Hello, everyone, and welcome to Panel by Panel, a periodic exploration of comic panels around The Duck.

It's always a treat when I see something done in comics I haven't really seen before. It's not exactly a rare thing, but when you have read as many comics as I have, for as long as I have, it is harder to see something you haven't before. Because of this, when something is done in a way you're not familiar with, it tends to stand out, and that was my experience with the comic Rettubia this week.

Here is a brief example of what struck me:



Rettubia by Szyszka666 is a fantasy comic that features heavily textured art, detailed character designs, and minimal backgrounds with an overall darker aesthetic thanks to the black margins and gutters between panels. I am looking at the panel from Episode 8, Page 8.

Now, I have seen similar comics, but what I found most interesting is the unique mix of objects breaking out past the boundaries of a panel while also maintaining a border - creating some very irregular framing that stands out. It's not something I can remember seeing much of. It's like the border that makes up the panel is malleable to the objects within but still manages to constrain them.

Objects extending beyond the boundaries of the panel are not rare in comics. I've known these to be called panel breakouts, which we've discussed before. I've used them occasionally, and they can create a lot of visual interest in what otherwise may be an assembly of boxes that make up a page. But the unique take of the integrated border, despite the rejection of the boundary of objects within, is interesting to me.

There are more dramatic examples of this in Szyszka666's comic, just as there are more subtle ones. A good example of it is on page 10, only a couple of pages removed from the prior example.



I am unsure if I would ever do something like that myself, but it caught my attention. It certainly works well enough for Rettubia. What do you think?

If you want to find earlier editions of Panel By Panel, click here.
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