Graphic Novels Terms and Formal Elements

panel

An individual unit of comic narrative. Comics are made of single or sequences of panels.

Bleed

When a panel's visual components extend over its frame, an image has no frame, or the image fills a page.

Sequence

The deliberate order of panels to convey a graphic narrative.

Frame

the border around a panel of graphic narrative

gutter

the space between panels in a graphic narrative, used for infer plot, meaning, and action in a comic sequence. Readers "fill" the gutter to provide closure between panels and sequences

Juxtaposition

Placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts

Caption

a text box used in graphic narrative to indicate narration, context, or internal monologue. It serves as an alternative to a speech bubble, which provides spoken or thought dialogue.

speech bubble

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.

Closure

The resolution of a sequence of comics, providing a distinct or inferred ending to the juxtaposed panels, passage, chapter, or plot of a graphic narrative.

icon

the formal visual elements of a graphic panel, such as shapes, images, characters, words, or other interpretive components

abstract

icons or images that are not directly representative, but are open to interpretation or figure of thought.

realistic

icons or images that are directly representative of the context for which they are created.