Comics With Good Art/Bad Writing or Good Writing/Bad Art

[Timothy Hunter]

Have you read a beautifully illustrated comic towed down by poor writing? Or perhaps have you read a well written comic plagued by lackluster art? Some of the most interesting comics stem from disparity in quality between the art and the writing.

I've experienced both ends of the coin yesterday after reading two comics that suffered from this dilemma.

Tradd Moore is for my money the best artist working in comics today. His style is a seamless blend of manga, Euro comics, and 90s Image, but nevertheless feels completely unique. For the art alone, The New World might be one of my favorite comics of all time, but the experience is lessened by the verbose dialogue by Ales Kot which reads a combination of the worst aspects of Warren Ellis and Brian Michael Bendis' writing. This is the only work I've read of Kot's, and I hope that his style of writing grows on me.

Dan Abnett's penmanship in The New Deadwardians holds a candle to classic Vertigo. Abnett uses Vampires and Zombies in a way that feels completely novel and appropriate for the Victorian setting. Classic horror tropes were cleverly used to convey social commentary about class, but never felt like it overshadowed the narrative, a trap that many "comics with a message" fall into. With an artist like Eddie Campbell or Rick Geary, The New Deadwardians would be on par with the best of Vertigo, but the art by I.N.J. Culbard was very bland.

[batnbreakfast]

Ales Kot's short run on Suicide Squad is my favourite next to John Ostrander's. New Deadwardians sounds intriguing. I'll hunt that down.

[Zelena]

Yes, interesting writing but I disliked the artwork… a manga a lot time ago. I still read it with interest and didn’t pay attention anymore to the artwork.

Heroic fantasy comics… I tend to find them boring although the art is usually quite good with a lot of details. They are often pretty things with a lot of clichés and no surprises.

[Kirby101]

I thought Morrison's Doom Patrol was great, but I thought Richard Case's art was uninspired and very hum-drum. I thought the book deserved better art.

[Spike-X]

I thought Morrison's Doom Patrol was great, but I thought Richard Case's art was uninspired and very hum-drum. I thought the book deserved better art.

Sir, how dare you sir!

But on the topic of Morrison, Animal Man was a fantastically written comic with downright lousy art. A real let down, especially with those amazing Brian Bolland covers.

I think I would have enjoyed Mark Russell's recent Wonder Twins series a lot more if the art hadn't been the most bland, generic pablum I've ever seen in a comic from a major publisher.

[newparisian]

I think a lot of classic Vertigo books are let down by average to "bad" art, such as Animal Man, Sandman, Doom Patrol, the Invisibles, and Shade. They're still classics and I'm not saying that, I don't know, Bryan Hitch should've done Sandman. I just would've preferred consistency and more dynamic art. Morrison's New X-Men is the same way.

[Kirby101]

I think a lot of classic Vertigo books are let down by average to "bad" art, such as Animal Man, Sandman, Doom Patrol, and Shade. They're still classics and I'm not saying that, I don't know, Bryan Hitch should've done Sandman. I just would've preferred consistency and more dynamic art. Morrison's New X-Men is the same way.

Sandman had many different artist. So it fluctuated from not very good to very, very good. I agree with you and Spike-X on Animal Man. Shade had excellent Chris Bachalo art.
But it's true that some of Vertigo needed better art.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Most of Dan Slott's work is an example. Collaborates with a lot of terrific artists that gives value to his otherwise mediocre stories.

Some of Grant Morrison's stuff is an example of writing let down by art...The Invisibles was fatally weakened by the changing art team.

[CaptCleghorn]

I think a lot of classic Vertigo books are let down by average to "bad" art, such as Animal Man, Sandman, Doom Patrol, and Shade. They're still classics and I'm not saying that, I don't know, Bryan Hitch should've done Sandman. I just would've preferred consistency and more dynamic art. Morrison's New X-Men is the same way.

I thought the shifting art on Sandman was part of the changing themes and tones of the stories. Obviously whenever multiple artists are used the perception of quality between them will vary, but I'm not sure a single art style would have helped the book.

[newparisian]

Sandman had many different artist. So it fluctuated from not very good to very, very good. I agree with you and Spike-X on Animal Man. Shade had excellent Chris Bachalo art.
But it's true that some of Vertigo needed better art.

Never been a fan of Bachalo's. Him and Christian Ward occupy that space of "I can't tell what I'm looking at" artwork.

[Timothy Hunter]

I thought that the Sandman and the Invisibles were among the very few comics that don't suffer from a rotating art team. The exception being Sam Kieth in the first 7 issues of Sandman was a fatal mismatch.

I'm not a fan of Richard Case, but I love Chas Troug.

[Kirby101]

I am watching Sweet Tooth on Netflix, and really enjoying it. I looked at the comic, and ugh, can't deal with the art.

[babyblob]

I really like the Captain America Truth Story line. But I hated the art so much!

[godisawesome]

The New 52 Teen Titans books wound up being a great example of how good artists could be utterly wasted by mediocre to bad writing. Brett Booth and Roccafort were wasted by bad writing from Scott Lobdell and Pfeifer.

I don’t find the opposite as much of an issue; great writers can elevate bad art more than great artists can elevate bad writers. There’s been artists I’ve seen start badly but get better on a book when paired with a good writer; Dustin Nguyen was... rougher... his first few years at DC, but partnered with a guy like Paul Dini he got a lot better at emphasizing his style’s strengths.

[kjn]

G Willow Wilson's run on Wonder Woman is one example, and it was not even that Gary Nord's art was that bad from a technical or artistic standpoint. Rather, every time the script called for Diana to express some particular emotion, Nord managed to have the art convey the exact opposite one.