"No one will ever believe you, but that actually was the name of where I was stationed. I believe it is what you humans call 'a humorous place name,' such as 'Intercourse, Pennsylvania' and 'Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch'
in Wales."
Typographical hierarchy and the graphical hierarchy of order aren’t things they teach you in design school for no reason.
I’m not much of an illustrator myself. I appreciate the work and talent and skill that goes into making these… but how do you get so good at making these without understanding some of the fundamentals of design and layout?
Yes, but Tuvok's bubbles are only barely lower than Paris' bubbles. Since there isn't significant white space above Tuvok's bubbles, it's easy to read those first even when you're used to comics, especially since they're in the upper left corner. Move Tuvok's bubble in the first panel to between Tuvok's and Paris' heads and that one gets much easier to read. Panel four would also benefit from larger text size on Paris' line.