Sequential Art is a term proposed by Will Eisner to describe Art forms that use images displayed in a specific order for the purpose of graphic storytelling or conveying information. Comics evolved from this art style, as well as Picture Books. Nowadays, it's mostly seen in storyboards, themed art/photograph collections, slideshows composed of related photographs, and animatics.
It makes abundant use of Silent Scenery Panels and Reaction Shots. Squeaky Eyes and Written Sound Effect originated from here.
Compare Picture Drama (animations compounded by shots of still images) and Motion Comic (digital, voiced comics with looping animations of some elements). Contrast with Textplosion, when a comic's pages are suddenly overflown with dialogue or explanatory text.
See also Sequential Artist.
Not to be confused with a specific Webcomic titled Sequential Art.
Examples:
- Understanding Comics: To prove a point about The Treachery of Images, the comic spreads printed copies of a pipe in multiple panels.
- Manhunter (1973): Heavily used by Walt Simonson so that a satisfying story can be crammed into eight pages of runtime. At its peak, a page could contain as many as thirteen panels.
- The Family Circus: Notably averted. Unlike many other newspaper comics, this one is not really sequential, at best sometimes using the Dotted Line Paths.
- Loud Visions: The beginning of Chapter 17 has Lincoln finishing a panorama depicting American soldiers from every major war that the United States has fought in (including era-accurate clothes and weapons).
- Enchanting Melodies: The Italian Academia Magica resembles a Roman basilica filled to the brim with artworks illustrating the feats of their famous magicians and military leaders. Daphne is particularly mesmerized by the floor mosaics, which depict ancient epic battles and are described as "So intricate and detailed" that she can almost hear the clash of swords and chants of spells.
- Falling Apart: The Lestrange family vault features carvings of the Castor and Pollux myth on its door. Metal rose vines separate the figures into several scenes, aking to a tapestry. The twins are portrayed as two-faced and demon-like. This is plot-relevant because the Gemini constellation is named after them; and we know from canon the Lestrange vault is protected by the Geminio curse.
- The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight: More Poems to Trouble Your Sleep: The poems spread out over two or three pages, which are "The Mummy", "The Zombie", "The Yeti", and the "The Headless Horseman", have as many illustrations. Just like the poems progress narratively, so do the illustrations.
- Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep: The poems spread out over two or three pages, which are "The Haunted House", "The Vampire", "The Wizard", and the "The Dance of the Thirteen Skeletons", have as many illustrations. Just like the poems progress narratively, so do the illustrations.
- Madds Buckley: "DogBird" starts with a photograph collage of Dog and Bird's happiest moments together. We go from when they were friends to their Relationship Upgrade and moving to their own apartment. Unlike the rest of the animated MV, the pictures are still.
By Creator:
- Wilhelm Busch: He produced black-and-white picture stories carved on wood (zincography) and accompanied by rhymed texts (often, tetra trochees). His The Virtuoso employs several Comic Book Tropes long before they were codified in mainstream media.
By Work:
- The Age of Reptiles: The painting is arranged to go farther back in time as you go left to right.
- The Bayeux Tapestry: It's a several-meters-long piece of cloth that captures the key events of the Norman conquest of England in full-color pictorial form with the occasional Latin annotation. Each Plot Point can be considered a self-containing panel of sorts.
- Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga
: It's a Japanese set of scrolls translated as "animal-person caricatures". The scrolls are emakimono —i.e., ink-on-scroll— featuring four panels arranged horizontally that tell short stories. They are considered the Ur-Example of manga.
- Marie de' Medici Cycle: It's a collection of 21 oil paintings that narrate the life of the Regent Queen of France as if it were an epic. They feature a plethora of deities and creatures from Classical Mythology to serve as guides for Marie and as storytelling allegories.
- Marriage A-la-Mode: It's a collection of six paintings that tell the story of how a loveless, arranged marriage culminates in tragedy. The titles of the paintings provide some extra information as well.
- Medici Chapels: Taken together, the side sculptures at the Medici brothers' tombs represent the passage of time (birth, growth, decline, and death) and the stages of the day (dawn, day, dusk, and night).
- Primavera tells a story when observed from right to left. Zephyrus assaults Chloris, who (as hinted by the flowers coming out of her mouth) transforms into Flora as a result. Flora spreads her petals on the ground to herald Venus, whose son Cupid, soaring above her head, points an arrow at one of the three Graces. The same Grace, seemingly lovestruck, sends a longing look towards Mercury, who's busy chasing the clouds of ignorance out from the left margin of the painting.
- Sistine Chapel: There are four storylines entirely made of paintings positioned in chronological order so they narrate together important passages of The Bible. The ceiling frescoes contain nine key scenes from the Book of Genesis. The southern and northern walls respectively detail the lives of Moses and Jesus as parallel plots. Finally, the Book of Revelation's artworks on the altar describe the second coming of the Christian messiah.
- Times Of Day: It's a four-painting set depicting the four timestamps found throughout the day through naked women and artistic imagery: "L'Aurore", "Le Jour", "Le Crépuscule", and "La Nuit".
- Trajans Column: The column exhibits 155 carved scenes commemorating a romanticized version of Emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. The figures occupy a band of roughly 1 meter, amount to a total of 2662, and tell the story in helical form from base to top.
- The Bully's Bully: Although otherwise in typical comic format (i.e., panels), there's no dialogue or narration whatsoever. The story is solely conveyed through non-textual visual cues and sequential, drawn scenes.
- Tellurion: Small snapshots sans dialogue express the whole story. It primarily relies on Reaction Shots to advance the plot.