: Think of it this way. You say yourself that the layout of the panels is meant
: to simulate movement. So why not animate? Animation is a medium all about
: movement. You might say that in animation, you have to sacrifice
: complexity because you have to make so many more drawings. This is true,
: and so animation often (but not always) lacks the drawing complexity of
: the comic illustrations, yet offers a far richer experience of motion and
: story.

: Alright, but what if you want to keep the illustrations? I say make a picture
: book. One of the drawbacks to comics is the simplicity of the text
: compared to novels. They were originally conceived for children who
: couldn't read books. So, write a novel, offing a far denser and richer
: possibility for the words, and have every other page be an illustration.
: You keep the art, but make the text better.

: If you want to have it both ways like comics do, you lose a lot and are just
: mediocre at everything, whereas a picture book, or animation excel at and
: are unmatched in what they bring.

: There is a reason why comic books are obscure, and often start to get
: attention when films are made from them! They do nothing well as a medium,
: which is why they are essentially storyboards for movies nowadays.

: I never dismiss a medium without looking at the 'best of', and yes I've
: looked at all those, and it doesn't change my mind. What I see are good
: ideas held back by the medium.

Comics can be storyboards. They can also be illustrated novels. They can also be paragraphs of text with some panels of art here and there. There are many graphic novels that flow into full text stories, to full page illustrations, then to sequential paneling. Whatever works best to tell the story. Hell, I've read comics that have sections you flip through to create an animation. There have been comics that have come with mp3s that provide music as you read. It's not a new medium in my mind, it's a creative explosion of many mediums coming together.

A traditional comic page isn't necessarily something new, it's just an illustration where the artist has intelligently segmented his art to form a larger story and given a pace to the viewer's wandering eye. Its a juxtaposition of images, and often words, which has been done in all levels of low art to fine art for thousands of years. Comics are just a recent evolution of this, a base code people have come to know to be able to read these juxtapositions better.

And while 'funny books' were often associated with children, there has also been comics aimed at adults since their conception providing social commentary, etc. There were also other books before and during their initial conception that captured the brilliance of sequential visuals like God's Man by Lynd Ward that informed the modern graphic novel. The works of Maserell are another great example of sequential woodcuts that led into traditonal comic storytelling.

There is a magic and uniqueness in this medium. And when it excels, it can capture moods, ideas, and movements that other mediums cannot. Because it is a blend of mediums, much like movies, but still requires the reader to use his or her imagination. It allows the reader to give himself or herself back into the piece.

Panelling a sequence of events together is not just about literal motion like animation, but about informing ideas about time, motion, emotion, and other concepts that it can express because the reader can ponder your sectioning. The viewer can go along through the ride of panels or stop and think upon the fragmentation. You get to move your reader's eye forward - but also back and forth.

In regards to comics being only good for inspiring movies, there are patterns in the paneling of The Watchmen that actually add another layer of meaning atop the literal story, especially when the pirate story becomes integrated with the main story, something the movie can not literally replicate because it cannot show 9 scenes simultaneously and allow the viewer to migrate through them first all at once and then separately. When I finished that novel, I wasn't so much blown away by the story but by the craftsmanship. There are ways they told stories in that novel that I've never seen anywhere else.

To dismiss the entirety of comics means you truly losing out. Why draw lines between mediums at all? Why not let them mesh together, blend, and evolve, to tell a story the most effective way it can be told? They are subtleties of thoughts and emotions that can only be captured between the mediums - between the word and visual, between the motion and the sound. Between the lines.