The Age Old Question...Art, or Writing? (Or Both)?

Cubicle Captive

Hey there everyone. I;m a long time lurker, but I seldom post. However, while reading the MOTW for this week, it became clear to me that some people are seriously put off by the art in a comic regardless of the story. I was wondering which people thought was more important to them in a comic: Writing, or Art? Or if it's both, at what point does the dearth of quality of one affect your purchase?

Just curious.

Although I believe I value story more than art, if the art is absolutely awful it does affect my purchasing habits. Unfortunately, I couldn't get through "30 Days of Night" because it looked like someone pissed all over the art.

Having heard the story was great, I tried again but couldn't get through it.

Thoughts?

sportzboytjw

I can deal with good/great writing with mediocre art. Hard to enjoy Bad Art, when it's Bad to the point of making it hard to tell what is going on. Bad/decent story with good art... not as good as a good/great story with decent art.

Lucascraft

For me, I consider a comic to be "good" if the story is good, which means I tend to favor writing. I can forgive bad art if i still enjoy the story. But if the art is good and the story sucks, then in my opinion its a waste of good art.

However, that being said, there are some artists whose renderings are so good that I am drawn to them regardless of who the author on the book is. Tim Sale is one example. I'm pretty sure he's my favorite comic artist ever. I simply love looking at his art, whether the story is great or not. Fortunately, most of Tim Sale's art is attached to books in which the story is also good.

Darwyn Cooke is another example. He is similar to Tim Sale in style, and I love looking at Cooke's art no matter the book. I guess you could say that I really like the cartoony, exaggerated style that both Cooke and Sale have.

On the more realistic side, Jim Lee is hard to beat. I'm also a huge fan of Terry Dodson and would be much more likely to try a comic drawn by these two, simply because I will be guaranteed to have gorgeous renderings. An example is Superman For Tomorrow. The art is beautiful. I love the books simply because Jim Lee makes me happy. But the story isn't that great. In fact, the story stinks.

Zampanov

Cubicle Captive wrote: »

Hey there everyone. I;m a long time lurker, but I seldom post. However, while reading the MOTW for this week, it became clear to me that some people are seriously put off by the art in a comic regardless of the story. I was wondering which people thought was more important to them in a comic: Writing, or Art? Or if it's both, at what point does the dearth of quality of one affect your purchase?

Just curious.

Although I believe I value story more than art, if the art is absolutely awful it does affect my purchasing habits. Unfortunately, I couldn't get through "30 Days of Night" because it looked like someone pissed all over the art.

Having heard the story was great, I tried again but couldn't get through it.

Thoughts?

I think I'm very writing focused. I've read through some stories I've enjoyed, but didn't quite like the artist (there were some strange parts there in Ultimate X-Men for awhile, forget which artist though.)

I think the only artist I'll actually avoid is Greg Land. I don't care if he makes deadlines, I'd rather wait a year for Hitch to put something out than have to put up with Land's lazy hack habits.

Balefuego

its both

Virral

It's definitely both, but if I had to choose between eye-rendingly awful art and mind-meltingly terrible writing, I'd choose shit writing because at least then I have pretty pictures to look at.

I think I may have just discovered why Ultimates 3 sells... huh.

Lucascraft

I like Ultimates 3. I don't know why everyone hates on it so much. I've been enjoying it.

Virral

Have they explained the change to 616 appearances, or is it still chalked up to the creative team not giving a shit about previous Ultimates stuff? Because that was a bit of a deal breaker for me.

Balefuego

they havent offered any explenation yet, although there is still one more issue to go

Servo

as a writer myself, i'm generally drawn toward the writers more than i am the artists, but bad art can obviously cripple an otherwise good story. i tend to be a lot more forgiving in terms of art than i am in writing, though. there's plenty of books i've read where people have said that they hated the art for whatever reason and i just plain didn't agree. on the flip side, there's plenty of books with fantastic art but terrible (in one way or another) writing that i can't stand but other people totally dig on.

DJ Eebs

the art has to be distractingly terrible for me to not put up with it, to the point where I can't tell what's going on

like the art in the SI tie-in for X-Factor

Scooter

If it's something new, or a one-shot, and the art makes me vomit by page 3, doesn't matter how good the writing is. If it's established I'll put up with it to follow the storyline.

Munch

For me, bad art can ruin a story more easily than bad writing, and good art tends to enhance mediocre writing and make it more bearable.

For example, no matter how many times I try, I just can't get through From Hell, due entirely to the art. Look at the recent arc of X-Factor; despite having the same writer it's had since the series launched, the art has completely killed me interest in it.

On the flip side, the recent Deadpool #1, despite being written by Daniel Way, was really made more bearable by Paco Medina's art, whereas Way's portrayal of Deadpool in Wolverine, with art by Steve Dillon, was kind of lousy. I feel like there are a lot of writers whose work seems better or worse depending on which artist they're working with. Gail Simone's work with John Byrne and Rob Liefeld was pretty unreadable, but her stuff with Nicola Scott, Mike Norton, and the Dodsons came across a lot better. Ditto Dan Slott; when working with Juan Bobillo on She-Hulk, his writing really popped. When teamed with a bunch of inferior artists, his writing suffered in my eyes.

sportzboytjw

I had this dream where the recent issues of X-Factor were all redrawn for the trade. Like, instead of being recolored, they just scrapped the art and started over and released it in a HC TPB.

Cubicle Captive

You know, it's funny. I started this thread after reading the SI X-Factor tie-in. SO Bad, that art. The story's not that good either.

Thanks for chiming in everyone.

Sars_Boy

Balefuego wrote: »

its both

for gods sake thank you bale

Hayasa

Peter David's boring She-Hulk stories have basically ended my association with my favourite comic. I can put up with just OK art if its an amusing story (eg. Irredeemable Ant-Man).

Really pretty pictures and dull story equals dead loss as far as I'm concerned.

Balefuego

I like Peter David's She-Hulk

it's nothing like Slott's version but thats ok by me