i actually have strong opinions about newspaper comics but like next to no familiarity with comic books
me talking about sunday funnies: oh my god. this composition is so plodding. this space would be better used by showing us what the TV is saying. not only would that set the scene, giving the punchline something to tie back to, but it would mean that we don't have to stretch one sentence over four panels. there simply are not that many breaths or points of interest in these sentences. this is especially true with the perspective shifts between panels. they seem thoughtless-- typically they're formally necessary to give our eyes variety, but they add a massive sense of motion to reading this extremely simple sentence. especially because the main character appears to turn so much between perspectives.
me talking about comics: holy shit the wolverine. this is just like in Scott Adams' Understanding Comics
As someone who was heavily influenced by newspaper strips and didn't really absorb comic books (and even then only the indie, non-superhero kind) until I was in college, I feel seen by this
Condensing time, space, and motion into a few panels is harder than most people think. I try to think of a panel as a moment in time as a part of the story and the time between panels is fairly flexible depending on how much time is passing in the story. If one moment is happening at the same time I sometimes blend two perspectives into one panel to show that it's a single moment. I also pull lots of influence from manga as it has a very clear visual language that shows motion and focus. Plus I use the "yonkoma" (vertical 4 panel) format as it is almost perfectly set up for reading while in a social media feed.
