Comic book sound effects: a list from real comics
Comic book sound effects are onomatopoeia: words like POW, BLAM and CRASH, lettered into the art so you can hear the panel. We counted the ones in the 42 books on our free streaming shelf, mostly American comics from the 1940s and 1950s. About 13 percent of their 8,939 panels have a sound lettered in them, 1,525 sounds in all. Here they are by kind, with how many of the 42 books use each word, any spelling, and what made the sound in the panel.
What are comic book sound effects called?
Onomatopoeia: words that imitate the sound they name. Letterers and editors mostly just call them sound effects, or SFX. They are drawn rather than typed, big, slanted and bursting out of the panel, because the shape of the word tells you how loud and how sudden the sound is.
What is the sound effect for a punch?
POW, BAM and WHAM do most of the punching. SLAP and SMACK are for open hands and jaws, and KONK or BOP for a knock on the head.
| Sound | Books | What made it |
|---|---|---|
| BAM | 16 | a heavy blow to the head, and once a far-off explosion |
| POW | 14 | a punch landing, and once a car being hit |
| WHAM | 11 | a heavy, thudding blow |
| SLAP | 8 | a hand across a face |
| SMACK | 6 | a fist on a jaw |
| THUD | 6 | a heavy blow to a body |
| KONK | 4 | a mallet on a skull |
| BOP | 4 | a quick hit on the head |
What is the sound effect for a gunshot?
BLAM and BANG, close to even. A machine gun gets a run of letters like RAT-A-TAT, and the bullet itself gets ZIP flying past or ZING off metal.
| Sound | Books | What made it |
|---|---|---|
| BLAM | 16 | a gunshot, from a handgun to a big gun firing |
| BANG | 15 | a pistol shot, and also a fist on a door or a hammer on metal |
| ZIP | 7 | a bullet flying past, and also something stretching fast |
| RAT-A-TAT | 6 | mostly a machine gun, in every spelling from RATATAT to RAT-TAT-TAT |
| ZING | 5 | a bullet ricocheting off metal, or an arrow whistling past |
| BUDDA BUDDA | 2 | a machine gun firing in bursts |
What is the sound effect for an explosion?
BOOM, by far. The bigger the blast, the longer the word: BAROOM and KABOOM are for bridges and tanks.
| Sound | Books | What made it |
|---|---|---|
| BOOM | 17 | an explosion |
| BAROOM | 6 | a bigger, echoing explosion, like a bridge going up |
| KABOOM | 3 | a tank being hit |
| KRAK | 2 | a sharp blast |
What are the sound effects for crashing, breaking and falling?
CRASH is the most common sound effect on the whole shelf. CRACK and SNAP are for things that break clean, and PLOP, PAF and SPLAT for bodies and wet things landing.
| Sound | Books | What made it |
|---|---|---|
| CRASH | 20 | a plate shattering, or a building coming down |
| CRACK | 16 | a branch snapping, or stone breaking |
| SNAP | 8 | a wire breaking, or a finger snap |
| PLOP | 8 | a body landing on soft ground |
| SPLAT | 6 | a wet hit, like a fist to a face |
| SMASH | 4 | something heavy breaking |
| CRUNCH | 4 | something crushed, like a shell cracked between teeth |
| PAF | 4 | a body hitting the ground |
What are the sound effects for doors, machines and phones?
Doors CLICK, SLAM, CREAK and get a KNOCK KNOCK. Metal goes CLANG and KLUNK, engines VROOM, and a telephone rings with as many Rs as the letterer likes.
| Sound | Books | What made it |
|---|---|---|
| CLICK | 13 | a latch or a doorknob |
| SLAM | 8 | a door crashing shut |
| CLANG | 7 | metal hitting stone |
| KNOCK KNOCK | 6 | a knock on a wooden door |
| CREAK | 6 | a straining hinge |
| RING | 6 | a telephone, spelled RING, BRRRING or RRRING |
| VROOM | 6 | an engine, from a scooter to a rocket |
| BZZZ | 6 | a buzzer or an electric current |
| HONK | 5 | a horn |
| SCREECH | 4 | brakes, like a train's on iron rails |
| KLUNK | 4 | something heavy dropped, like a gun hitting the floor |
What are the sound effects for air, water and smoke?
WHOOSH and SWISH for speed, SPLASH for water, and POOF when something vanishes in smoke.
| Sound | Books | What made it |
|---|---|---|
| WHOOSH | 10 | something fast through the air, spelled WHOOSH or WOOSH |
| SPLASH | 9 | a body hitting water |
| SWISH | 7 | a quick swipe through the air, or a car speeding past |
| POOF | 6 | a puff of smoke |
| POP | 6 | a cork coming out |
| FIZZ | 4 | an electric spark |
What sounds do people and animals make in comics?
The sounds that are not quite words: a GULP of nerves, a SNIFF, ZZZ for sleep, a YIPE of fright. Animals get GRRR, ROAR and MEOW.
| Sound | Books | What made it |
|---|---|---|
| GULP | 6 | a nervous swallow |
| SNIFF | 6 | a sharp breath through the nose |
| ZZZ | 6 | snoring |
| GRRR | 5 | a growl |
| ROAR | 5 | a roar, from a beast to an engine |
| YIPE | 4 | a yelp of fright |
| MEOW | 3 | a cat |
Why can one word mean different sounds?
Because the picture decides. On our shelf BANG is a pistol shot, a fist on a door and a hammer on metal. ZIP is a bullet flying past, and something stretching fast. CRACK is a branch and a stone. The word tells you the kind of sound; the art tells you what made it.
What are manga sound effects in English?
Manga letters its sounds in Japanese kana, and many of them name things that make no noise at all, like a glance. These are from the one manga on our shelf, Give My Regards to Black Jack, with how each word is read and what it was in the panel.
| Kana | Read as | What it was |
|---|---|---|
| ドクン | dokun | a heartbeat |
| チラッ | chira | a quick glance |
| スッ | su | a quick, smooth movement |
| ゴシゴシ | goshi goshi | scrubbing |
| パチパチ | pachi pachi | clapping |
| チュンチュン | chun chun | birds chirping |
| ザー | zaa | the hiss of static |
| ブォーン | buoon | an engine revving away |
Can I hear these sound effects?
Yes. On LiveComics each of these plays as a sound when its panel comes up, made from the word and the picture together, so a BANG on a door sounds like a door. The books they come from are on the free streaming shelf: hear a sample with no account, or stream them all with a free one. Turn on Sound captions and each one is also written out with what it is, like CRASH (a plate shattering).
How was this list made?
From the 42 books on the LiveComics free streaming shelf on November 8, 2026. When a book is prepared, the sound words lettered in each panel are read off the art, along with what is making the sound. We merged the spellings, so BLAM, BLAMM and BLAM BLAM BLAM count as one word, counted the books each word appears in, and wrote what each one was from those panels. Reading lettering is not perfect, so a few sounds may be missed or misread. The comics people upload to their own libraries are never counted.
Straight answers
What is the most common comic book sound effect?
On our shelf it is CRASH, lettered in 20 of the 42 books. BOOM comes next with 17, then BAM, BLAM and CRACK with 16 each, BANG with 15 and POW with 14.
What is onomatopoeia in comics?
A word that sounds like what it names, lettered into the art: POW for a punch, BOOM for an explosion, ZZZ for snoring, GULP for a nervous swallow.
What is the comic sound effect for falling?
The landing gets the word, not the fall: THUD for a heavy body, PLOP for soft ground and PAF for a body hitting the ground.
What is the comic sound effect for running?
Speed lines usually do the work and the running stays silent. When it gets a word, it is often ZIP or ZOOM, or footsteps like TOK TOK TOK.
Why are comic sound effects in capital letters?
Comics were long lettered in capitals throughout, dialogue included, and a sound effect is drawn bigger still, so its size, slant and shape show how loud the sound is.
Are there comics with sound effects you can actually hear?
Yes. LiveComics plays every lettered sound effect as a real sound when its panel comes up, with a soundscape under the scene, and the books on its free streaming shelf all play this way.
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