There are some who buy comics for the story. Others pick up the issue for the art. Still some buy only because of the company releasing the book. What category do you fall into?
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Honestly I would rate story and art as equally important because proper use of art style and composition can help pull the reader into the comic and can create a more satisfying experience.
Well, color me a hypocrite because I am typically one to judge those who abstain due to their response not being listed, but I legitimately can’t figure out where my vote lies.
The most important thing to me in recent times is the creative team, but to me that doesn’t actually mean the story OR the art, but rather the sensibilities the writer or artist brings to the table. No matter the publisher or characters involved, there are certain writers and artists (J.M. DeMatteis, Keith Giffen, Kevin Maguire, Amanda Conner) I will follow anywhere. The creators are something beyond just the story or just the art; I don’t entirely know how to quantify it, but that just goes to show you, it’s always something.
I wanted to say Story but honestly if the art style repulses me, it doesn’t matter about anything else. This is a visual medium after all – so my vote had to go with Art.
The art, I used to read X-Factor religiously then an “artist” came on board for a couple of issues and killed it for me.
This was the 1st time I had ever seen horrible art and panel location make a story unreadable, so I have to vote art because horrible art can make even the best stories completely unreadable.
While on the other hand great art can at least be a redeemable feature for a crappy story.
Also, I think art would get more votes if it wasn’t for that awful picture *someone had to say it*
The writer – Ill read Marc Waids sounds as he sleeps.
I mean that I would read anything he writes. Even if it was just the sounds he makes as he sleeps.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz- gasp- gasp- zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I voted publisher because it’s the closest you have to “The character.” It’s not that I specifically read DC or Marvel, but I do like specific characters from each universe and I probably wont pick up a lot of other random books that I don’t know anything about.
Since your question was “What is most important to you in deciding to buy a comic book?” my answer had to be ART. As I don’t read a comic before I buy it, I have no way to know whether I’ll like it. I do, however, get to flip through the art, or checking out Previews I know art styles and know I’ll like a specific artist. I am not as “in-tune” with knowing that a specific author is always good.
I hate to get all over-analytical, but I’m going to. I think that the term ‘the Story’ should be replaced with ‘the Writing’. This is comics after all and if the writing and the art are even remotely competent they should complement each other to tell ‘the Story’. If the writing stands on it’s own without need of the art then you’re talking about illustrated prose. Wordless comics exist of course and can tell a comics story, but it’s typically the marriage of words and images that really makes a comics story.
I voted for story, but I think story and art both hold equal importance. However, that isn’t the case 100% of the time, as there have been excellent stories with sub-par or simplistic art, and there have been wonderfully created pages of art that spiced up otherwise stale or bland storytelling.
I had to vote for story. Though I hold story and art almost equal. I can continue to read a great almost no matter how bad the art, but if it is a bad story… It don’t matter how good the art is!
I can forgive “art” to a point, but when a story takes a turn I don’t like I dump it. Also, the only reason a publisher matters to me is when they show a “story policy” I don’t like… which is the reason I don’t buy Marvel anymore.
I missread the last option as “The Punisher” and was about to vote for that…
I have always think of myself as a story junkie and that’s the driving force behind my comic reading habits but definitely the art is an intrinsic part of the comic books as a medium. A question, what would you rather read, Alan moore’s Watchmen drawing by Rob Liefeld or Wraithborn drawing by Frank Frazetta?
As a rule the art gets me to buy the first book and the story keeps me coming back for more.
But the art is more than ‘pretty’ it takes a skilled artist to tell the story, to get the flow of panels right, to frame the action in a way that’s interesting and dramatic. There was one book that became very popular that I stopped buying because of the muddy art and poor storytelling skills of the new artist. But without a good story to draw the artist is left with nothing to do but fill pages with posing pretty people. And I was never that into most of the Image books from the nineties. Do they still make those?
I voted Story. Primarily because it’s the symbiosis of the Words and the pictures, separately neither has the strength to hold my attention otherwise, but either could ruin a book.
Bad dialogue could be covered up with fantastic art and vice versa.
It’s also this reason that I like digital releases. I don’t care how the story is packaged (To a reasonable degree) I just care how it’s told.
I voted art, not because I consider art more important than story, but because I can ignore sub-par writing if the art is good. The New 52 Supergirl issues aren’t moving very fast at all, but damn if they’re not just gorgeous books.
Depending on the comic most of the time, I go buy for the story. Now if it was something like Age of Reptiles for example then it would have to be art for there is no word balloons or box descriptions most of the characters are dinosaurs and you have to read the expression in the panel. So art follows most of the time a close second…….
I voted for Art even though I really care more about the story. The 90s were very big on Style-over-substance and I did buy then (because I was a kid and was stupid) but since then I’ve grown to actually enjoy good complete stories instead of just huge guns and huge boobs (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The question does ask what is the most important thing in buying the comic, and if I’m looking at comics that I don’t already know something about then the art has to be good. I tend to get clued into other really good books later that I wouldn’t have noticed based on the art alone, such as The Walking Dead. I’ve not been a huge fan of black and white titles and had been missing out on a good series until I’d heard enough times that it was worth reading before actually picking it up.
So to sum up, art makes me buy it, story and writing have me continuing to buy it.