A comic with art so good that you don't care about the story?

[basil_kunn]

Basically the title. Have you ever read a comic where the art is so good that you wouldn't even care if the story sucked? Or even the other way around, a story so good that you don't care about the art?

(I just want to say that I'm not dismissing any of the following comic creator's writing skills, I'm just praising their art)

For me, a few comics come to mind.

The first one is Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Official's Blessing, which is a relatively new Chinese webtoon based off a popular webnovel. I've read the novel so I know that the story is very very good (the best thing I've ever read actually) but even if the story wasn't, I would still read it for the art alone.
It updates weekly, but somehow the artist manages to do these beautifully painted episodes???
Just look at this!!!

Then there's the classics, Ghostblade and Fisheye Placebo (along with Yuumei's other comic, Knite). I don't understand how someone can be so good at art, but also have the skill to tell such a good story??? Like, its hard enough to be good at one, but both???

And for a comic where I read it just for the story, it would have to be Mob Psycho 100 (along with the original One Punch Man). I have to admit that the art is not very great, but the story is really great. I'm glad that they both got the anime adaptations they deserve (and in OPM's case, a new manga adaptation).

Also, kinda unrelated, but despite ONE's lack of skill in art, he still is able to draw his comics in a way that works? He understands what makes a manga page look good, but he just doesn't have the art skill to draw it well, if that makes sense? Basically what I'm saying is that despite the low quality of his art, it still looks good.

Anyway, have you ever read a comic with really really good art???

[WriterLinXiaolong]

TGCF have buffers btw. Ember has been working on it for a few months (or a year iirc) 🤣

I'm going to be biased here since your first example was BL (and I'm too lazy to open the rest of the link). No matter how shitty the story is, I would try to finish the comic if its BL if there's a lot of cough Ikemen cough. Or rather than finishing the comic... I just skim through for those husbands!

Bias aside, for me, art need to catch me first, then story need to retain me.

If the art is not able to catch my interest, then no matter how good the story is, I won't even choose to begin reading it

On the other hand, if after the art caught me and the story is not good, I will still drop them.

[elyss]

Joker Danny by Old Xian. The color coordinating have no right to be so beautiful lol

[jensrichard77]

This one is only art. There might be a story. But it is only the art that matters.

Haunter of Dreams | Tapas

[unknown_user]

Mmm... I'm not sure, what does"good art" mean... If you mean art, which required big investment of time and diligency to draw, I'd name this comics, at first place:

Left Behind | Tapas

If you mean the art, which is appealing to me personally AND have a fashionable "webtoon" style AND looks brightly, diligent and professional in the same time, then these ones:

Essential Chemistry | Tapas

Never follow the wispfinch! | Tapas

You Were Worth It | Tapas

About "story before art" I struggle to say anything at all, because more than half of my library is about these kinds of comics.
And another big chunk of my library is about comics which don't has super duper professional art, nor very complicated story lines. BUT in the same time, their art styles are appealing to me personally (and plots are still more or less ok, even if they're small). But the most important reason why did I add comics of this category to lib, is that I saw in them some originality which attracts me.

[silverraven0]

There's a lot of comic artist with very very great skills but awful bg in the plot, flow of the comic etc. I honestly never, like, seriously never going to stay long enough reading them since honesty, there's no point for it and it'll only be a time waste.

[LCT_m_a_d]

My life goals is to create a series with art so beautiful, people don't care about my fraudulent writing and lettering abilities lol

[spadedigsbutts]

I always think of Ava’s Demon which is so gorgeous but like, since it’s a single panel comic it’s been running for like 7 years and like 3 things have happened maybe and there’s already some major problems X’D I’m interested in the story but like...that slower than usual progression makes it so hard to care

[rajillustration]

This is how I used to care about Dresden Codak where I was like "but it's so pretty who cares what it's about?" And then the author ended up getting hellllllla weird on twitter and I realized...maybe that was my sign. maybe I should have cared actually. And I haven't read it since then, and I've been a little more hesitant about comics where the story is a pretentious shamble ever since.

[GesuGesu]

Does TGCF webtoon have an English translation available? I've only read the first volume of the novel, but I'm interested in reading the comic version!

[kaiyaweird]

For me, it has to be a balance. It can't just completely terrible (i.e. unreadable) art. But overall, I care more about a good story than beautiful art. If a comic is just pretty, but has no substance, I probably won't read it. Imo, comics are visual narrative, so an engaging story is a must. Of course, part of that is being able to visually represent the story in an engaging and readable way. But "pretty" isn't a must as far as doing just that.

All just my opinion of course.

[feardeer]

There's no artist skilled enough to make me read their comic if the story isn't doing it for me.

There are a handful of artists I've admired and followed for years who have webcomics, but try as I might, I can't enjoy them. I love their artwork and always will, but if the story isn't for me, I'll pass on the comic.

[Kura]

Nope, have yet to run into a comic where the art was so good I could ignore the story.

I just... am not that kind of reader.

That doesn't mean I only read comics with 'amazing art' that have perfect stories, like any comic I read the story can still be broken or average, it just needs to have something that appeals to me that makes me interested in reading it. This is usually the story or the characters. The art though, is just not one of those things.

[arcojawa]

You know.......... I've never really had that experience. Really, the only comics I've stuck with are the ones I become invested in for the story. There's been a few that, the stories are so complicated and the updates so far apart that between the time it takes for them to update and the complexity of the story I can't keep a track of whats happening (Romantically Apocalyptic, Dresden Codak). Or some that were skillfully made but just kinda bland story-wise (probably better that I don't name names, it's the courteous thing to do). Honestly there's only ever been one comic that I stuck with that is really skillfully drawn but that's because it has a great story as well (Lackadaisy).

[inkycharland]

I have a lot but none of them are web comics. For example, if Joe Mad draws a comic, I will get it. In fact, art matters more to me in most cases. I can read a terribly drawn book but the story has to be amazing.

As someone who relies on his art to make up for his sub-par writing, I hope other people are like me. I really need people to like my art to make my stuff readable. lol.

[DualDragons]

To be frank, no i did not. I generally care more for the story than the art (though if the art is terrible and the writing is subpar i might consider stopping to read).

If a comic has good art but a bad story (which can be harassing, cliché etc) i'll take a quick glance before deciding it's not really what i want to read.
A balance between good art and good writing is what works for me and also what i tend to strive for myself.

[basil_kunn]

yeah there's actually a few different teams of translators! you can read it translated on mangadex https://mangadex.org/title/42236/heaven-official-s-blessing or go to suibian subs/scans' discord server to get the link to download their translations