Exposition in Comics

I am a guilty of this in my own comic Shadosassins8. At the beginning of the story quite a bit of action takes place but a few too many questions are posed without answers. At the point I'm currently at in the story a lot of exposition is needed to explain, at least in part, some of the crazy events that had been taking place so far. Whether I have too much or too little dialogue in my opinion would be up to the reader. However, in my opinion if it makes sense for story explanation I think that it makes sense for a little extra dialogue. I do agree though, that the story should not instantly begin with a bunch of dialogue or excessive text.

Yeah, too much exposition in a narrator-like manner, especially at the beginning of the story, is immediately a turn-off to me. I don't mind a bit of it, but I'd rather it explained through scenarios and dialogue with some sort of action going on. Like OP said, make it part of the story.

I used to read a comic that always had a bunch of exposition and world-building stuff at the beginning of every chapter. They had some images, of course, but it didn't make up for the wall of text that I always had to go through at the start of a story arc. Even the flashbacks were told in so much text. I decided to stop reading it and that was probably one of the reasons that I did.

The last episode I've uploaded to Hearts1 is precisely called "So yeah: exposition". However, I prefer including subtle hints, or mentioning things in passing, than writing an exposition-heavy dialogue.

I actually don't mind it as long as it's not excessive.

There is something I would list much higher on my hate list than this, and it's when explanations are thrown poorly into the story.

For me it's REALLY awkward and annoying when there's a character that will "explain everything from how the world works to it's history" I don't mind when they are explaining to a character that I duno, got transported to the world or something and knows nothing about it. But when they are explaining to characters that are ****ing natives to that world/country/where ever they happen to be and should know all this stuff from LIVING FRIGGEN THERE ALL THEIR LIVES. Then it's clear that it's there for reader benefit and it REALLY breaks the storytelling flow for me, it's extremely distracting and often more tiresome to read though then an explanation at the beginning would have been, especially when the story literally stops to make way for a friggen lesson in how the world works.

That's called Butler/Maid conversation. It's referring to the fact that a lot of bad mystery novels used to have those two stereotypes talking in the pantry giving all of the exposition. I've had to do that a few times, but I always try to limit it, and to keep it from disrupting the story.

Here's an excerpt from my Johnny Reb script:

"Panel 5: Tucker and Leon “Tak” Takai are at a workbench looking at several electronics boards set up with testing equipment.
Tucker 1: So explain this to me slowly, Mr. Takai.
Takai 1: All right. Rosetta chips allow the user to control cyberware with brain impulses.
Tucker 2: Right. Common knowledge.
Panel 6: Another view of the two of them with what is a very cramped lab in the background.
Takai 1: So what this Ortiz guy did was alter the circuitry so that the user can control other things through the interface, such as electronics that are not actually implanted in the body’s electrical field.
Tucker 1: And this could work on something as complex as a tac-suit?
Panel 7: Same.
Takai 1: Theoretically, certainly. Practically? Sure, as long as you had time, money, and the patience to work the kinks out.
Tucker 1: Would you like a job, Mr. Takai?"

The "Right, common knowledge" was lampshading the fact that the previous sentence was Butler/Maid conversation relaying something known by people on my world. There wasn't much way to avoid that sentence about the Rosetta chip. The rest of the excerpt is another sentence of exposition, but mostly introducing a new character.

Exposition is something that should be treated as a required evil, and beat down with a stick whenever possible. It's something that even writing Pros sometimes screw up on, but as long as a writer has been showing instead of telling, they should be able to get most of their exposition into the actual story instead of something that might have been a better sidebar.

Eagle
(Bad exposition is one of my prime dislikes)

All pretty good examples. I'm not a big fan of the "chatterbox" character however and find them more annoying than informative even when they are explaining the lore/background of a world.

AnnaLandin's example of "bread crumbing" it throughout the story I think is a really good way to go, and somehow integrating it into the scenes than stoping the story all together to explain. I tried to do this with Hacheeachkee at the beginning. As Sketaldaz grew up, Machiny taught him the basics of their history, then throughout the rest of the chapter, characters kept referring a back to names and lore so it was never really forgotten, and even built upon. (Examples like "Oh my Daz" , "Souls of the Sandy Abyss" and just repeating key words of species and places (like Tiper, Rogun, Rucabje, etc)). There are even easter eggs hidden throughout the comic, such as murals on the walls and actions that backdrop characters do that help further explain the world the comic is set in.

Still I am looking into ways to efficiently teach and keep interesting the background/lore of worlds because each chapter Hacheeachkee involves a new world. (Oh boy XD )

i try and try and try to avoid this. currently on the third rewrite for a scene in chapter 2 to explain something without explaining it ....

Blocks of text i'm the same as the others, i skip it and start reading the actually story, most of the time I don't need it. In fact something happen 400 hundreds years ago in my world .... not even an explanation yet, seeded stuff, end of chapter 3 really starts it off and chapter 4 and 5 go i little further into it but its a slow burner.

No, it's not a case of not explaining anything ever, @moisesarias096, it's a case of not doing info dumps. Avoiding walls of text, exposition dumps and characters, and all of the silly ways of putting information out there that annoy readers and interrupt the story. The information has to be gotten out there. However, there are ways of doing it that are almost transparent. Look at how much information is in Martin's A Song of Ice And Fire, and yet he hardly ever does straight exposition. He hides it in dialogue, occasional inner thoughts, stories told to characters who don't know them, implied information, and a dozen other tricks, and by reading, we are shown his world instead of being told about it. It's an example of exposition done in small doses, hidden away in enjoyable reading.

Eagle
(Something I strive for)

I don't like doing exposition and I don't like reading lots of it. I want the characters to tell the story and have important figures tell it, but at the same time you can't have them say everything all at once. Have them tell what's the most relevant and sprinkle background information in where you can.

I think exposition is hard to do though. I like the square text spaces to be used for locations, names, and occasionally flashback conversations. I'm still learning myself though.

I think i kinda doing the exposition on small doses or like @AnnaLandin call it "Breadcrumbling."
Though doing it made feel various times that i wasn't doing enough exposition(It must be my 1page/week schedule that made this feel slower).

I absolutely hate too much exposition (which is probably obvious to anyone that's read my comic). I struggle with it because I personally enjoy weird (and occasional hard to follow) stories that are ultimately very rewarding. I'd like mine to be in that vein but also have a big following!

TBH I always skip these pages. I go straight to the pages where something finally happens. If it keeps me interested, I come back and read the exposition pages. I don't remember ever doing it differently.

I have some things to explain in my comic (not-yet public) too, and have been thinking a lot about how to go about it. My theory is that it would be best to start a comic without any prologue of this kind and explain things bit by bit here and there. I mean, does the reader really need to know all these things right now? If not, they can be revealed later on a good occasion and even serve the purpose of keeping the readers interested in how exactly the world works etc.

Lots of really great discussion here. I'll add my two cents. Having just seen Fury Road over the weekend, I was surprised at how willing George Miller was to just dive straight into the deep end and let viewers figure out social structure, classes and Wasteland culture on their own. It was refreshing, and a good reminder not to talk down to your audience.

I don't think there's anything wrong with setting up the world as he did at the start, but I really, really hate exposition, and fell into the trap towards the end of "Outcasts of Jupiter #12." I'm not sure what I could have done differently. First issues/episodes are tough, because you're setting up the characters, relationships and lore. Originally we wanted to do 40 pages, which would have given us plenty of time to explain things in a more natural manner, but in the end, I'm mostly pleased with how the issue turned out.

-- Shobo

"Show, don't tell" comes into play here.

In comics, we have more than just narrative or words to explain our concepts and ideas. (Even in literature we are frowned upon for using a ton of exposition)

Characters can show how the rules of the world affect the every-man.

Actions, which can show how everything reacts to those rules.

Setting can show us the effects of the world's rules on the environment.

Antagonists can show the dark side of the concepts and rules of the world.

Art can attempt to illustrate the surreal or unexplainable.

And much more.

I'm often bored when an entire page is filled with explanations of how everything works inside the world. Please, just give us a couple of terms or quick concepts, and fill in the blanks with actions on the page to display the effects.

This helps to avoid those strange instances where a character has to learn things that everyone else in the entire world knows by second nature, especially if they've lived in that world their whole lives. And unless the character is discovering these concepts for the first time, like the reader would, I really don't think anyone in the real world would just sit and take twenty minutes to explain how everything works in their world in such a detailed and natural way.

The only way I think exposition fits into a story is when there's history or a concept to be explained, but can't exactly be explained through the other methods.

Just read this from Wikipedia:
Incluing is a technique of worldbuilding in which the reader is gradually exposed to background information about the world in which a story is set. The idea is to clue the readers into the world the author is building without them being aware of it. Incluing can be done in a number of ways: through dialogues, flashbacks, character's thoughts, background details, in-universe media, or the narrator telling a backstory. The word incluing is attributed to fantasy and science fiction author Jo Walton. She defined it as "the process of scattering information seamlessly through the text, as opposed to stopping the story to impart the information."
"Information dump" is the term given for overt exposition, which writers want to avoid. In an idiot lecture, characters tell each other information they certainly are already aware of. Writers are advised to avoid writing dialogues beginning with "As you know..."

This is something I deal with all the time. My comic tries to cram a whole crime drama into a three panel strip. You want to talk about limited space for exposition! At least I'm not trying to world build. My only advice is to just do what is absolutely necessary, and save the rest for later. As long as people can follow what's happening in the present, you can filter in the rest over time. If Anyone want's to tell me how I'm doing, check out Bruno Harm.2