Heartstopper is a coming-of-age love story by Alice Oseman. After a year of bullying after being outed, Charlie Spring starts a new year at Truman Grammar School for Boys. Here he meets and befriends Nick Nelson, an upperclassman who — much to Charlie’s bewilderment — is nothing but absolutely friendly and kind to him. As they become closer friends each passing day — as well as teammates on the rugby team at Nick’s insistence — Charlie can’t help but fall for the ever-growingly affectionate yet presumably straight Nick. As Charlie tries to keep his feelings in check, Nick finds himself unable to keep away from Charlie and starts on his own journey of self-discovery and acceptance.
Why is texting such a prevalent feature in the story?
Suffice to say, technology has become an intrinsic part in everyday life since the the Industrial Revolution, and since then, writers were quick to notice the changes that these advancements were having on society, not only in the way that people lived and worked, but also in the way they communicated. New devices like the telegraph and the sonograph, and new writing techniques like shorthand responded to the growing need for faster communication and documentation. They also provided fascinating new media for stories — both in their telling and in the tales themselves — such as in Bram Stoker’s Dracula where the telegraph was essential in his defeat. These days, texting (the telegraph’s contemporary descendent) might not play such a pivotal role in fiction, but it does provide a rich, layered narrative and visual medium, especially when employed in comics.
Credit: Alice Oseman
A three-panel page.
First panel: A chat window with a conversation between Nick and Charlie
Nick:
But you don’t have to
If you don’t want to
But I am your friend and I do care
Charlie:
Okay
Might be a bit of a long story lol
Nick:
I don’t mind
Second panel: Charlie holding up his phone, blushing, looking like he’s about to cry.
Third panel: Nick illuminated by the light of his laptop, looking anxious and tired eyed.
The use of texting in a comics is interesting because of how it transforms the medium. Communication in comics is mostly done by dialog through speech bubbles. These bubbles are non-diegetic, they do not actually exist in the realm of the story. They are for the readers to understand what the characters are saying. Texting, on the other hand, is diegetic: these words are real for the characters, and the readers can interact with them. Contrary to a face-to-face conversation where verbal and non-verbal communication work in tandem, texting allows the speakers to separate their tone from their emotions, as seen in the panels above. If one were to read the text thread on its own, Nick may come across as being in a caring and eager mood, while Charlie might seem as unaffected about telling his story with Ben. The next panels, however, depict how vulnerable Charlie really is and how torn up Nick is with worry.
Credit: Alice Oseman
A six-panel page.
First panel: A text from Nick that reads “Not a problem” followed by a smiley face and heart emoji.
Second panel: A close-up of Charlie looking down at his phone, smiling and blushing.
Third panel: A close-up of Charlie’s phone as he’s typing “I love talking to you.”
Fourth panel: A close-up of Charlie’s phone, but now he’s typing “I’m so glad we’re friends.”
Fifth panel: A close-up of a thumb hitting the backspace button.
Sixth panel: Nick’s “Not a problem” text with a single heart emoji as a response from Charlie.
To return to the original query: why is texting so prevalent in Heartstopper? The most shallow answer would be because they characters are phone-obssesed teenagers, and that texting and high school settings go hand-in-hand. A not-as-shallow answer would be because texting is a part of everyday communication, and to not feature it in a contemporary, realistic setting would immediately deprive the story of any claim over realism. The more complex answer this post is going for (which hopefully comes across as well thought-out) combines the previous two but would also add that it is because texting is also a form of sequential art. From the previous panels, from just a glance, it is easy to read both Nick’s exploration of his feelings and Charlie’s caution concerning his own. By taking the place of speech bubbles, the panels can feature the details of the texts, what’s written between the lines, and the raw emotion of the characters.