Phone-sized viewers encourage a vertical flick. Marvel NFT comics still assume a Z-path across balloons. When a beginner complains that a scene “jumps,” they have usually skipped a gutter or read a caption after a reply balloon.
A practical fix: rest a finger on the first balloon, then move only after you can paraphrase it. Captions in rectangular boxes are often narrator time; round balloons are speech. If a thought balloon sits behind a sound effect, read the thought first unless the page design clearly stacks the shout on top.
Reading circles in Patong do this out loud because hearing the wrong order is faster than spotting it silently. Once the habit returns, the digital file stops feeling broken.