# Pitfall pack: comic

*Type-specific traps for comic and graphic novel drafting. Loaded after WRITING-RULES.md. STYLE-GUIDE.md wins where it conflicts.*

## Script-versus-art boundary

- Caption as substitute for image. If the caption tells you what the panel shows, cut the caption.
- Direction the artist cannot deliver ("she feels nostalgic", "the city remembers"). Translate to visual cues.
- Over-specifying every panel composition. Trust the artist on framing unless the moment requires a specific shot.
- Under-specifying scale, character placement, or beat count. The script must give the artist enough.

## Dialogue and balloons

- Speech balloons that exceed the panel's visual real estate. Trim. A balloon should not eat the figure.
- Long speeches where action would carry the beat.
- Sound-effect captions doing work the artist's lettering should do.
- Thought balloons stacked on internal monologue captions. Pick one mode.
- "Continued..." chains across many panels. If a speech needs three balloons, it needs less speech.

## Pacing and panel rhythm

- Three-panel rows on every page. Vary panel count for tempo.
- Splash pages used cosmetically rather than for emphasis.
- Talking-head pages without environmental change.
- Reaction shots stacked. One landed reaction beats three weak ones.
- Page turns that do not deliver a beat. The turn is a tool; use it.

## Caption voice

- Voiceover narration that explains what the panel shows.
- Voiceover that competes with dialogue for the reader's attention in the same beat.
- Tense drift between caption and image (caption past tense, image present moment).
- Captions that hedge ("perhaps it was the way she looked at him"). The image is the evidence; commit.

## Genre stock devices

- Superhero: origin flashback in issue one. Cliched unless interrogated.
- Slice-of-life: rain on the window as mood marker. Overused.
- Horror: cat jump scare. Cliched.
- Manga-derived: speed lines on every emotional beat.
- Underground: shock images in service of nothing. Earn it.

## Sequential storytelling traps

- Action sequences that fail to track who is where. Establish geography in the first panel of an action beat.
- Flashbacks without visual signal (color shift, border change, period detail). Reader gets lost.
- Multi-character scenes where two characters look identical. Costume, posture, or framing must distinguish.
- Time skips inside a single page that the layout does not signal.

## Closing pitfalls

- Final panel of the issue is a reaction shot to a question the reader cannot answer yet. Hooks should land on a turn, not a stare.
- Last-page splash that just shows the protagonist looking at the horizon.
- "To be continued..." over an image that already feels like an ending.