Is a comma needed after an italicized thought as it is with a quote?

Solution 1:

Yes.

Italics serve basically the same purpose as quotes: to set off the "quoted" part (whether it's spoken words or just thoughts) from the rest of the sentence. The punctuation in both cases should be the same.

From GrammarBook.com:

Internal dialogue is used by authors to indicate what a character is thinking.

Direct internal dialogue refers to a character thinking the exact thoughts as written, often in the first person. (The first person singular is I, the first person plural is we.)

Example: “I lied,” Charles thought, “but maybe she will forgive me.”

Notice that quotation marks and other punctuation are used as if the character had spoken aloud.

You may also use italics without quotation marks for direct internal dialogue.

Example: I lied, Charles thought, but maybe she will forgive me.

And from this rather Stack Exchange-like site (albeit without citation):

Thought dialogue follows the same punctuation rules as a speaker's dialogue minus the quotation marks.