Manga Panelling

A series of thoughts relating to the topic of manga panelling. Hadn't been posting a lot recently, that's a trend that will probably continue.

First time I read manga was way zoomed in on an online reader service. This is just how most of them are, often way too zoomed in, so you gotta scroll down to actually see the whole page.

I didn't question this at first, but enough dumb reading later I was thinking "You know, why the hell do this?" It's a page. It's a single object. You're meant to see the whole damn thing at the same time. It's weird to scroll down from some piece of dialogue only to then see the image it's actually attached to, or vice versa. Drawings that take up an entire page can't even be viewed properly like this. Whoever's genius idea it was to make it so that a page had to be scrolled down should be kneecapped.

Next I questioned why I was bothering to read one page at a time. The 'single object' is actually two pages. You're meant to see two pages at a time. Granted it's not drafted this way, but it's still designed around this core principle. So, I went from single pages to reading two pages at the same time, and this massively effects the look of how all of the pages flow. For example, you actually understand how pages turn and why certain panels become the way they are.

Last, I questioned why I was reading this in English. If you're like me and you completely despise translation and localization practices, then you might have beat your head against the wall hard enough to have gained the proper amount of retard points required to think that this is a good idea. It was meant to be read in Japanese, and tha panelling reflected this, being read right-to-down-to-left.

I actually ran into someone's analysis of a certain page of Urushibara's Waters. Haven't yet read it myself, but the page itself is pretty self explanatory. Here, the red line and numbers are meant to trace which panels the average viewer is likely to read first, based on how people's eyes move.

If you're used to reading left to right like anyone who is literate in English, then manga gets rather confusing with it's right to left layout. But, it's something you can adapt to quickly enough. What's less well known is that Japanese isn't really read like this but more like this:

Vertical columns. You start from the right, then go up, down, and move to the left. This is why manga are read right to left, they follow this reading order. Now you could make a manga read left to right if you wanted to, but it usually comes with the penalty of destroying the art since not everything can be convincingly flipped. Some authors did this anyways, like Katsuhiro Otomo did, redrawing entire panels if need be to fit with left to right reading.

But it's notable because if you did consider how the first example was meant to be read, you may notice that the '2nd' panel that an English reader's eyes may naturally fall on last is actually below the first. You start at the first, then following the reading order you go down, and then you go to the left where your eye is caught by a speech bubble placed over the komawari.

Hoxtranslations translates things so he probably knew this. At least I hope he did. I got caught up in the same issue reading it the first time so I won't really hold the analysis against him.

I was never big into webtoons. I decided to look at some recently. Boy did they ever look like shit.

I'll be honest with you, it's not the cheesy plots or 'samey' character designs or whatever other thing that could be easily fixed by the author themselves. It's the panelling.

I realize what makes the webtoons format separate from just being comics is that it's meant to be read on your phone. Like, you sit on the toilet and you open up Webtoons and from there you read the next piece of Lvl 99 God Killer (He Is Dead And I Have Done It).

Phone screens are very annoying to look at. They're tiny, obnoxious, and a big portion of the useful bits can be taken up by your finger at any given time. I've had to design parts of this website for phones and I can tell you that it's annoying, regularly having to dick around with random variables that can easily break without you even noticing.

For comics, what this means is that you can see a single panel at any given time. A single one. Giving an example, a single page can realistically hold like 20 or so panels if you cram em in like sardines. Often the lowest they will ever go for a normal page is 3. Pages might go for single panels but authors pace themselves because constantly using single panels is a waste of both paper and the emotional weight that they can carry.

A single panel opens up a work. It gives this sort of wide open breath that's amazing to introduce scenery with, or suddenly set an emotional tone, or cap off a sentimental moment. It attracts eyes.

Pages with multiple panels show action, movement. A single, large panel can slow down time but many very small panels all in the same location can show time moving fast. It takes your eyes less time to get across them, after all, and that speed of reading has a large impact on how fast events seem to take place.

Consider the following pages from Yotsubato!:

This is all just very simple analysis but hopefully it's clear that layout is very important to comics. It's not just about making things look good, it's about making a story that's told good too. It's about pacing and the imagined events taking place within the reader's head.

So. Given all of that. Take a quick look at whatever random chapter of Tower of God you please. I choose Tower of God because it seems to be very popular and I want Webtoons to have the strongest argument possible against what seems to be a fatal flaw of its design.

How interesting, it's all vertical scrolling. Well, I've read vertical scrolling comics before, so that's fine. What's not fine is how spaced out every single goddamn panel is.

You view the top of a panel, which is mostly comprised of some dialogue. Then you scroll down some more, and view the middle of it, which is the picture you're supposed to get. Then you scroll down again and there's some more dialogue. The dialogue and the picture can't be on screen at the same time because it's made for phones, and the text needs to be as large as possible to be properly read on a phone. Then you're thrust into empty whitespace to separate the panels, and it all begins again.

This is the equivalent if you were watching a film, and for some random reason it cuts to black every 5-10 seconds and all of the audio stops. Then, 2 seconds later, the film resumes. Maybe a cool trick to use every now and then, but for the ENTIRE FUCKING MOVIE?

That's all I can think of reading this. Putting aside that I obviously don't know what's happening in the 230th chapter of the work, it's just disgusting to even try to read. My mental image of it is screwed up because as far as the webtoon is trying to imply the dialogue and actions are all as spaced out as possible. There is no coherent passage of time because the distance I have to travel to get to the next panel makes it seem like everything is taking 10 years to happen.

I'm told that this format has its advantages. For example, you can make interesting layouts with vertical scrolling, and imply the passage of time in an interesting way. Haha, yes, indeed, you can. This layout needs to be used with more traditional, side-by-side panelling for that to matter. With the absolutely abysmal way it looks now, that feeling of time dialation just fucks up the reader's suspension of disbelief entirely.

Cutting to a raised arm slamming down on a table doesn't feel like an instantaneous action when there's a GIANT WHITE SPACE inbetween them, and this isn't even including if there's dialogue there too.

This is just how webtoons are. This is what the "format" amounts to. It's made for convenience, not artistic creativity. It's made to be easy for people to think about so that the average creator doesn't have to put in the effort to figure out how panelling works, and it's made to be easy to scroll on a phone so you can look at the comics when you're taking a dump or something.

Maybe a bit more controversial than the last point, I never really liked the pacing of the Marvel comics I've seen either. They're very dialogue heavy in a way that's confusing and undynamic. I think this is just a problem with Marvel, maybe modern DC too.

I've heard this comes from every comic having a separate main writer/main artist, and the writer is not a visual person in the slightest. They think the only thing that matters is dialogue, and they write a lot of it, and it's up to the artist to somehow make any sense of that.

The artist, wanting to phone in his job as much as possible, makes wide panels and then uses that to fit in as much dialogue as he can. He has more important things to do.

The result is a lot of panels where someone will talk your ear off about (plot point) and the only thing you'll actually see is Dicky Dutchoven and his trademark smirk.

Instead of fitting dialogue to a scene, or showing and not telling, a lot of people will just stand around and talk, and then there's long dialogue prescribed to a panel of what would've otherwise came across as a rather quick action.

I don't wanna come across like an asshole who sounds like they don't wanna read too much but it's a comic and it's visual and these sorts of things have ramifications on how the story gets digested. If the dialogue just suddenly changes to some weird direction then that should be shown visually with another panel so that the actions can keep on going.

It's a balance obviously, showing every little action isn't necessary as long as the broad strokes of what's going on are given and the emotional weight of the story is properly being set, but god fucking damn does it feel like wading through mud when there's a panel of Spiderman jumping in the air and he's just fucking monologuing to himself like he's in Shakespeare. It really makes me feel like he's whipping through the town when there's just a single panel, and it's just Spiderman staring at you with his stupid face, and he's just casually talking about whatever the plot is in his head while frozen in mid air.

I'm probably very biased, I grew up reading manga not Marvel. If I did maybe I'd be used to it or have a different opinion on it by now. If there's anything that stops me from being immersed in Marvel's stories its this stupid nonsense that pops up. I just think it's way too much when every single panel is half comprised of just goddamn talking.

Using an old example is probably a little crazy, but it's Stan Lee so I think people would like it, right? Modern stuff isn't much better. Arguably it's worse.

Complete 180 on that but 4komas are good.

I see a lot of people shit on 4komas. I don't know exactly why. Maybe it's because they're associated with genres that are often thought of as 'trashy' or 'weeby' or whatever dumb buzzword gets used by the Reddit brigade. It's stuff like your comical slice of life stories and gag strips.

The 4koma is simple and today it serves a direct and very obvious purpose: you use kishoutenketsu to set up a joke. You can fit two per page for a total of 4 per page flip, and that allows for a bit of chronological continuation and doubling up on punchlines for a single scenario, or create a vareity of strips based around a single event.

As for the whole kishoutenketsu thing, it's a big story structure thing I've yet to get around to once again properly talking about, but for 4komas it's too important to pass up. Basically, it boils down typical manga story structure into a small bite and it can be used to set up tons of different scenarios. It's four words that basically mean the following:

1. Ki - Introduction, set up the scenario.
2. Shou - Expansion, explore the scenario.
3. Ten - Turn, complicate the scenario.
4. Ketsu - Conclusion, finish off the scenario with a final beat.

It's really best explained via example. Here's one from Azumanga Daioh.

The first panel explains Chiyo is the last in a tug of war competition. The 'introduction', setting up our scenario.

The second shows Chiyo trying her hardest at her job. Obviously she's struggling, expanding on the introduction by showing it's not really easy for her.

In the third panel, Chiyo is struggling the most. It leaves the reader with a few quick questions. Where'd the other girl go? Is Chiyo finally getting the advantage?

And the fourth takes all that setup and leaves us with Chiyo getting drug into the dirt. Poor girl.

People can have their expectations on what a 4koma might be like painted by our newspaper strips and whatnot, but really underneath it works to an entirely different angle. You have to look at it from a more observational perspective rather than thinking that there's no joke or setup because someone didn't make a knock knock joke or a gag or what not.

Obviously it's not my favorite panelling ever but its simplicitly is easy to appreciate. Azumanga obviously felt constrained by this format which is why he ditched it so heavily for Yotsubato!, previously pictured above.

You know, if there's any digital comic format I've really appreciated, it's the way the Valve comics work, particularly the TF2 ones. I have 0 idea what it's called, but it's the way the entire comic can dynamically change and reveal itself via a simple press of the spacebar, the cinematic way it reveals itself. It stays true to being a comic, unlike say Icarus Needs (see: flashpoint) which is more of a videogame styled like a comic, but really changes how the story unfolds itself and it seems much less chained to what a comic is often thought of being.

You can see them for yourself here, assuming you haven't already read them. The format starts with Blood Brothers, everything else is done in typical webcomic fashion.

It can come up with dialogue, but then cut that out to focus on a full panel, and then expand on that panel with some more taps of the spacebar. It can hide an entire section of the page and suddenly and dramatically reveal it, allowing for open emotions.

On top of this the panelling is just good in general. It'd work fine as a normal comic. I've never really felt like it's gotten too wordy even with the capability to remove excess dialogue from a scene. Perhaps that's just the power of this dynamic-comic format.

On top of this, it's comfortable. The formatting is perfectly designed to immerse you into the story, there's no needless scrolling nor is there obnoxious page loading to wait through. As you could probably guess from the Webtoons rant, comfort can be difficult to get on the PC, and TF2's comics handled it flawlessly. I mean, just look at the difference between the old-style TF2 comics and the post-Blood Brothers dynamic flipping. The old style of comics makes good use of vertical scrolling, sure, but it can still be rather obnoxious to read.

It's so genius, it might actually be too genius because I have never ever seen anyone talk about it. Maybe people who read TF2 comics haven't read that many other comics because barely anyone makes any mention of this. That, or I'm just not looking up what the proper term is, but I've gone as far as even looking at TVTropes because I was certain those little obnoxious assholes and their perchant for labelling fucking everything would lead to a term for this, but no it didn't.

There's really no unique trick to this. They simply comprised every page as a single rendered image, and it worked. You can even download a comic archive of it and it still keeps the same formatting.

Maybe it's not very special and I'm just stupid but the only place I've seen it is within Valve's comics, and the only ones of those anyone cares about are the TF2 ones.