IRREGULAR PANELS

FC300 Big-top Bedlam, page 12

Especially during the 1950s Barks experimented with his panel layouts. In those days comic book artists did not experiment with their medium as it is done frequently nowadays - but Barks did! He was not afraid to introduce new ideas in the field of special panels. He did it simply because his stories often called for something different in order to present a plot or an action in a more precise way than a normal square panel could master. That way he could make the necessary room for the characters in certain positions.
Barks broke up the standard square panels into odd-shaped and fanciful ones. One might suspect he did this just for kicks, but a closer examination reveals that the layout of every page is in fact different but always with the clear purpose of showing the action as best as possible. At times the page panels look like pieces for a jigsaw puzzle but they are eminently functional.

This is particularly striking in the lively circus sequences of this story. Notice how in this example page all the characters exactly fill out their individually assigned panel spaces without having any excess space next to them. An extra benefit is that the high-speed, helter-skelterish actions look even more frantic because of the unusual jigsaw cuttings.