Pictures and Art

One of the most common pieces of advice I have ever heard about comics is to focus on your writing. "Good writing can make up for bad art, but good art can never make up for good writing." I do agree with this technically, but I always feel like it trivializes an important aspect of comicking.

Before people read your comic, they see your comic. The artistic style alone will say a great deal about your comic. People love to point out xkcd, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, and Cyanide & Happiness as examples of good writing surpassing bad art, but you will also notice that all of these are comedic comics and so their crude style explains to the reader that it isn't meant to be taken too seriously. In fact, Zach Weiner, who does SMBC, did a joint comic with Chris Jones called Captain Excelsior, and the much better (though not photorealistic) art showed that the comic was far more serious than his other comic.

I think that even a funny comic should have good art. One of the best examples in the comic world would have to be Least I Could Do, which currently has an amazing artist and a great writer. With the two working together, they make a comic which is great to read and wonderful to look at. I would also point out Starslip, which very recently underwent a major update in artistic style. Although the story was enough to keep me reading from the beginning through every update, Kris Straub (the creator) decided that his artistic ability had gotten so much better over the years that the comic deserved a cosmetic touchup. And the end result is a comic that is now visually and intellectually stimulating.

As much as I would love to be an independent comicker, I simply can't. I have never trained myself to draw and don't plan on investing the time to do so. I have invested my time learning how to be funny and poingant (sometimes at the same time), so I would rather find somebody who shares my vision, and can put it on paper.