By sarah carney
comic books: layout Comic books are a visual medium. They combine pictures, symbols, and words to create stories in the mind of the reader. As such, comic book writers employ a number of tricks to evoke movement without actually moving, sound without actual audio, and time without actually progressing through time. In this book, we will explore the ways comic book writers succeed and fail at doing this through visual aspects like layout and symbolic effects. Essential to the reading of comic books is the layout. Comic books combine images with words in sequence. Structuring this sequence in a meaningful and effective way is crucial to successfully present a story.
The layout of comics consiste of an arrangement of panels. Panels are the basic unit of comic books. They are the separate images on a page that either have white space between them or overlap. Each panel represents one moment in time. The order of panels forms the chronology of the story, but there are many different ways to place panels on a page to form that order. these panels can be arranged in rows, clomuns, overlapping, within each other, and more.
Regular grid
a regular (uniform) 3x3 grid panel page from watchmen #4, drawn and lettered by dave gibbons. this layout is easy to read, since all the panels are the same size.
the differences in layout are often distinguished by the shapes they create in between the panels.
irregular grid
An irregular grid still fits this general grid layout, but it has different sized panels. Irregular 3-row comics, like this example from xmen ,are some of the most common.
diagonal
on this xmen page, neal adams uses diagonal layouts for his panels. in this style, there are no columns and rows.
combination
there is no shortage of different layouts of comic books. many, like this superman panel are combinations of different aspects of different layouts.
reading path
as english readers, we read left to right. The same is true regarding comic books. the way we read comics, rightward and downward, is called a z-path because it rezembles a ‘z’. however, different layouts can change the order in which we read comic books.
z-path
panel layouts
above shows different aspects of comic layouts. on the right is a graph showing how these aspects affect the use of a typical z-path. the higher the bar, the more likely readers are to use the z-path when that aspect is present.
z-path
path with blocking
blocking famously poses the most challenge for reading order. here are two alternate ways to read blocked panels. on the left is the z-path and on the right is the more typical reading of this layout.
although This iron fist comic is presented in a regular grid, the reader does not follow z-path because the movement of the character guides the eye to snake through the panel. this is an example of art interacting with layout.
this comic by jim steranko flaun path by using color to guide th from color to color reflects t page. since there is no linear st to be definitive order.
panel layouts are not the only tools to ensure that the reader is following the right order of panels. comic book artistsi often use their art to convey their story. Aspects like motion and color can guide the reader’s eye when done well.
nts the traditional reading he eye. this matches the jumping the atmospheric content of the tory here, there does not need
This unusual layout evokes an almost vertigo-like spiraling sensation that parallels the main character’s emotions
to be continued...
The two-page spread is reserved for especially important scenes. this spread is from volume two of “invincible� by robert kirkman and cory walker.
Context is key...
Comics have become increasingly digital. comics are often now published both physically and digitally. the tools for creating comics have also become more digital. sometimes this means that comic book artists create the comics with just a digital format in mind.
on the right are two pictures of a two-page spread in an xmen comic. on the top is the digital version of the art, and the bottom shows the physical copy of the book. Here we can see a mismatch between digital and print versions of the same art.
The “Comic Font”... The
“Comic book font” does not really exist. THere are many different comic fonts. However, Lettering in comic books is heavily influnced by the lettering of artie simek and sam rosen, the letterers of the 1960s marvel comics. they wanted a font that would be legible even when printed on cheap paper and printed small. the solution was to use all-caps so it wouldn’t bleed on cheap paper. letters became fairly squat since they were drawn by hand with ink nip pens.
They designed this font with a height goal for each of the letters in mind. they drew lines to guide the height of the letters.
notice how when newsapers of the time printed with lowercase letters, some of the letters bleed together. the a’s and e’s often bled together. comic letterers made their letters upercase to help legibility. this meant they could fit a lot of information in a smaller space
comic fonts do tend to share a few characteristics. for example an ‘I’ alone will be crossed, but in a word it will not be. Both italics and bold are used for emphasis
& other effects!
written information in comics is usually communicated in two ways. for dialogue, speech balloons (or speech bubbles) are the way to show which character is speaking. for thoughts, narration, and exposition, caption boxes are used. Comic artists employ these features in creative ways. often, the caption boxes have different styles to reflect time periods and different characters. the color, texture and shape of speech ballons can also reflect emotions and volume. Comics also include certain effects that convey motion, sound, and action. THese include onomatopoeias like “bang” and “Beep” as well as motion lines.
The many shapes of spe Telepathy balloon: in this comic, the speech ballons signify professor x communicating through his mind. this is on of his powers and the artist conveys this with thought bubbles combined with dynamic lines
small dialogue in a big balloon indicates that a character is speaking quietly or whispering
sound effects are a hallmark of comic books. they can convey sound as well as motion and the feeling of a certain effect.
eech balloons dialogue bubbles are etremely important in comic books. they are the bulk of written words and can often drive the story. there are a few general rules for these speech bubbles: 1. speech bubble “tails” point to the character speaking 2. connected bubbles indicate a continuation in the conversation 3. bubbles generally follow the z-path order
“breath” marks are used when a character sighs or coughs
SOmetimes authors use double outline balloons with color to emphasize the dialogue or the emotions of the character.