Graphic Novel Terminology

Panel

Refers to the framed image. It offers the reader a perspective or point of view on the subjects also known as the camera angle. Sometimes panels do not have borders, creating a unique effect where the subject seems to stand outside the storyline.

Splash

A kind of panel that spans the width of the page. If it runs off the page entirely, it is known as a ‘bleed’.

Voice over

Narrators have the possibility to speak directly to the reader through a voice over. Usually this is done with a hard line separating the narrator’s speech at the top or bottom of a panel from the image within the panel.

Speech bubble

These are frames around the characters’ language, a kind of ‘direct speech’, where the characters speak for themselves. If these appear as clouds, they represent the character’s thoughts. If they appear in jagged lines, the character is shouting.

Emanata

This term refers to the teardrops, sweat drops, question marks, or motion lines that artists draw besides characters’ faces to portray emotion.

Gutter

This refers to the space between panels. Readers tend to ‘fill in the blanks’ and imagine what happens between panels, a process known as ‘closure’.

Icon

Any image used to represent a person, place, thing or idea

Moment to moment

Action to action

Subject to subject

Scene to scene

Aspect to aspect

Non-sequitur