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Banes did a really interesting newspost about panel order and how we read comics- not just left to right or right to left but which panel flows to what and how you get the reader to go in the right direction when something isn't intuitive. We're all comic people and we host a comic site so this was perfect for us to tackle!
And as we talked it out we realised that clever panel layout can be employed to assist in true nonlinear storytelling. Film and TV attempt to do non-linear but can never ever truly do it, despite extreme degrees of wankiness with some writers film is simply a liner medium and will always be that way because it plays at a specific pace and that can't be changed within the medium. (you have to introduce external conventions like forcing people to skip to other parts). So whenever someone tells you a film does non-linear storytelling because of time-jumps or flashbacks, it's not true, it's always linear.
- Computer games trump both comics and film in this regard.
But I digress, comic layouts can be clever and confusing. They can enhance or hinder clear storytelling and communication in many ways. Do you experiment with layouts?
This week Gunwallace has given us a theme inspired by Explorer Chronicles - Prepare for a marvelous adventure! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, warm breezes tickle the air, wide green vistas spread out invitingly before you, the distance is lost in the morning haze. This is a light digital orchestra of joy, promise, and anticipation!
Topics and shownotes
Links
This was inspired by Banes' newspost about panels here - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/mar/06/how-do-i-read-this-comic-panels-flow-and-blockage/
Our own examples of strange panel layouts…
Bottomless_Waitress https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Bottomless_Waitress/5451939/
Without Moonlight - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Without_Moonlight/5719212/
Typical Strange - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Typical_Strange/5460237
Without Moonlight - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Without_Moonlight/5642287/
Without Moonlight - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Without_Moonlight/5691752/
Featured comic:
They’re Both a Kilogram - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2024/mar/05/featured-comic-theyre-both-a-kilogram/
Featured music:
Explorer Chronicles - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Explorer_Chronicles/ - by Aurorajames, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
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Quackcast 678 - Panel order!
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, March 12, 2024
Banes,
cultural context,
Drunk duck,
Explorer Chronicles,
Featured comic,
Featured music,
Gunwallace,
Kawaiidaigakusei,
Ozoneocean,
Panel order!,
Quackcast 678,
Tantz Aerine,
They’re Both a Kilogram,
Webcomics hosting
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plymayer at 11:22PM, March 13, 2024
@Ozoneocean I don't think it was because GF2 was poorly done. It was more like people rejected the back and forth because it was different and they were not used to it.
Ozoneocean at 11:06PM, March 12, 2024
@PaulEberhardt - There is ALWAYS more to learn with comics XD
Ozoneocean at 11:05PM, March 12, 2024
@JohnCelestri - whoa! That's a really creative panel arrangement!
Ozoneocean at 11:04PM, March 12, 2024
@Bravo- exactly!
Ozoneocean at 10:06PM, March 12, 2024
@plymayer That kind of parallel storytelling takes some skill in order to communicate correctly... the fact that's it was so hated might not have been because it was showing different points in his life at the same time but because it wasn't done well. We have to remember that telling stories with flashbacks and flash forwards wasn't new then, people have been doing that constantly for thousands of years.
PaulEberhardt at 8:42AM, March 12, 2024
Since Banes' newspost I've been re-reading Will Eisner's "Comics and Sequential Art" on and off, and it's fascinating how much more freedom you have to play with pacing, simultaneous or interwoven action and all kinds of other things than in any other medium - and how much of it I missed out on... AND how much of it I nevertheless did get right without ever fully realising.
JohnCelestri at 7:12AM, March 12, 2024
Panel placement is crucial in telling your story. For one particular page, I set up a top panel to establish the setting and then overlapped smaller panels within a larger panel to show the dialog between one character (Josh) talking with several others at distance from him. https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Bloodwing_Fire_Fist_Angel/5761761/
plymayer at 4:59AM, March 12, 2024
When the Godfather part II came out some folks hated it because it jumped back and forth between Vito's early 1900s storyline and that of Michael's pre-Castro storyline. Many did not like having to pay attention to two similar yet different stories - that were really one. The could not or would not see the parallels and differences. In the late-eighties a version of the movie that put all the sequences in chronological order was released on lasardic.
bravo1102 at 12:42AM, March 12, 2024
Movies are quite literally linear. It's a strip of film. Introducing anything nonlinear used to be done by literally cutting that strip of film.