Keskustelujen arkisto

In the beginning, in the early fourties, Barks (and other Disney comic artists) originally drew stories with 3 tiers. But the format was soon changed to 4 tiers, because one wanted to save paper in the war. The story with the kites, drawn by Barks originally with3 tiers, was even cut down by the editors and published in 4 tiers in "Walt Disney's Comics & Stories". (In the Collected Works Edition it was restored.)
Italian stories usually have 3 tiers because most Italian Disney comic books have pocket book size!
Actually I never racked my brains why it should be anything else then 3 or 4 tiers in usually "strict" layout: for me it's always only the question if it should be in that way 3 or 4 tiers, since the size of Disney publications varies between large-size album and pocket book. 2 or 5 tiers would be, however, too extreme for both, I guess ...
I don't know if therer is anything like a "rule" at Disney, I guess it's just simply convention that the stories appear like that. Actually one does find stories where the layout of pages falls out of the line a bit, especially Italian ones (such of "experimental" character and with a "dynamic" touch), but think also of some pages showing circus scenery in Barks's "Big Top Bedlam".
You've probably read in fact too much superhero stories that the question arises for you. I hardly ever bothered about superheroes who aren't as far as popular in Europe as they are in America. In other comic series that are popular here, especially Franco-Belgian series like Asterix, Lucky Luke, Tintin, the layout uses to be orderly and reader-friendly, too ...

The illegibleness of the stuff because of layout frippery is what annoys me more than often when I am in the comic special shop and flip a bit through all those (high-price) "art" comics. And I do not think that it is in every case the intellectual complexness and exclusiveness of the work that causes the reading problems ... ;)
Superheroes have conquered some space in the last years but are at least here, still in a minority position. What, however, has its own tricks of reading and what seems to have rised up like a comet in the last years here are mangas. One sees whole masses of that stuff in cheap make-up in the country's newsstands where 15 and 20 years ago was practically the exclusive realm of Donald Duck, Asterix and Lucky Luke. Decadence ...

In the 1940s and 1950s, a lot of the artists drew on large paper in half-page segments. In the 1960s more started drawing on whole pages that are smaller in total size than the two half-pages put together. The half-page (A3) is as big as 2 A4 letter sized sheets (a small % larger than comic book page size). So, Barks drew at more than 4 times printed size. Current artists average drawing closer to 3 times the printed size, and most that I know of draw on whole pages. Drawing on half-pages disallows having a tall panel spanning the middle tiers.
I like to draw on half-pages. One can draw small details much more easily on the larger size.

That looks like 4-tier in your example, with shaving one tier thinner to make a thicker splashpanel.

I've drawn in all three formats (3-tier, 4-tier, and dynamic) and each has their own advantages and disadvantages.
3-tier allows for greater room in the artwork at the expense of story space.
4-tier allows for a far greater amount of story to go in one space, but the artwork is drastically cut down at that level unless you do what Rosa and Barks did and draw on half pages.
The problem with half pages is that it doesn't really allow for a dynamic layout design.
Dynamic Layouts allow you to achieve things you could NEVER do in a 3 or 4 tier layout BUT if done wrong your page can be not that easy to follow, and not everyone really knows what they are doing when they do it, resulting in messy and/or cluttered layouts.
I've seen the benefits and disasters of all three personally and professionally so I cant really say which one is my favorite, just which one I prefer when it comes to the story as an artist that dabbles in all three.