This paper is based on the language of the graphic novel, Savage Town (Barrett et al. 2017), which is set in Limerick, a city in the south-west of Ireland. Its writer, Declan Shalvey says with Savage Town, he wanted to ‘treat Limerick the way the [HBO drama] The Wire treats Baltimore.’ Part of what contributes to the tone of realism and authenticity in The Wire is its attention to detail in terms of the representation of specific linguistic varieties in the city of Baltimore (Trotta & Blyahher 2011). The first aim of the study, therefore, is to identify how/if the characters in Savage Town ‘speak’ with a particularly local inflection, representing a localised, Limerick-based vernacular. The importance of not only considering the motivations of writers in representing local varieties but investigating localising features in systematic ways is key (Percillier and Paulin 2017). Where this local variety is concerned, there has been no systematic or scholarly description, reflecting, we contend, its marginalisation. Hence, we analyse what is being presented to the reader as emblematic of a local voice, through the representation of the language, and its related and relevant semiotic aspects arising from the complexity of the medium. Language is not the primary or even the most significant semiotic resource of the graphic novel. Comic narratives are complex, with the graphic novel described as cinema ‘without motion or sound’, with dynamic visual narratives propelled by the sequential presentation of images, and auditory phenomena such as sound, spoken dialogue and voice-over ‘rendered as text’ (Potsch and Williams 2012: 13). This paper illustrates the processes by which the language of the graphic novel can be extrapolated, examined and how localising features can be uncovered; it discusses the nature of these features, and their 'sociolinguistic salience' (Honeybone & Watson, 2013).