Splash Panel: Difference between revisions
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In comic books, splash panels (also known as splash pages) are massive panels (the bits that contain pictures) that take up most or all of a page, or possibly even two pages. They are an important part of maintaining a comic's rhythm, and will most commonly be seen in the first pages of a comic (usuallly coinciding with the title page) and the last pages of the comic, usually coinciding with the cliffhanger. The specific purpose of a splash panel is to add dramatic weight to a scene, be it a shocking reveal, a character's entrance, an establishing shot of scenery or a building, a dramatic fight scene or something else entirely. When used excessively, they can be a contributing factor in [[Decompressed Comic
They are also useful when a dramatic scene requires a far more impressive sense of scale than an ordinary panel could manage. For example: A character steps into a totally unexpected underground kingdom - an open area far larger than it should be. In a normal panel, this would all just look like a bunch of shrubs with a tiny speck that may or not be the character. In a splash panel, the character can be shown in enough detail for the scale to get into the reader's brain.
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If the artist needs to focus on something specific in a splash panel, he may overlay smaller panels on top of or around it that enlarge and highlight specfiic sections, or that provide a commentary on the larger picture.
Splash panels are extremely popular in Japanese comic books (or Manga) and entire issues can consist of characters doing not very much at all on a very large canvas. Although examples of splash panels can be found in Western comics going all the way back to the 1960s, the technique did not become popular until the late 1990s, when Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch created ''[[The Authority]]'', which drew on the Manga mindset to create a "widescreen" comic in which splash panels were used liberally to emphasise the wide-scale action. This ushered in an era of [[Decompressed Comic
If the
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== Anime and Manga ==
* [[CLAMP]] absolutely '''''lives''''' for
* [[Bleach|Tite Kubo]] is awfully fond of splash pages as well.
* ''[[One Piece]]'' deserves a mention too, particularly when Oda feels the need for some [[Scenery Porn]].
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* [[Geof Darrow]] uses splash pages often, one of his most outstanding instances using this trope was in ''Shaolin Cowboy'' where he uses multiple splash pages to depict a gigantic horde of [[Cast of Snowflakes|bizarre]] [[Mooks]].
* In the 70s and early 80s, after it got the colour pages, ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' would always open with a two-page full-colour spread that gave a preview of the main story, which was told in the next four, black and white pages. This practise faded when colour became more common.
* When writing ''[[Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'', Karl Bollers seemed to use two-pages splashes far too often. He put FIVE PAGES of splash panels in the first part of
* The team behind the current [[Green Lantern]] series, as well as [[Blackest Night]], really really really likes big, incredibly detailed splash pages. They also put a four page one into the end of [[Blackest Night]], showing off the {{spoiler|heroes that were brought back by White Power Rings.}}
* In ''[[The Warlord]]'' Mike Grell would usually have a two-page splash panel an issue.
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