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Realized I was reading comics in the wrong order for 10 years
Was flipping through a friend's Absolute Batman and he pointed out I was going from splash page to splash page instead of following the dialogue bubbles. Ever catch yourself missing story beats because of bad reading habits?
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quinn5822d ago
The bigger problem is when different artists use different panel layouts and people never adjust. Like if you grew up on manga where you read right to left, then jump into a Western comic with a weird zigzag layout, your brain just defaults to whatever feels natural. I had a buddy who thought Spider-Man was fighting a different villain for six issues because he kept skipping the top left panel on every page. Publishers should really standardize this stuff or at least put arrows for people who zone out.
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angelafisher2d ago
I get where you're coming from, but I see it differently about standardizing layouts. People have been reading comics for decades with all kinds of panel setups, and part of the fun is figuring out how the artist wants you to follow along. Adding arrows or making everything the same would take away some of that creativity and surprise. Your buddy's story about Spider-Man is funny, but six issues is kind of on him for not catching on after the first couple of pages. I think it's more about paying attention than the publishers needing to fix something that already works for most folks.
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