Floyd Gottfredson on visuals over words

GOTTFREDSON: Let me tell you a basic thing, which I believe in very strongly, and that's the fact that any time you can tell your story visually, do it.
SABA: Leave out the words if you possibly can?
GOTTFREDSON: Leave them out if you can or tell it in action as much as you can. Use the word to complement the drawing... your writing has got to be pithy enough to know how to make the point as briefly as possible, so you don't take up all your space in the balloon lettering... and things of that kind. And don't tell them something they already know. Don't repeat something you've already told them and so on. Once you get it down there, it's even a more perfect medium than your television or whatever, because it's there. They can go back to it if they re puzzled.
SABA: Other people have made that same point. In fact, Gil Kane has made the point that comics are in many ways just like films, except they have this one very vital difference, which is that the audience can go back and look again.
GOTTFREDSON: Right.
SABA: And that's a very interesting thing. I think someone else made the point that in comics-you also made this point—that most people read all the words first, and then they go back and look at the pictures.
GOTTFREDSON: They're aware of the pictures. They see it at a glance, and they will read the balloon, then they'll glance down to see how it illustrates it. They sort of bounce back and forth between them. But always the balloon first.