I've been thinking recently about how the end of the double shipping of DC comics will mean that we'll be able to see artists do sustained runs again and build up a rhythm and creative shorthand with a writer in a way that wasn't possible with so many artists jumping in and out of story arcs.
The importance of the artist to certain characters can't really be overstated for me. As crucial as the writing is, without the right artist, a comic just won't work for me. Naomi without Jamal Campell art just wouldn't be something I'd want to read about, for instance.
If I think back to some of my favorite DC runs, the artist has been so key to how well something has clicked for me. Waid's Flash run with Greg LaRocque was really great, but it was became something else entirely once Ringo started doing the art. There was a magic to the book once those two started working together. Same goes for Geoff Johns & Scott Kolins on Flash, and Johns & Ivan Reis on GL. The right combo of writer & artist elevates a book in incalculable ways.
I absolutely love Grant Morrison, but there are certain runs of his that I have no interest in reading because the art isn't good enough. I will probably never read his and Mark Millar's Flash run because Paul Ryan's art, while perfectly serviceable, just doesn't have the kineticism I want from a Flash comic. Another good example would be my all-time favorite John Stewart run in GL: Mosaic, which was far less interesting and engaging once Cully Hamner stopped doing the art. Ostrander's Suicide Squad lost a lot without Luke McConnel doing art, although they did manage to find at least one artist who had a similar enough style for a time (can't remember his name though).
What are some of favorite examples of a writer/artist team that elevated a comic far beyond what it had previously been? What's your biggest disappointment when a comic run you'd loved was hurt badly by substandard fill-in art or a new regular artist who just didn't work as well?