Art or Writing?

[BubooSenchan]

I'm a comic artist and also I'm a writer.
So I'm sorry but I'll have to say that both.
In my books I always like to draw something in the first page of the chapter, so I'm always mixing both.

[edmourabarbosa]

I think you nailed it perfectly! I tried to tell the same thing, but it went way "wordier" than yours.

[idamessygirl]

Though both are incredibly important. I think art is slightly more important.

You know the saying "a picture speaks a thousand words".

And your question, I think that a well written story in black and white coloring stick-men will have difficulty attracting attention when starting out, but once it gains the attention it needs, it will last for a long time. However, A doodle dump of the most stunning and impressive artwork will probably gain tons of views, but die out after a while.

So the well written story in black and white coloring stick-men might be more successful in the long-run?

[Spinester]

Art brings readers in, writing keeps them.

[Rueleer]

Haha thank you! I tend to end up super wordy too, but for once I managed to be concise! X'D

Must be a good day. :'D

[indagold]

It is both! Art sucks, what's the point of reading, writing sucks what the point of looking at it. I've seen stories that are clearly well written but the art is god awful and it's so glaring you don't want to read it. I've seen too many comics with beautiful art but story fails and is boring.

It's like asking someone "what makes a good movie? The writing, the audio, acting, cinematography or the visuals?" You can't just pick one, it's a whole combination that makes it good.

[tsukiko]

You guys give out good points. As for me, the writing is the most important, of course art is extremely important since it will be the language of your story. Simply put, bad artwork may lead to a poor translation of your story to the readers.

BUT of course thats not all there is to it, take attack on titan for example. I dont know about you guys but the manga had horrible artwork, especially on the early chapters, but it grew on popularity because of its superb story thats why it had an anime. A better example is mob psycho 100, this one im sure has a bad artwork. Its not stylized like one piece, its just bad, like it was drawn with a mouse but it was so compelling and addictive i couldnt stop reading it. This was before the anime came out.

[Kawaiiyusra]

I would say writing. I feel most people can get through a comic with bad art if the writing is captivating (Like the original creator of One Punchman) even the manga for Attack on Titan was amateurish compared to other manga. However, a comic with amazing art and a bad story will not hold attention. I say this because comics are a storytelling medium, by just focusing on having pretty art , at that point the comic isn't a story it's a series of illustrations. Story and how it is told is what sets comics apart from artbooks.

[Pommie]

As shallow as this sounds, I'd probably go for the art style that seems interesting to me, visually appealing, but I quickly drop it if the story isn't to my taste. There's been some comics that I've read that have REALLY NICE ART, but the story just falls completely flat, and at times it feels like abit of a disappointment?

That said, there's been some comic works that I really enjoy that do not have the best art on the block, in my opinion. Example; Homestuck and problem sleuth by Andrew Hussie, writing was sometimes choppy, as well as the art, but it was charming with its witty writing.

TBH, I think both contribute to it. Art for an impression on a story, as well as good writing to keep the reader captivated.

[Pyomatic]

imo, its an unfair comparison. Writing encompasses so much: the story, the characters, the pacing, the tone, dialogue. Art is mainly important in conveying what is happening and sometimes what to feel (I've read some comics which have intentionally emotionless art though, and rely on the writing and the readers imagination). But the line between the two can be blurry, like for example, the colours in my comic (will) change bc certain colours are symbolic and reflect a character development and tell part of the story by itself (i'm not the best at describing) but is that art or writing? It's part of the plot, but reflected in purely visual ways? Comics are visual storytelling, you can't have one without the other.
I guess if forced to pick, I'd say writing, since I think I define art as pure aesthetics? while they help draw ppl in (esp with how competitive webcomics are since there are so many), writing just encompasses more.

[MelancholicOtaku]

As a writer,I'm going to have to say writing.Plot character development,world building,it's all needed in order to make an worthwhile comic,tv show,animation etc. Yes the art is important, but if one's for example comic
only has good artwork, but the story is lack luster...well is it really worth reading.

[saerel]

Art IS writing.

[Luminosophy]

Pretty much this. I know I've clicked on a lot of comics that were very pretty looking but noped out on the first few pages because the cringe factor was too high to handle. Where as my favourite series are the ones that paid more attention to simply writing a quality story.

[YangKoete]

I think art is more important in general, but art needs writing as a crutch more than writing needs art as one.

The main reason is there's an abundance of styles of art that don't require any writing at all; Portraits, still-life, landscapes, photographs, you name it.

But for comics (especially the larger ones), they heavily require writing, but they compliment each other to make it even more appealing then to attract more people to them.