Words
This comic book element is responsible for drawing the text and determining how much space it occupies in a panel, including the balloon shape and font.
What is a letterer?
This term refers to any image—including symbols, letters, and numbers—used to represent a person, place, thing, or idea in comics.
What is an icon?
This term refers to the space between panels in a comic book, where human imagination transforms two separate images into a single idea.
What is a gutter?
This term, proposed by comics artist Will Eisner, describes art forms that use images presented in a specific order for the purpose of conveying information or graphic storytelling.
What is sequential art?
This professional is responsible for interpreting the writer's story into drawings during the penciling phase of comic book production.
What is a penciler?
This type of text box conveys important context like setting, background information, or narration—it may also give voice to the narrator.
What is a caption box?
This professional adds color in the final stage of comics production, and their choices can largely impact the story, especially as technology has advanced beyond black and white printing.
What is a colorist?
This term describes a full-page illustration often used at the beginning of a comic to introduce the story and establish setting and mood.
What is a splash page?
Closure refers to the act of interpreting meaning by filling in the gaps in a single panel or between two or more panels. Through this process, the reader becomes an active this of the storytelling process.
What is a participant?
When a speech bubble has a dashed outline and dashed tail, it typically conveys dialogue spoken at this volume.
What is a whisper?
This cloud-shaped speech bubble with small circles connecting it to a character's head is used to convey a character's thoughts or internal dialogue.
What is a thought bubble?
In traditional comic book production, this artist outlines the penciler's drawings, adds depth, and uses dark lines and shadows to draw the reader's eyes to points of focus.
What is an inker?
This compositional choice refers to the number, shape, size, and organization of the panels on a page.
What is layout?
In comics, violence does not necessarily occur on the page; instead, the reader interprets it through their imagination. This makes the reader an equal partner in this act.
What is the crime (or the act)?
An illustration that spans across more than one page is called this, while a full-page illustration often used to introduce a story is called a splash page.
What is a spread?
Another word for a sound effect, this literary device is a word whose sound mimics its spelling—examples include "SOCK!" and "CRASH!"
What is an onomatopoeia?
This term describes the way some images draw the reader's attention more than others, often through shading, color, patterns, or movement.
What is graphic weight?
When an image extends to and/or beyond the edge of a panel or page, this visual technique is being used.
What is a bleed?
Some forms of closure are deliberate inventions of storytellers to produce this, while others happen automatically as part of everyday reading.
What is suspense?
According to a University of Oregon study, comic books contain more rare words per thousand than this type of literature, making them valuable for vocabulary development.
What are children's books?
In comics and graphic novels, the written text in speech bubbles and captions relies on all of these same techniques as traditional novels, such as grammar, figurative language, and tone.
What are literary devices.
Every artist has their own unique approach to their work. This term describes whether art is realistic or cartoony, the expressions on faces, character gestures, background details, and use of color.
What is artistic style (or style)?
This term refers to the artistic arrangement of components in a comic book to express the story in the most effective and meaningful way through intentional choices about page layout, content presentation, and graphic weight.
What is composition?
In the gutter between panels, the reader's imagination takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea. This fundamental concept of comics is called...
What is closure?
This term describes the way an artist presents text through the shape of the speech bubble, the outline style, and the font choice to help develop how a character speaks and sounds.
What is lettering?