Spider-Man — Threat or Menace?
Oh, you know that one already? How about …
Comic Books — Art or Writing?
It is, of course, far more complex than that.
Good art catches the eye. It can draw you to a comic book more quickly than writing, because it’s visible at first glance, even across the room.
Good art can, naturally, greatly enhance the joy of a story being told. It makes the telling of the story better, though not necessarily the story itself any better.
Good writing is the story. It sustains the book. It keeps you wanting to come back. And, six times out of ten, it will help keep, or attract, good artists. Hey, they gotta read the stuff, too, right?
A comic with good writing and good art is the ideal. A comic with bad writing and bad art is the nadir. “Good” and “bad” is relative and YMMV, of course.
So …
… A comic with good writing and good art gets a bad artist: I wince. I’ll stick with it, though. I come back for the story, for the characters being described. The bad art interferes with that, like a good dinner not piping hot, or a nice piece of furniture with a big scratch.
… A comic with good writing and good art gets a bad writer: I’ll stick with it … for a while. It takes an extraordinary artist to keep me going with bad writing. And if I stick with it, it’s in the hope that a good writer will be coming along soon, or that the artist will move somewhere else. But, to be honest, I’m just as likely to end up dropping it as not. It’s an attractively presented dinner that tastes off. It’s a pretty room with furniture that’s dreadfully uncomfortable.
At least that’s me. Comic books may be a visual medium, but “a medium for what” is also very important. Even more important, to my mind.
(listening to: Sinatra, Frank, “One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)” from Classic Sinatra)
(listening to: Monty Python, “Bruces’ Philosophers Song (Bruces’ Song)” from Sings)
I think the great thing about comic books is the art compliments the writing, and vice versa!
It’s definitely a collaboration between the two. Either suffers without the other.
That said, there was a big assertion by some in the 90s (subsided somewhat in recent years, but still not gone) that “writing” was a minor part of the comic book process. This came primarily from very popular artists who didn’t write very well. Their comics turned out to be mostly pin-ups, and most are generally forgotten today.
Of course, that’s partially a pendulum swing from the days when artists were considered a disposable quality. (Writers, too, but editors often pitched in with writing when need be, while artists were treated like crap.)
You’ve read Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics” haven’t you ***Dave?
It’s been a while for me, but I think McCloud would say that both the writing and the art are equally important. After all, even though he goes beyond that definition, there’s something to the idea that comics is sequential art, and I think the quality of the writing shows in setting up the right sequences for the artist. The quality of the art shows up in the art, of course.
In my case, I read so few comics (exclusively graphic novels or collected editions since I’m too lazy to ferret out all the items of a series one by one), that the ones I do read have to have both good art and good writing.
Fair enough. I’ve read McCloud, but it’s been a number of years (it’s on my re-read list — can’t figure out why I never get around to it …).
I think if one has to give or the other, I’d rather it were the art than the writing, though either can suffer a bit without destroying the product. I think the writing can stand alone with minimal art better than art can stand alone with minimal writing. Or, perhaps, what the output becomes at that point is different — a story vs a pin-up — and I prefer the former to the latter.
But, yes, the ideal is to find something that is excellent in both.
Hope you are able to glean a suggestion or two from today’s efforts.
Yeah, I have seen some stuff that I’d like to look into. I’ve been thinking I need to swing past the local comic store, and this is another straw on the camel’s back.
Of course I have one other criterion that I didn’t mention. I tend to buy TPBs that stand alone in some sense. I don’t want to come in on the middle of a story, and I don’t want to feel like I don’t get “the end.”
For that reason I’ve enjoyed some ‘elseworlds’ books and some Vertigo stuff. I got sucked into the worlds of Faerie series of TPBs, and was highly disappointed when that series went south in a hurry. That just reinforced my desire to avoid being in a situation where I can’t see the whole thing all at once before I buy.
That said, I will sometimes buy things that are multiple volumes if I can see all the volumes are good (e.g. that’s how I bought the original “Mage” TPBs).
Dang, I’m picky these days!
Look at the 3rd number on my review. That’s an indication of the “how easy is it to “jump in” at that point, either because of it being self-contained or because it’s made very clear what’s going on and by whom. That may help.