Experts say that the comic book was born on 16 February 1896 with the publication in the New York Journal of the comic strip ‘The Yellow Kid’, the first strip to include speech bubbles in the drawings. In Spanish, speech bubbles are called sandwiches – bocadillos . In Italian, they are called fumetti because they look like clouds of smoke. French and German use similar words to English – bulles (bubbles) and Sprechblase (speech bubbles).

Onomatopoeia is frequently used in the ninth art. The Spanish comic strip featuring secret agents Mortadelo and Filemón often contains babies crying. Waaaaahh! in English becomes Buaaaaahh! in Spanish and even Buuuuuuu! in Polish. The Italians wailers take a different cry (ueueueeee! ).

Stories about superheroes are full of people hitting each other. English punches go Pow! , while a good Spanish blow sounds like Pum! Depending on nationality, the person on the receiving end produces very different exclamations: the Germans shout Autsch! (like the English Ouch!), the French go Ouille! and the Polish cry Ala!

Attention: this article will autodestruct in five seconds. Five… four… three… two… one… Boom! (in English), Puff! (German), Bam! (Spanish).