紡ぐ乙女と大正の月 👘 (IMC) - Week 1

@Akashelia @simias Here are some general 4-koma tips:

  1. You read by column. Imagine it’s like you’re reading a novel, which is also by column. (Also, the format is 4-koma as in four panels, so they are grouped into the four that are placed vertically.)
  2. Many 4-koma (especially Kirara series) don’t even include a table of contents and some that do have them still don’t use continuous chapters counts across volumes. This manga happens to be good in that regard.
  3. In every two column 4-koma I’ve read (mostly Kirara series, but also ひとりぼっちの〇〇生活), the way to tell when a new chapter is starting is because it includes a large panel that takes up the place of four other panels. That drawing is often completely irrelevant to the chapter and is just an excuse to do some fun drawing, though occasionally it is relevant and/or even has some dialogue. On that page, you still read by column first, but it’s considered one 4-koma grouping (for purpose of setup, punch line, etc.). So in that case it goes top-right, bottom-right, top-left, bottom-left.

I’ve been reading 4-koma for so long that I didn’t even consider that this wasn’t obvious. :joy:

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Very helpful, thank you!

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I don’t know if this is consistent, but you can sometimes tell ‘chapter markers’ in 4koma because they’ll usually have something of a ‘spread illustration’ up the top and the normal 4-koma format will change - if you look at page 17 for instance you’ll see it’s been divided into a top spread image and a bottom four-panel comic.

Actually I don’t know if this is consistent or just something for Manga Time Kiara stuff (the magazine this and Bocchi I think? And a lot of other 4koma like it, New Game etc).

/edit beaten by seanblue

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Various examples of this for the curious.

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Thanks for the tips everyone, that will definitely help :grin:

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