I am looking for a way to display a series of pictures (JPanels with image and maybe some other small components), in a horizontal sequence.
The user should be able to r
Create a ListModel that contains the images.
Create a ListCellRenderer that displays them and set that to be the List's renderer. You can use a JLabel in your renderer so setting the image is easy.
Create a TransferHandler that knows how to handle DataFlavor.imageFlavor. The example cited by StanislavL is a start.
Set the list's transferHandler property.