I mean...my complaints apply to comics just as well as they do to novels (that's why I didn't specify) and the fact that people don't see that right away is part of the problem. ^^;
I can't tell you how many comics I've clicked on with beautiful art and interesting concepts...but the characters just spoke so weirdly that I had to leave. The difference in quality between the art and writing was so jarring that it'd break the immersion every time the characters opened their mouths...
It's sad, and it's sadder knowing that even if they sought to improve, 90% of the people they asked to review their comic would just look at their art and paneling and declare it 'amazing', full stop. As if nothing else mattered.
...See, this is what makes me feel like a hypocrite. ^^;
I'm a critical writer, and I consider myself good enough to have the right to make these kinds of comments about what other writers need to be caring about. And yet...I'm one of those people who doesn't really read.
At best I occasionally read a short story in one of the science mags at work...I literally can't remember the last actual novel that I read. When people ask who my favorite author is I draw a total blank: there are a lot of individual books I've liked, but the only author whose work I've read enough of to evaluate that way is James Patterson, and I think he's a hack. XD If Maximum Ride didn't have a manga series I never would've bothered with him...
Is there an excuse for this...?? I did used to read a ton when I was a kid, so it's not that I've never seen anyone's writing but my own...just not recently...
I dunno. I feel like if it's imperative to read to be a good writer, and I don't read, then either I'm a bad writer and a pompous ass, or I'm some kind of genius. And the former, despite being very distressing, sounds much more likely...