Reading and Literature Studies · Reading Informational and Graphic TextsReading Graphic Novels and Comics: Panels, Gutters, Lettering and Framing
2.2 2.1 1.4About 70 minutes
Learning goals- I can use comics vocabulary: panel, tier, gutter, splash page, caption box, balloon, SFX, lettering.
- I can explain closure and make inferences about what happens between panels.
- I can explain how lettering, balloon shapes and framing shape my view of characters.
- I can analyse how layout develops meaning on a graphic memoir page.
Words to know
panel
A single frame in a comic, showing a moment or short stretch of time.
gutter
The space between panels.
closure
The reader's act of inferring what happens between panels (Scott McCloud's term).
splash page
A single image that fills a whole page.
lettering
The style, size and weight of the words in a comic, including balloon shapes.
framing
The choice of view in a panel, such as close-up, long shot, bird's-eye or worm's-eye view.
graphic memoir
A true life story told in comics form.
Hook: the space between
In one comic panel, a hand reaches for a cookie jar. In the next, the jar is empty and there are crumbs on the counter. Nobody drew anyone eating the cookies. You did, in your head, in the white space between the panels. Comics and graphic novels are built on that teamwork between the artist and the reader. This lesson gives you the vocabulary to explain how graphic texts make meaning, and how much you add to them.
Remember from Grade 10
In ENG2D you learned that caption boxes give narration, speech balloons give dialogue, and panel size controls pace. Grade 11 adds the gutter and closure, lettering and balloon styles, framing (shot types), page layout and colour, and asks you to analyse graphic non-fiction: graphic memoirs, journalism and history.
The grammar of comics
- Panel: one frame, a moment or a short stretch of time.
- Tier: a row of panels.
- Gutter: the space between panels.
- Splash page: a single image filling a whole page, for a big moment.
- Caption box: narration, time and place, or a narrator's thoughts.
- Speech balloon: dialogue; the tail points to the speaker.
- Thought balloon: a cloud shape with a trail of bubbles; a character's private thoughts.
- Sound effects (SFX): drawn words for sounds (SCRAPE!), often part of the art.
- Lettering: the style, size and weight of the words.
In English comics, read left to right, top to bottom. (Japanese manga are read right to left.)
Closure: the reader's part
Comics creator and theorist Scott McCloud, in Understanding Comics (1993), used the word closure for what readers do in the gutter: they infer what happens between panels. The bigger the jump between two panels (in time, place or idea), the more the reader must imagine, and the more involved they become.
This is why comics can show difficult events with restraint. An artist can leave the hardest moment in the gutter, trusting readers to understand it without seeing it.
Lettering, balloons and framing
The curriculum asks how font styles in speech bubbles shape your view of characters. Letterers use:
- Size and weight: big, bold letters for shouting; small letters for whispers.
- Balloon shape: a jagged burst for shouting or alarm; a dashed outline for whispering; a wavy or dripping outline for weakness or sarcasm; a box-shaped or electronic-looking balloon for a robot or a voice on a radio.
- Font: a shaky, scratchy or old-fashioned font can make a character seem nervous, ancient or menacing.
Artists also choose framing, like a camera: a close-up for emotion, a long shot for setting, a bird's-eye view to make a character look small, a worm's-eye view to make one look powerful.
Worked exampleLet's analyse a graphic memoir page
Here is a description of an invented page from a graphic memoir about a teen's first winter in Canada.
Panel 1 (small): caption box: January. My second week in Thunder Bay. A girl in a thin jacket stands at a bus stop. Long shot: the street is huge and empty.
Panel 2 (small): close-up of her face, eyes squeezed shut. Thought balloon: Nobody told me cold could hurt.
Panel 3 (small): an older woman in a parka holds out a knitted toque. Speech balloon, small, plain letters: You'll need this.
Panel 4 (wide, the whole bottom tier): the two of them on the bus, side by side, both in toques, with frost patterns drawn on the window around them. No words.
Analyse how the graphic features develop the page's meaning.
- Caption box (panel 1): sets time and place and shows the narrator's adult, reflective voice looking back.
- Framing: the long shot in panel 1 makes her look small and alone in a huge cold space; the close-up in panel 2 brings us inside her discomfort.
- Thought balloon: Nobody told me cold could hurt gives private feeling she does not say aloud, so readers know more than the woman at the bus stop does.
- Lettering (panel 3): small, plain letters make the stranger's kindness quiet and matter-of-fact, not dramatic.
- Gutter between panels 3 and 4: we never see her put on the toque or the bus arrive. Closure: we infer acceptance and connection.
- Wide wordless panel: the bigger size slows the reader at the emotional turning point; the silence lets the image (two people, matching toques) carry the theme. Inference: belonging can begin with small acts of kindness.
Layout, framing, balloons and the gutter together move the page from isolation (small, wordy, close panels) to connection (one wide, silent panel). The theme is shown, not stated.
Graphic non-fiction
Graphic texts are not only fiction. Graphic memoirs (Art Spiegelman's Maus; Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis), graphic journalism and graphic histories use the same tools to tell true stories. Métis writer Katherena Vermette's graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo, illustrated by Scott B. Henderson, is historical fiction rather than non-fiction, but it brings real Métis history to life through a present-day teen who finds herself experiencing past events. When you read graphic non-fiction, ask the same critical questions as for any informational text: Whose story is this? What sources did the creators use? What does the art add that words alone could not?
Just for funRiddle: Which part of a comic book never says a word but is responsible for half the story?
The gutter. Strong, silent type.
Hands-on activityMake a four-panel page
You need: a sheet of paper, a ruler, a pencil and an eraser. (Stick figures are perfect.)
- Choose a small true moment from your week (missing the bus, a surprise text, the first snowfall).
- Rule the page into four panels: three small and one wide for the most important moment.
- Include at least: one caption box, one speech balloon, one sound effect, and one gutter jump where the reader must infer what happened.
- Use lettering on purpose: make one line a whisper or a shout.
- Show it to someone at home. Ask them to tell you what happened in the gutter. Did they infer what you intended?
What to look for: a wide panel at the key moment; a gutter that requires closure; lettering choices that change how a line is heard.
Your turn
The space between panels.
2What is closure, according to Scott McCloud?
The reader's act of inferring what happens between panels, in the gutter.
3Why might an artist make one panel much wider than the others?
To slow the reader and give emphasis to an important moment.
4How would you letter a whisper? A shout?
Whisper: small letters, often a dashed balloon. Shout: big, bold capitals, often a jagged burst balloon.
5In the memoir page, what does the long shot in panel 1 suggest?
That she feels small and alone in a big, cold, unfamiliar place.
6Why is the last panel of the memoir page wordless?
Silence lets the image carry the emotional turning point (connection, belonging) and slows the reader to feel it.
7Which is read first in an English comic: the top-right or the top-left panel?
More practice: warm-up
1What does a caption box usually contain?
Narration, often time and place or a narrator's thoughts.
2What shape is a thought balloon?
A cloud shape with a trail of small bubbles.
A single image filling a whole page.
4What does SFX stand for in comics?
5Which shot shows emotion on a face most clearly?
More practice: on your own
1Explain how closure works in the cookie-jar panels.
Panel 1 shows a hand reaching for a full jar; panel 2 shows an empty jar and crumbs. The reader infers someone ate the cookies, even though it is never drawn.
2How does the stranger's small, plain lettering in panel 3 shape your view of her?
It makes her kindness seem quiet, practical and unshowy; she's not making a big deal of it, which makes the gesture feel genuine.
3Why might a graphic memoir leave a painful moment in the gutter?
To show restraint and respect, and to let readers imagine it, which can be more powerful than seeing it directly.
4A villain's speech is lettered in a dripping, uneven font. What effect does this have?
It makes the character seem menacing or unnatural; readers judge him as threatening before they process his words.
5Name one question you should ask when reading graphic non-fiction.
Any one: Whose story is this? What sources did the creators use? What does the art add? What is left out?
Challenge
1Explain how the four-panel memoir page uses layout to show a change from isolation to connection.
The first three panels are small and full of words (caption, thought, speech), with framing that isolates her (long shot, then close-up). The final panel is wide and wordless, showing two figures side by side. The layout itself opens up, mirroring her shift from feeling alone to feeling connected.
2Argue whether graphic novels require more active reading than prose. Use the term closure.
Sample: in many ways, yes. Prose usually narrates the steps of an action in words; comics often leave key steps in the gutter, so readers must constantly perform closure, and must also read images, layout, lettering and framing at the same time as the words. A balanced answer notes that prose demands other skills (imagining settings from words alone).
3Redesign panel 3 of the memoir page so the stranger seems intimidating instead of kind, using only framing and lettering. Explain your choices.
Sample: a worm's-eye view looking up at her, so she towers over the girl; her balloon in large, bold letters with a jagged edge: YOU'LL NEED THIS! The low angle makes her powerful; the shouting lettering makes the same words feel like an order, not a gift.
Quiz
1. The space between comic panels is called the...
3. A jagged, burst-shaped balloon with large bold letters usually shows...
4. Why might an artist use a long shot of a character on an empty street?
5. In English-language comics, panels are usually read...
6. A wide, wordless panel at the end of a page most likely...
What this lesson teaches: ENG3U Reading 2.2 (text features of graphic texts, including how font styles in speech bubbles shape views of characters), 2.1 (characteristics of the graphic novel and graphic memoir forms) and 1.4 (inferences, including closure between panels).
How to help at home:
- Graphic novels count as real reading. Ask your teen to show you a page and explain what happens between two panels.
- Compare how a newspaper comic strip and a graphic novel use space differently.
Common difficulties:
- Reading only the words. Ask: What does the picture tell you that the words don't?
- Ignoring lettering and layout. These are deliberate choices.
Facts used: Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics (1993) introduced closure for reader inference across the gutter. Maus (Art Spiegelman) and Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) are graphic memoirs. A Girl Called Echo is a graphic novel series by Métis writer Katherena Vermette, illustrated by Scott B. Henderson. The comic page and the memoir page are invented for this lesson.