A piece of work that requires the interplay of at least two different codes, e.g. written text and elements of design, is a multimodal text (Serafini 2011, 342). These include short or feature films, video games and comic books. The focus of this paper is comics, the non-interactive texts that, nevertheless, need a reader to be vivified (McCloud 1994, 36-37); a flexible platform for new ways of expression which often provides formidable challenges upon reception, interpretation, and translation. Comics has become a respected literary form often compared to novels rather than pulp fiction which they used to be classified as. The most unique aspect of comic books is the form, which incorporates static visual images organised “in deliberate sequence” (ibid., 7-9) and text. Even though there are instances of comics with no text, it usually is present; without the imagery, however, it makes little or no sense and vice versa. Moreover, the connection between text and image as well as between the images themselves may be intricate and multi-layered. Drawing on examples from classics such as Maus, V for Vendetta, Peanuts and the Asterix series, this paper expands on how the multimodal characteristics of the medium influence the reception and translation of comic books and graphic novels.