phrases. - The Official GlobalComix Blog

A great story and beautiful art are easy things to identify as part of what makes a good comic or manga. However, have you ever thought about the simple turning of the page? It’s something we do dozens, or a hundred of times when reading a single comic or graphic novel. For large omnibus editions, it can be a few hundred pages turns! I bet you didn’t even notice you were doing it!

One important factor in building great pages is the page turn, how to KEEP readers reading and make them want more. There are a few tricks that we can use to make our readers to engaged that they don’t even notice they are turning pages. The smoother your reading flow is, the better off...

In our last article, we covered some of the basics of Komawari and paneling for manga, such as reading direction, manga’s grid systems, sandangumi and yondangumi, gutters, the concept of rough and dense pages and misegoma, having one panel as the main focus of the page.

Today we are going to dig deeper into the less common aspects of paneling manga: the primary manga layouts, Oblique panels and Ma panels. None of these are “unique” to manga and can be used in western comics, however their use is more common in manga and can really help yours stand out from the crowd.

With that intro, let's dig in!

Basic Panel Layouts

Using the basic knowledge of the...

So what is Komawari?

Paneling for manga is done in the same spirit of western comics: creating a smooth experience for the reader. However, the thought process behind how it is done is a little different. “Koma” themselves are the panels. Komawari refers to the layout as a whole, and its flow.

From san-dangumi to wakusen there's a lot to cover. With our intro out of the way, let's get started!

Reading direction

The most notable difference between the two is the reading Direction.

Most manga does read right to left, traditionally. However, there is a movement of “Manga-inspired comics” that are in a manga style, but read left to right like...