comic

📅 Updated:2026-02-15

🕒 Created:2011-06-19

🆔 ID:1627

Description

thumb #1554239 thumb #672692 thumb #1526406

Tagged for posts that tell a story with sequential panels of events or dialogue. Note, however, that a single panel can take up an entire page (i.e., an entire post) of a multi-page comic. However, the single-panel pages must still retain some comic structure, such as frames or page numbering.

Comics should be "pooled":/pool/index together.
The cover of a comic pool should be tagged as cover page.
For single-page stories that don't use panels or that have decidedly shallow narratives, tag sequence instead.
If a sequence of posts lacks comic elements such as frames and page numbering, it's just a pool instead of a comic.
Character count is tagged by the scene. For example, if the page depicts three characters having dinner at the same table, it should be tagged as a group even if they're shown in separate panels. Likewise, if a single character is seen three times in three separate panels, it still counts as solo.

Do not confuse with

comic_book - depiction of an actual printed comic book
multiple_images - post contains two or more unrelated images

[quote]
WARNING ! Some of the listed tags are subject to deletion. See topic #55734 for more details and related discussion.
[/quote]

Comic features

Panel concepts

A comic panel is a drawing that represents a frozen moment in time. A panel is sometimes described as a frame for the purpose of counting panels.

Specialized panels

borderless_panel (open panel) - The term for an unframed comic panel.
cutaway - A context dependent frame showing additional content within a scene, usually an inset.
fade_panel - A black, white, or greyscale panel used to imitate a fade transition.
horizontal_panel / vertical_panel
inset (currently aliased to cutaway) - Any comic panel that is fully contained within another image. See also panel_overlap

Design themes

panel_interaction - Interacting with the gutter space, or the panel itself in some creative way.
panel_overlap - A panel that overlaps another panel.
panel_skew - Adjacent panels sharing a slanted border.
panel_symmetry
panel_tilt - A panel that has been rotated.

Content themes

Content generally refers to anything contained within a comic panel (excluding insets, and usually narrative graphics as well) with a primary focus on the scene, and its characters. Several concepts are organized based on whether a concept relates to the comic panel container itself, or its contents.

content_repetition
interaction_between_panels - The concept of being aware or interacting with entities between two separate frames. See also breaking_the_fourth_wall.
outside_panel - This will be a WIP group for now.
- object_between_panels

Layouts

A comic layout is the specific organization of panels on a single page.

Components of layouts

A layout component is a feature of a comic page that may only partially describe the layout of the page.

blockage_(layout)
- horizontal_blockage
- vertical_blockage
separation_(layout) - A term for comics that don't space panels in an orderly way. Panels may not be aligned in a consistent way that fills the entire page evenly leaving abnormal blocks of space between the panels. The regions between insets over a page-sized borderless panel may qualify as gutter space.
staggered_grid
staggering_(layout)
- horizontal_staggering
- vertical_staggering