Art or Story Line?

[Blue Meanie]

Definitely an art person. I follow artists like Perez, Starlin, Gene Ha and a few others. It doesn't make a difference who the writer is or id the story is just so so.

It's great when you get that perfect match between writer and artist . Perfect example that I can give is I LOVE the Spectre series with Ostrander and Mandrake team...but I am not a huge fan of Mandrake's art by itself....he needs a good story to go with his art.

[AJ Collector]

Very interesting points and opinions……

To answer my own question I would have to say my tastes have changed as time passed. As a youngster it was the art that first grabbed me, any thing done by Byrne or Adams immediately caught my attention, but as I aged it was the story line that kept me interested in comics, to this day I prefer to read a black & white indy with a solid plot and creative twist then a visually spectacular bore fest.

[steshell]

I'd say story first and then art.
I don't like 'fussy' art and love DC style from the 60's.
Thinking about it, I would read Super Friends all day long so maybe it should be art first.


Steve

[Sandman9580]

Very interesting points and opinions……

To answer my own question I would have to say my tastes have changed as time passed. As a youngster it was the art that first grabbed me, any thing done by Byrne or Adams immediately caught my attention, but as I aged it was the story line that kept me interested in comics, to this day I prefer to read a black & white indy with a solid plot and creative twist then a visually spectacular bore fest.

I agree with that almost verbatim. I love Byrne and Adams now but as a kid buying comics from the local 7-11, McFarlane was the guy. I would flip through a comic book and make my buying decision solely on whether or not I liked the art.

In later years, when I actually started reading them, story became the important thing. Nowadays if a comic doesn't have a good story, I just feel like it's not worth my time. I'll still buy a title based on a character or art occasionally, but if the story's boring (and they usually are) I won't be back. There are some exceptions, though. Alex Raymond's stories in the old Flash Gordon strips leave me pretty underwhelmed, but his beautiful art triumphs over all. When I look at them now, that's usually what I'm doing though... looking, not reading.

[torgospizza]

I was following Millar and Hitch's runs on The Ultimates with great anticipation...but when they stepped off the book and Leob and Maduiera jumped on, I dropped the book.

This is exactly what I did. I wonder how sales went after they switched the team? I'd heard Ultimates 3 actually did better than the previous arcs, but it's beyond me why it would perform so well. It probably says more about me being out of touch than anything else. I wouldn't read Ultimate Spider-Man if it was free; yet, there are many, many people--on this board, even--that swear by it. Good for Bendis and Bagley! I'm not a fan, but they're both workhorses, so it's nice they got some success there.

[HardyGirl]

Definitely the story line. Often times when I read comics I read the words first and look at the pictures afterwards. But if the story was boring, I wouldn't even bother w/ the pictures.