Between panels: Investigation into comics power to suggest action and meaning

Comics rely on the act of closure not only to invoke the perception of continuous action but also to produce meaning. And while the act of closure is an integral part of the comics experience (and, thus, analysis), it is still a very ambiguous term, mostly because the very phenomenon is still being researched. The objective of this investigation was to examine how the act of closure suggests action and meaning. To achieve set goals, the author conducted an open-ended survey study where 143 participants provided their experiences after reading a segment of the comic book. The findings confirm the importance of closure for the overall reader’s experience and suggest that immersion strongly correlates with the juxtapositional artist’s ability to stimulate readers to create meaning about comic book characters’ inner emotional status and thoughts.