Comics are both a medium and a language of their own. Whether comics are a single panel or an entire book, they have unique strengths to communicate ideas of all kinds. Here are some fundamental elements to consider.
1. The PANEL communicates a single moment, action, or idea. It’s like an individual sentence in relation to the panels around it. Together the panels are like a paragraph, contained by a FRAME, or panel border of some kind.
2. A reader shares control with the cartoonist over a sense of RHYTHM and TIME on the page—this dance is what makes comics unique among storytelling forms. Panels can be arranged in a simple grid to communicate an even rhythm. Or panels can have irregular shapes and sizes, which change the reader’s pace and focus.
3. The GUTTER is the space between panels. Our brains process the gutter space like punctuation in a sentence. It’s the element where the magic happens, linking each panel’s ideas and details to the ones around it. Visuals from a panel can BLEED into the gutter or off the page, making the reading experience more intense.
4. Text is often shown in CAPTIONS for narration, SPEECH BALLOONS for dialogue, and THOUGHT BUBBLES for a character’s private thoughts, which only the reader is allowed to see. (Some cartoonists might prefer not to use one or more of these elements.)
5. SOUND EFFECTS and other sensory elements can be added wherever the cartoonist wants to enrich the reading experience. Comics have a unique ability to visually communicate the senses of sound, touch, taste, and even smell in a purely visual medium!
Most important, comics are a very accessible way to communicate: Anyone can make comics with nothing more than an idea and something to draw with and on. You don’t even need to be able to draw well—an effective comic mostly relies on organizing your thoughts, thinking about details, and asking “What happens next?”