Comic page layout: splashes, spreads, tiers, and insets

Splash page vs. two-page spread

The two get mixed up because both mean one big drawing, and the difference is how much paper it takes.

• A splash (SPLASH.) is one panel filling a single page.
• A two-page spread ([SPREAD] on the page, SPLASH SPREAD. on the panel) is one image running across two facing pages.

What you type

# EXT. NIGHT MARKET - NIGHT

## SPLASH. A crowded night market under strings of paper lanterns. NOI, 16, weaves between stalls.

CAPTION:	Three minutes before the lanterns go out.

What you get

Because a splash is the whole page, nothing else fits beside it. Put a second normal panel on the same page as a SPLASH. and the preview flags it. The one exception is an INSET, which sits on top of the splash rather than taking a row of its own.

Left and right pages, and where a spread can start

Open a printed comic and page 1 is on the right-hand side. Turn the page and you are looking at pages 2 and 3 together: even pages sit on the left, odd pages sit on the right.

That is why every sheet in the preview carries a LEFT or RIGHT label next to its page number, and why a two-page spread has to start on an even page. A spread starting on page 2 covers pages 2 and 3 across one flat opening, and the next page after it is page 4.

What you type

# EXT. NIGHT MARKET - NIGHT

## SPLASH. Noi weaves between the lantern stalls.

# EXT. CANAL - NIGHT [SPREAD]

## SPLASH SPREAD. Noi mid-leap over the black water, the market ablaze behind her.

SFX:	WHMP

What you get

If a spread lands on an odd page instead, say page 1 or page 3, its left half sits on the front of the sheet and its right half sits on the back. The preview flags that right away so you can add or cut a page before it reaches the artist.

A spread on page 1 (right-hand page)

Crossing the fold on a spread (ACROSS.)

Not every two-page spread is a single giant splash. Sometimes a spread carries several panels, and one wide panel runs straight across the center fold while smaller panels sit on the left and right pages.

Start that panel with ACROSS. on a [SPREAD] page.

What you type

# EXT. CANAL - NIGHT [SPREAD]

## ACROSS. A long footbridge spans both pages from bank to bank, lanterns swaying in the wind.

## TIER. On the left bank, two guards reach the steps.

## TIER. On the far bank, Noi disappears into the alley.

What you get

Used on a single page that isn’t marked [SPREAD], ACROSS. gets flagged, since a single page has no fold to cross.

Side-by-side panels and grids (TIER. and TIER 1.)

Most of the time you don’t need to tell the artist which panels share a row. Five panels on a page will find their own rows in the pencils.

When two beats are meant to sit side by side in the same horizontal row, put TIER. at the front of each.

What you type

## TIER. Behind her, two GUARDS shove past a fruit stall. Oranges scatter.

SFX:	KRAK

GUARD 1 (BURST):	Stop her!

## TIER. Noi ducks under a table of steaming pots. The cook yelps.

COOK:	Hey!

What you get

Stacking rows into a grid

Because consecutive bare TIER. panels all join the same row, a page of four panels arranged in two rows of two needs a way to say where row one ends and row two begins. Number the tiers: TIER 1. for the first row, TIER 2. for the second, and TIER 3. for a third if you are building a nine-panel grid.

What you type

## TIER 1. Keo’s hand on the brass switch, still down.

## TIER 1. Outside, rain sheets across the dark glass.

## TIER 2. He throws the switch with both hands.

SFX:	KRA-KOOM

## TIER 2. A spark catches in the heart of the lens.

What you get

The numbers count within each page, and panels sharing a tier number have to sit next to each other. If TIER 1. comes back after TIER 2. on the same page, the preview flags it.

Insets (INSET)

An inset is a small panel drawn inside or over the corner of the panel before it, usually to catch a small detail: a hand on a latch, a coin turning over, a heel at the edge of the canal.

You can add a placement note in parentheses right after INSET to tell the artist and the page-turn view where it sits: TOP or BOTTOM, LEFT, RIGHT, or CENTER, and WIDE or TALL.

What you type

## BIG PANEL. Noi skids to a stop at the canal edge, water below, guards behind.

GUARD 2:	End of the road, girl.

## INSET (BOTTOM, RIGHT). DETAIL. Her heel at the stone edge.

What you get

Without a placement note, a plain INSET. defaults to the bottom right of the panel before it.

Borders and bleeds

Three keywords tell the artist how the edge of the panel itself is drawn:

BORDERLESS.

No panel border around the drawing, so the image floats on the paper. Often used for a memory, or a quiet beat that steps outside the scene.

BLEED. or FULL BLEED.

The art runs past the margin and off the trim edge of the printed page.

BROKEN BORDER.

A dashed or shattered frame, or a figure reaching across the border of the panel.

Checking the layout in Page turns

On a computer, the preview has a Page turns button at the right end of the stats line (and an open-book icon in the top bar as you scroll). It opens your comic two facing pages at a time, with page 1 on the right, every left and right page paired as an opening, spreads stretched across the fold, TIER panels arranged side by side, and INSET boxes placed over their parent panel.

Every row is drawn the same height because a script cannot say how large a moment will be pencilled, and any box whose dialogue overflows its share of the page gets a quiet tint so you can trim the speech or give the panel more room.