Time and space are intrinsically linked in comics.

Time

Refers to narrative (in-story) time between panels and between pages.

Space

Refers to the canvas, which may be a page or a screen, on which images and text are placed. Space maps to temporal, spatial and narrative location (see below).

Placement of images and text tells the reader

1. the temporal (the when) location of a story event – space tells us which event occurs first. Imagine a timeline, or a roll of film. The first negative occurs at an earlier time than the second negative.
2. the spatial (the where) location of a story event – space tells us where objects, settings and events are located. This may be literal and/or metaphorical.If a character is located on the left side of the panel and another on the right, that depicts a physical distance. It may also imply emotional distance.
3. the narrative location (the what or how) – combining temporal and spatial location, space also tells us what is happening in the story, where it is happening, and when it is happening.

This time-space relationship is usually expressed chronologically: the panels that occupy the top part of the canvas occur earlier in time than the bottom part. It often respects the reading order of language of the culture where the comic is produced (i.e left to right in US, right to left in Japan).

The basic reading order of comics.

But the experience of time can be loose because it is affected by space — by how and where comics creator place panels, gutters, and the associated artwork and text. Through a variety of techniques (including the devices in the library), comics creators can affirm, twist, subvert the relationship between time and space and produce effects.

Various ways that space is time in comics. Devices used include Lettering, Caesura/Enjambment, Discordant Juxtaposition, Expansion, Epizeuxis and Diacope. Hannah Pallister.

By playing with the width of gutters, time can be stretched or shortened.

The longer distance between panels, or the wider gutter between panels, stretches out the character’s mental progression from “What did I forget?” to “My glasses!”

By using certain arrangements and editorial decisions, time can become linear or non-linear.

In this first approach, an event in the present is abruptly interrupted by a flashback, then returns to the present. The reading order is straightforward, left to right.

In this second approach, the event in the present is read simultaneously with the flashback (it is only loosely interrupted). The reading order is top to bottom.

In addition to choosing how panels and gutters are arranged, comics creators are able to produce sophisticated time-and-space bending effects when they use devices.

The reading order is subverted to create a time-travelling effect. Also utilises the comics devices Tracking (following the motion of a character) and Crossing (visual elements, like the man's speech ballons, are crossing over panels). Tom Gauld.

The reading order is similarly subverted. The same devices, Tracking and Crossing, are also used. This time to depict events running in parallel. Note the disruption of the gutter in the middle panels. Tom Gauld.