Panel (comics)

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A panel is an individual frame, or single drawing, in the multiple-panel sequence of a comic strip or comic book. A panel consists of one drawing that depicts a single moment. The customary sequence in daily newspapers is four panels, as in Doonesbury or For Better or For Worse, or three panels, such as Garfield or Dilbert. In Asia, a vertical 4-panel arrangement is common in newspapers, such as with Azumanga Daioh. In a comic book or graphic novel, multi-panel frames of many different sizes and shapes can be found. Examples of this are Batman, Spider-Man, Cerebus the Aardvark, Quackup, and many others.

Panel may also refer to a single-drawing cartoon published by a newspaper, by a magazine, or on the Internet; the usage is a shortened form of "single-panel comic". Often in panel comics, a character speaks a line, which is usually printed in a caption beneath the panel itself. Many panel comics are syndicated and published daily, on a newspaper page with other syndicated cartoons that are collectively known as comic strips. Major comic strips in panel format include The Far Side, Dennis the Menace, The Family Circus, Ziggy, Herman, and Ripley's Believe It or Not.

In this context, panels are contrasted with the more common comic strip format, which consists of an actual "strip" of multiple drawings that tell a story in sequence.