Data Modelling and Analysis of Sequential Images Used in Comic
Books
Tu Xing
1a
, Yang Qian
2b
and Zhang Hongyu
1c
1
School of Art & Design, Shen Zhen University, ShenZhen, Guangdong, P.R.China
2
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
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5242-4567
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2322-1917
c
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
Copyright
c
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
ISAIC 2022 - International Symposium on Automation, Information and Computing
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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-
M
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-
M
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-
M
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
1%
3
0.5%
Action-A 88
15%
67
11%
Subject-S 404
68.7%
453
72.8%
4Scene-S 32
5%
41
6.4%
Aspect-A 50
9%
49
7.8%
Non-S 14
2.3%
11
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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