Data Modelling and Analysis of Sequential Images Used in Comic

Books

Tu Xing

, Yang Qian

and Zhang Hongyu

School of Art & Design, Shen Zhen University, ShenZhen, Guangdong, P.R.China

School of Business and Foreign Languages, Shenzhen Polytechnic, ShenZhen, Guangdong, P.R.China

Keywords: Visual Language Grammar, Sequential Images, Visual Narratives, Comics.

Abstract: Sequential images used in comic books are not simple cases of composing single images together. The

motivated sequential images contained meaningful information to attract people and suit their reading

behaviour. Previous research argued that the way of sequential images used in comics belong to a visual

language used in the visual narratives, and panel transitions between sequential images in comics have been

considered as a basic structure of visual language. Our study used major types of panel transitions to research

the difference of visual language usage between the genres of seinen and shonen comics through accounting

their frequency of appearance in 18 books. The results showed that each type of panel transitions recur in both

genres of comics. However, some of the particular panel transitions have been found different proportions of

usage in each genre, which implies that each genre constitutes their own preference of the structure of visual

language.

1 INTRODUCTION

Sequential images are art forms that use images

displayed in a specific order for the purpose of visual

storytelling. They record the information of

continuous motion dating back as far as ancient

paintings. In contemporary society, sequential images

appear in many different occasions, especially in

comics. It contains codes, symbols and logical

consecution which are considered as a visual

language. The ways of sequential images used in

comic books have been investigated by many

researchers. The comprehension and cognition of

visual narratives have been conducted and

summarized the structure of visual language.

However, the difference of genre’s visual language,

like in seinen and shonen comics, are rarely

investigated.

The artform of comic books combines narrative

and visual art to construct vivid realms. Visual

language is one of the most active research areas in

narrative and visual art of comics and has many

applications. The representation of visual language

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5242-4567

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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5765-437X

used in comics facilitates the transmission of

information that helps readers rapidly to get the core

plot from comic story clips.

2 RELATED WORKS

The way of sequential images used in comics is a

complex phenomenon appearing on visual language

grammar showing many different forms.

Cohn (Cohn,1999) argued that conventionalized

sketching system in comics, constitute visual

languages that are comprehended in analogous ways

to language. Later, Cohn (Cohn,2013) further

expounded that comics are designed in visual

language of sequential images that combined with

symbols and text depending on contemporary

theories of linguistics and cognitive psychology. As

far as we concerned, individual words contain a great

deal of meanings in language, but the real power of

language comes from its sequence. Visual languages

use a lexicon of order with symbolic meaning stored

in human’s memory, strategies for reshaping these

Xing, T., Qian, Y. and Hongyu, Z.

Data Modelling and Analysis of Sequential Images Used in Comic Books.

DOI: 10.5220/0012018000003612

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Automation, Information and Computing (ISAIC 2022), pages 699-702

ISBN: 978-989-758-622-4; ISSN: 2975-9463

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

699

orders to meaningful images. The structure of visual

language comes from the coherent expressions of

sequential meaningful images. Using multiple images

and their suitable visual language grammar can create

a cohesive meaning of comics.

3 THE VISUAL LANGUAGE

GRAMMAR OF COMICS

Based on contemporary theories of linguistics and

cognition, visual narrative contains attractive

information by using visual language to attract

audience which is more efficient than other

storytelling methods.

Visual language can be said to have a ‘grammar’

is hotly debated (Kress and Van, 1996; Forceville,

2020) Posits visual language of comics largely have

structure. The grammar of visual language used in

comics is different in the highly specific sense than

human language. It constrains sequences to present

meaning in ways that make sense. The logical order

of sequential images has been used in comics contains

semantic information. It helps reader experience and

understand the story.

This research explains how differences of visual

language in use to comics. The major approach to

explore the secret of visual language grammar was

popularized by Scott McCloud (Mccloud,1993), who

hypothesized that sequential images of comics which

contain symbols can be derived from the linear

relationships between panels. The structure of visual

language grammar could be accomplished through

six major types of ‘panel transitions’ which are

moment to moment transition, action to action

transition, subject to subject transition, scene to scene

transition, aspect to aspect transition, non sequitur

transition. Those major transitions are considered as

basic structure of visual language. The above panel

transitions have been used in this study to evaluate the

difference of the form of visual narratives in seinen

and shonen comics.

4 METHODS

4.1 Materials

To test whether and how visual language grammar

used in comics, we set survival rules for data

collection. First, we found authoritative website

“www.oricon.co.jp” to arise out the frequency of

different type of Sequential images from top sales

volume in comic books which collected from the

website of comic sales ranking lists. Second, we used

a statistical method that took 20 pages of comics from

each comic book per year from 2019 to 2021. It is

found that different comics have their own rates to use

panel transition.

Figure 1: A example of selection of panel transitions

Genres of comics are often delineated by the age of

intended audience such as shonen and seinen.

Different genres have their own expected methods for

comic storytelling. Shonen comics normally take on

adventurous themes including sports, fantasy, or

scenarios that often revolve around competition. In

contrast, seinen comics pay more attention to the

emotional and psychological states of their characters

(Brenner,2007; Drummond,2010; Prough, 2010).

In terms of visual language grammar, Shonen and

seinen comics having different methods for

storytelling. The structure of visual language in

Shonen and seinen comics are different across many

dimensions of visual narrative. One noticeable

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difference has found which is the usage of sequential

images.

4.2 Data Analysis

This research focusses on how difference of usage of

visual language grammar between shonen comics and

seinen comics, we used a statistical method by

counting the frequency of appearances of different

“panel transitions” of comics. Averagely, 20 pages

per book, with around 66 panel transitions were

recorded from shonen comic books. 20 pages per

book, with around 69 panel transitions were recorded

from seinen comic books. Overall, we recorded for

360 pages and around 1214 panel transitions from

both shonen and seinen comic books. Table 1-6 show

the frequency of appearance of panel transitions in

different shonen and seinen comics.

Table 1: One Piece serialized in Shonen Jump

One Piece 2019 2020 2021

Three-years

average

Moment-M

0 0% 0 0% 1 2% 1 1%

Action-A

12 24% 3 24% 10 20% 35 23%

Subject-S

29 58% 33 60% 27 54% 89 57%

Scene-S

2 4% 2 4% 2 4% 6 4%

Aspect-A

3 6% 5 8% 6 12% 14 9%

Non-S

4 8% 2 4% 4 8% 10 6%

Table 2: My Hero Academia serialized in Shonen Jump

My Hero

Academia

2019 2020 2021

Three-

years

average

Moment-

0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%

Action-A

12 19% 16 8.75% 10 20% 35 23%

Subject-S

45 73% 33 77.5% 27 54% 89 57%

Scene-S

4 6% 2 4% 2 4% 6 4%

Aspect-A

1 2% 5 8% 6 12% 14 9%

Non-S

0 0% 2 4% 4 8% 10 6%

Table 3: Jujutsu Kaisen serialized in Shonen Jump

Jujutsu

Kaisen

2019 2020 2021

Three-years

average

Moment-M

1 1% 0 0% 0 0% 1 0.4%

Action-A

13 15% 7 8.75% 2 10% 22 8.8%

Subject-S

65 71% 62 77.5% 59 77% 186 74%

Scene-S

4 4% 2 2.5% 9 11% 15 6%

Aspect-A

8 9% 7 8.75% 9 11% 124 9.6%

Non-S

0 0% 2 2.5% 0 0% 12 0.8%

Table 4: Kingdom serialized in Seinen Jump

Kingdom 2019 2020 2021

Three-years

average

Moment-

0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%

Action-A

15 20% 12 15% 7 8% 34 14%

Subject-S

59 77% 55 69% 63 76% 177 74%

Scene-S

0 0% 4 5% 4 5% 8 4%

Aspect-A

2 3% 9 11% 8 11% 118 8%

Non-S

0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 10 0%

Table 5: Kaguya-sama: Love Is War serialized in Seinen

Jump.

Kaguya-

Sama

2019 2020 2021

Three-years

average

Moment-

1 1% 0 0% 1 2% 2 1%

Action-A

7 10% 4 6% 4 7% 15 7%

Subject-S

48 67% 55 80% 46 75% 149 75%

Scene-S

5 7% 6 9% 6 10% 17 8%

Aspect-A

3 4% 1 2% 3 4% 17 5%

Non-S

8 11% 2 3% 1 2% 111 5%

Table 6: Golden Kamuy serialized in Seinen Jump.

Golden

Kamuy

2019 2020 2021

Three-years

average

Moment-M

1 0% 0 0% 1 2% 1 0.5%

Action-A

0 0% 12 19% 6 10% 15 10%

Subject-S

42 74% 36 56% 49 79% 149 69%

Scene-S

7 12% 7 11% 2 3% 17 9%

Aspect-A

8 14% 11 14% 4 6% 17 12.5%

Non-S

8 0% 0 0% 0 0% 111 0%

4.3 Results

Across our research materials, all types of ‘panel

transitions’ are appeared both Shonen and Seinen

comics. The frequencies of panel transitions usage

per comic book remained roughly the same across

both Shonen and Seinen comics.

The most used panel transitions in comics in our

materials were subject to subject transitions and

action to action transitions. While rest of panel

transitions were more balanced across genres.

The significant differences were found in the way

of using panel transitions between shonen and seinen

which are subject to subject transitions and action to

action transitions. Shonen comics used more action to

action transitions on their visual narratives. In

contrast, Seinen comics used more subject to subject

transitions on their visual narratives.

Data Modelling and Analysis of Sequential Images Used in Comic Books

701

Table 7: Panel transition usage in shone and seinen comics.

Shonen Comics Seinen Comics

Moment-M 2

0.5%

Action-A 88

15%

11%

Subject-S 404

68.7%

453

72.8%

4Scene-S 32

6.4%

Aspect-A 50

7.8%

Non-S 14

2.3%

1.5%

5 CONCLUSIONS

This study focus on the proportions in using different

“panel transitions” in the visual language of comics.

The result showed that shonen comics and seinen

comics have their own expression of structure of

visual language. We also found that these “panel

transitions” in shonen comics and seinen comics have

common properties.

The results can be interpreted that panel

transitions represent a different information of the

broader abstract visual language which contain the

logic reading habits of comic readers by their ages.

REFERENCES

Cohn, N., 2013. The Visual Language of comics:

Introduction to the Structure and Cognition of

Swquential Image, Bloomsbury. London. UK.

Kress, G., Van, L., 1996. Reading images: The grammar of

visual design. London: Routledge.

Forceville, C., 2020. Visual and multimodal

communication: Applying the relevance principle.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

McCloud, S., 1993. Understanding Comics: The Invisible

Art Harper Collins, New York, NY.

Brenner, R.E., 2007. Understanding Manga and Anime.

Libraries Unlimited. Westport. CT.

Drummond, M.A., 2010. Manga: An Anthology of Global

and Cultural Perspectives. Continuum Books, New

York.

Prough, J. ,2010. Manga: An Anthology of Global and

Cultural Perspectives, Continuum Books, New York.

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