific part means that they observe and describe rather than reacting directly, and the emotionally-neutral part is more about word choice and connotation. Using words that don’t have a strong emotional connection.

Do you see the power of the language choice? The speech style not only emphasizes the alien nature of his characters but also generates and supports the subtle humor of the strips.

Read more examples the Strange Planet website or check out the comics on Nathan Pyle’s Instagram.

Learning from this Example

Too often we write as we’re used to hearing people talk and don’t put much more thought into it than that. And for many modern stories, that works well enough.

There will be times, however, when your character demands (and deserves) more. When regular speech doesn’t fit the character in question, it’s time to re-think how you’re writing the dialogue. When that time comes, think of this example and consider how the dialogue choice is so integral to the plot and world of each comic as well as the punch lines.

As you consider style options, think about…

• How that choice can affect other aspects of the story (Does it create opportunities for misunderstandings or humor? Does it inspire a consistent emotional response from other characters?)
• What the choice demonstrates about the character (Analytical mind? Rural background? Introversion? Language choice can be very revealing, so make sure it’s revealing and/or reflecting the aspects of the character you want to show.)
• Where/why the character started speaking that way (Most of us learn our speech patterns from people around us or circumstances. What influenced specific aspects of the character’s speaking habits could play a part in the story – or not. That’s up to you.)

If you’re not sure if something will work, try it. If you don’t like it, make some changes and try again. But if we can learn anything from Strange Planet, it’s that the right dialogue choice can be incredibly powerful – and worth working to find.