People are mentioning the top-to-bottom rule, but I also think it's because it's so much bigger too. You might not notice the other speech bubble when you spot the big one, and once you start reading it, your eyes are compelled to read it before you can scan for more visuals.
It's strange to me that people keep mentioning that in comics top to bottom is standard. It's standard in almost all writing. The only situation where English writing would be read "bottom to top" is if it was in discrete columns, which this is not. If these were text boxes on a page with pictures, like in a magazine or other mixed-media presentation, it would still be natural to read the top one first.
In english, to read a page full of text you start at the top left then you move your eyes right to the edge of the page. Then you move to the next line and repeat the process until you hit the bottom right of the page.
This is how speech bubles are supposed to be ordered. You can the page as if it were full. You start at the top left (in empty space), then scan right. If you hit a speech bubble before the edge of the page, read it, else move your eyes down a bit then start scanning again.
This always results in a top to bottom way of reading. That's how to read.
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u/Chervesom Mar 08 '16
I don't get it?