There's some intent that can be coaxed out of these panels, with the way that smaller information boxes are placed inside them, in the way that they show what is basically a montage while the text outside of them does most of the describing, and so on. However, the big eye-catcher here is the small circle in the bottom third of the page. See it? This isn't the first time these explanatory bubbles have pointed at things, but it is the first time one's been used to make up a panel. Or a semi-panel, perhaps, given that its equally an intruder in both of its neighbors. The shape is also different from the rest while still being part of the typical eye-path that makes it a part of comics' linear time instead of an aside.
I'm convinced it's a stylistic choice held in reserve, like an expression that conveys an idea wonderfully, but is so obscure it's never used. It doesn't really advance the story, or show us things from the perspective of the author (at least, when she was a kid), but it does a great job of revealing details about its setting. It's a silent moment of worldbuilding, unacknowledged by its story.
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