Comics present fragmented moments, and the reader mentally connects them across the blank space (the gutter) between panels, supplying the action and continuity that was never drawn. This act of participation, called closure, means the reader actively co-creates the events rather than passively receiving them.
Transitions between panels can be classified by how much closure they demand: moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, aspect-to-aspect, and non-sequitur. The type chosen controls pacing and how much inference the reader must perform to bridge the gap.
Stripping an image down to a simple cartoon does not drain it of meaning but focuses attention on specific intended meaning. The simpler and more abstract a face, the more readers can project themselves into it, which is why cartoon characters invite identification more than photorealistic ones.
In comics, physical distance across the page functions as duration: a wider panel or more space between elements reads as more elapsed time. The layout itself becomes a map of time, so where something sits spatially signals when it happens.
Text and image can relate in varied ways: word-specific (pictures illustrate text), picture-specific (words add a soundtrack), duo-specific (both say the same thing), additive, parallel, montage, or interdependent where neither conveys the idea alone. The most powerful combinations are interdependent, where words and pictures together say what neither could say apart.
A medium should be defined by its intrinsic capacities, not by the subject matter it has historically carried. Comics are a container (sequential images arranged to convey information or response) whose limits come from unexplored potential rather than from the juvenile or trivial content long poured into it.