What are the beginning and endpoints of the page?.

It’s literally a wall that says to the reader “here is a complete idea, read it and move onto the next.” When I lay out a page, I will think about: By containing that idea, it is separating that idea from the one previous and the one before. Beyond the contents of a panel, it is a storytelling tool by itself. The contents of each panel should be a complete thought, but sometimes the thought you need for a panel can fill a paragraph or be as short as a single word. Its job is to contain an illustration that puts forth an idea. The panel is the border that wraps around a single moment in a comic.

We achieve this through character movement, character acting, and how and where we choose to begin or end scenes and sequences but one of the overlooked tools of storytelling is the panel or frame, and it’s silent partner, the gutter.

A good story needs pacing, flow, and balance. Other ways panels can be used to tell a storyĪs a comic artist, I have come across many different ways to tell a story.

Comic life 3 landscape