Otorrhagia
Otorrhagia — bleeding from the ear canal — seems to be a recurrent theme in recent comics. It’s been showing up for at least twenty years, but it seems to have become more common lately.
Otorrhagia is not a very common symptom; I see maybe one or two cases a year (and most of those are self-inflicted Q-tip-related trauma). There are a variety of causes, including (in no particular order): basal skull fracture, trauma to the ear canal, tumors of the auditory canal, certain aneurysms, infections of the ear canal, and ruptured ear drums (especially from barotrauma – i.e. pressure).
Comic books add several more causes of otorrhagia:
1. Psychic attack
Not as common as the psychic nosebleed, which it usually accompanies. Here is a classic example of the psychic ear bleed, from the X-Men graphic novel God Loves Man Kills.
2. Sonic bombardment
Another common cause of comic book otorrhagia.
This example is from Cyborg #2
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3. Extreme Vertigo.
Poor Invincible, not only does he have so dizzy he can’t think straight, but his ears are bleeding. It turns out the vertigo is caused by an implant in his ear, so that could be the cause of the bleeding (but if that’s the case then the surgeon who put it in should lose his license for sloppiness). Neither can explain the nosebleed he gets a few panels later though.
4. Possession/Reincarnation by a New God.
I’m not sure what the proper term is in this case, but whatever it is, Turpin’s ear is bleeding pretty heavily (from Final Crisis #2).
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June 28th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Could sonic bombardment result in a ruptured ear drum?
June 28th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I can see the Wrath of Khan giving kids nightmares! I was freaked out by the earwigs in “Night Gallery”
The Caterpillar (1972). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0660843/plotsummary
I slept with my hands over my ears, for several nights. I was afraid that a pregnant earwig was going to nibble its way from one ear canal to the other. I can readily imagine young children thinking that Ceti Eels are lurking behind the fish tank, just ready to pounce.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:05 am
I suspect comic book artists and writers have been listening to Hawkind’s Sonic Attack.
“These are the first signs of sonic attack:
You will notice small objects – such as ornaments – oscillating
You will notice vibrations in your diaphragm
You will hear a distand hissing in your ears
You will feel the need to vomit
You will feel dizzy
You will have difficulty focussing
You will need to breathe more rapidly
There will be bleeding from orifices
There will be an ache in the pelvic region
You may be subject to fits of hysterical shouting or even laughter”
June 30th, 2008 at 11:18 am
“Dey put t’ings in our ears! Yeeeaaaaggghhhhh!”
~P~
PTOR
July 1st, 2008 at 6:34 pm
[...] – A bad case of the earbleeds. [Polite Dissent] [...]
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:22 am
Superman bled from his ears after repeated magical lightning strikes from Captain Marvel in Kingdom Come.
December 18th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Hearing someone recite that *&^%$#@! dialog from panel 4 would probabl cause ear bleeds. The real interdimensional crisis at DC was when they let Kirby run amock.
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