Sequential Art & Telling A Story Without Words

Stories are something we all enjoy, whether we are the tellers or the listeners. And stories, as we all know contain words and sentences. But the method of storytelling is not limited by the mechanics of language, rather stories often require no words at all! So you might be thinking, "But how do you tell a story in another way? It's impossible!" And the answer to that, dear reader, is pictures, but more specifically sequential art.

Image 1: A page from the manga "Death Note".

So what is sequential art?

Sequential art is any kind of art form where pictures and images are shown in a specific order for the purpose of telling a story. For example comics, manga, animations are all forms of art which make use of sequential storytelling and as such are known as sequential art.

The term "sequential art" was coined by Will Eisner, the renowned comic artist in 1986 in his book Comics and Sequential Art.

Image 2: A page from the manga "Naruto" depicts a character before a sprawling cityscape.

Telling a story through manga panels

Comics and especially manga are one of the most popular forms of sequential art. Manga are noted for the overlap between dramatic moments and self introspection within complex storylines. And this can be achieved with visual narration happening within the panels.

In manga there are many boxes containing small images and texts, which are called panels. The panels can be spread out across two pages or can be in different layouts. These panels are the main driving force of the visual narration.

Image 3: A page from the manga "Haikyu!!" depicting a volleyball  

match between two teams through the panels

Manga cover stories from many different genres such as: horror, sports, thriller, action, fantasy, mystery, contemporary stories, slice-of-life etc. So the type of storytelling and paneling the mangaka or author is going for differs from book to book. Often times bold strokes and darker imagery accompany mangas focused on psychology and fantasy. Dynamic character designs and compelling storylines make the readers empathize with the character more in the shonen genre. Sports manga such as Haikyu!! tell stories about growing up and following your dreams through metaphors. Whereas the stories set in slice-of-life capture the mundane happenings of our lives with sweet and low contrast drawings of the characters. 

But regardless of what kind of story the mangas tell, we often follow our protagonists as they seemingly fall in less than normal situations.

Well how can I tell a story without words?

Well reader I hope I have so far managed to retain your attention to spread my love for manga! If you are interested to also create sequential art and comics I say to just go for it! Try to study some of your favorite artists and see how they create a story, maybe look through some youtube videos and articles from the pros and make stories as you go along. And above all remember to have fun!

And if you aren't interested in drawing then check out some comics and manga with amazing art:

Haikyu!! by Haruichi Furudate, Land of the Lustrous by Haruko Ichikawa, Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto, Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz, Chacha Chaudhary by Pran Kumar Sharma and The Adventures of Tintin by George Remy.

Thank you for reading!