The influence of writing systems on comics layouts

Abstract

Writing is a significant human invention claimed to affect numerous aspects of cognition, including the ordering of pictures. However, picture sequences like those in comics often have complex directional paths within their layouts. Here we therefore examine whether comic page layouts are affected by the directionality of writing systems and/or encode distinctive conventionalized patterns. Using the TINTIN Corpus of 1030 annotated comics from 144 countries and territories (14,311 pages, 76,361 panels), we observed that lateral directionality between rightward and leftward writing systems did affect the reading direction of comic page layouts. However, additional variance was observed particularly by Japanese manga, which showed a preference for greater right-to-left and down “S-paths” and increased vertical columns beyond the influence of writing systems. This suggests that, while writing systems may affect picture sequencing, visual narrative layouts can also be encoded above and beyond the influence of writing directionality.