I feel in terms of storytelling, a good way to think about this is entertainment value.
Would people like to see a character just say, "oh, we have a bad history with that gang, really bad". Or, would it be better to show that hypothetical 'gang' ruining the character's life in real-time?
"Showing" is in essence considered better than "telling" because instead of yelling at a reader they should feel a certain way, you present the information as events unfolding, and try to produce a desired, more emotional reaction. You hear someone say "man those gang guys are mean to merchants", you fail to see how that information is meaningful to anyone. You see the gang knock over the merchant's wares or whatever and you're like "wow, those guys sure are awful".
There's some things that can't be portrayed with just pictures-- say, like, really abstract concepts, or names. But most things can be portrayed with a nice balance of showing and telling, it's all about taking advantage of comics as a medium.
As well, I'd like to address the fundamental part of character in exposition, which is-- the character's voice. Not every character will deliver perfect, reliable exposition, and this can be fun.
Mammon and Karrin Klash would present vastly different accounts of Void's Impact Day (Karrin wasn't around, for example), and this can be really amusing, insightful into the character, or both. This is also where dramatic irony can set in-- a character feeling a certain way, in their told view, but the shown events being actually different.
Sorry for going off on tangents like that! Just, always think of the reader. Do you want them to have to slog through ten paragraphs of information they don't necessarily need? Complexity does not equate to depth.
99 Problems and a Cat
Croi Desai vs. HR99
@ 12:30 AM Apr 23rd