*Contains Minor Spoilers for the One Piece Manga*

The medium of comic books and/or manga is one of the most unique forms of entertainment out there. Visual like a film but detailed like a book, graphic novels are a beloved pastime for many. Though their golden age has passed, modern comics and manga have stood the test of time because of their one-of-a-kind qualities. One of these defining qualities of the medium is paneling. Yes, the little squares that house the story of a comic or manga are just as expressive and interesting as the stories themselves. Understanding paneling is one of the first steps to understanding what is so special about the medium of graphic novels.

Flow Through Panels

The most important job of comic or manga panels is to establish a smooth flow for the reader, conveying the narrative in a way that is clearly interpretable and paces it correctly. Crafting a good panel-to-panel feel for a graphic novel is step one to its success, as that feel stops confusion in readers, which could risk killing engagement and diminishing sales. GlobalComix user ARTCRUMBS said as much in his community post “Creator Tips and Tricks #7: Paneling and Flow in Comics,” where they explain, “Any type of disruption in that flow can knock the reader out of the experience and possibly cause them to stop reading. That’s obviously the last thing that we want.” So, how do creators in the medium craft flow in their panels? There are a multitude of methods to do so, but the most popular ways all have a quality in common: they take advantage of the defining aspect of the medium. What separates graphic novels from films or regular novels is self-pacing. They allow one to visually observe a story and analyze it like a movie, but allow readers the room to dictate how quickly that story progresses like a book. Panels are just pockets of visual storytelling that make that effect real, and how they flow is just a mental trick by graphic novel creators to help readers experience their story in its intended form while still letting them experience that narrative at their own pace. Acknowledging that basic truth of the medium, and viewing methods of crafting flow through that lens, makes panel flow make sense. With that basic information now known, methods of flow can be examined fully.

Grid Layout

Arguably the most popular method of creating panel-to-panel flow is the grid layouts many graphic novels often use. Grids consist of a number of panels equal in size filling a page (the number can vary, but nine is quite common). The main benefit of creating flow through a grid is how understandable they are, as they’re by nature a simple way to layout panels on a page for readers and creators. The same-sized panels mean every story beat in a grid has the same emphasis, never causing readers to jump to something more striking and possibly lose what would have been an impactful moment to a simple error in reading. The content within a grid’s panels tends to make the order of them clear, thus making a panel-to-panel flow high in pure readability. This all serves to make the self-pacing characteristic of graphic novels very easy to establish, as readers can easily find their rhythm in a grid.

Staggered Layout

The staggered layout is extremely prolific in graphic novels, and the way they create flow helps sell the impact of certain panels while still being quite readable. This is because panel size actually affects the perceived emphasis of certain panels, with smaller panels usually being more subtle details (such as small movements), while large panels tend to be reserved for bigger things happening in the narrative (such as a powerful attack or very important story beat). Staggered layouts take advantage of this aspect of the medium, as they simply make a group of panels that differ in size. This can help action segments feel more fluid, pivotal plot points be more highlighted to readers, and much more. By controlling the perceived emphasis of panels, staggered layouts ensure a rapid and natural flow from panel-to-panel. This form of creating flow also has an interesting effect on self-pacing, as the way it highlights certain panels gives readers a sort of “movie cut-off” feel to their reading. It is more difficult to establish a self-paced rhythm within staggered layouts than in grids, but once that pace is set, pages using the layout start to feel like expertly drawn animations.

There are many more methods to make panel-to-panel flow not mentioned above, but grids and staggered layouts are some of the most popular choices. The way they make self-pacing easy or thoroughly entertaining, respectively, is the glue that keeps most graphic novels together, making their narratives almost appear alive. Gorgeous, expressive, and abstract visuals are one of the main draws of comics and manga, and combining that with flow through panels is the key to making the medium as enjoyable to consume as it is. Therefore, using the explained methods of creating panel-to-panel flow, or any other less utilized options, is something that adds plenty to any graphic novel.

Content In Panels

While the content of a graphic novel’s narrative may seem to have little relation to the panels that contain it, they actually have a bit of a symbiotic relationship with each other. As stated earlier, content can help with flow through panels, but panels can also be used to enhance content visually and in terms of clarity. One of the biggest examples of panels doing that can be found in how they affect the narrative impact of a moment. Looking at that shines a light on how much good paneling can improve content.

Narrative Impact

Narrative impact (in the context of this article) simply refers to how important an event in a story is to a character, the larger plot, or both. The quality of content in a story has a lot to do with how much narrative impact specific moments have, and good paneling is often responsible for conveying to readers what moments are narratively impactful. This usually takes a subtle form, with the size of more important panels dwarfing less important ones regardless of content or generally spending more time than usual detailing small things. For example, in the very first chapter of Eiichiro Oda’s legendary manga “One Piece,” an argument between the story’s protagonist Luffy and his idol Shanks covers some of the first pages. Many variations of the staggered layout are used, all just to capture the character beats of the whimsical dialogue. One Piece doesn’t usually spend so much time on comedic moments without progressing the main plot at all, but by giving this particular event so much attention, it wordlessly explains that it’s a narratively impactful moment the readers should pay attention to. Doing that helps the audience understand the characters of Luffy and Shanks at a baseline level and makes the Gum-Gum Pistol Luffy pulls off at the chapter’s end feel meaningful. That’s just one example of how panels can help the narrative impact of content, but there are many other instances just as palpable.

Paneling seems simplistic, but in truth, it is very complex. The amount of creativity that goes into creating flow and enhancing content purely through panel work is equal to the many artistic beats that make up anyone’s favorite comic or manga. The defining aspect of the medium allows graphic novels to have a unique way of entertaining people and for incredibly expressive and readable storytelling.