> Fave Character + Good Art = Must Buy
>
> How many of us choose our comics based on that equation? I've begun to think a lot of people do, though not necessarily the sort who post on message boards.
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I can only comment about m'self and what provokes me to pay attention and start channeling money into a book.
I had started buying the X-book that Mike Carey was writing. He's a good writer and I had read most of his LUCIFER book at Vertigo. The artist, as they say, wasn't everyone's cup of tea - it was Chris Bachalo, but there's someone I like something like 75% of the time. (Back in the day, on SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, I would have said 100%...) My point is that Humberto Ramos was scheduled to draw the rest of that story arc and at his first issue, which I did purchase, I had to drop the title like a stone. He's just someone whose art confuses and annoys me. I'm willing to say it's a style I don't like. However you put it, I couldn't justify shelling out cash for that "package" any further.
Leinel Yu is a good artist who has drifted into the area/way/style he has today. Which isn't to my liking at all. That made NEW AVENGERS particularly redundant. I don't mind admitting I'd enjoyed NA up until... about the Howard Chaykin/Captain America issue. (Chaykin of old... I love his AMERICAN FLAGG and various bits and pieces over the years such as MONARK MOONSTALKER and THE MARK OF KANE. What he does now is so stylised and streamlined - it ain't for me.)
Yadda. For me, it's got to be closer to
Fave Character + Good Art + Good Story/Writing = Must Buy (in any order.)
> The above might have been true of yours truly when I was a kid. This was back in the 70's, when I was buying mostly Marvel, and Roy Thomas was ascendant. Back then, I never encountered what I considered a poorly written comic, so if I liked the character and liked the art, I bought the book. I didn't have to choose by writer, because the writing was always to my liking.
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I remember our discussions about the "Great Gerry Conway", as you put it. Since then, I've reread his AMAZING SPIDERMAN run with Ross Andru, and have to say you have a point.
I still think his SCALPHUNTER at DC is his best work, and that's when he was particularly, IMO, shallow. SCALPHUNTER was this strange and pleasant exception.
> Nowadays there are writers who are so obviously inferior to their peers, for example Loeb, that I tend to think I need to be selective in that area. Yet people buy Loeb's books and don't complain, probably because he always is blessed with a popular artist and popular subject matter.
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I read some RED HULK in the shop. (Byrne-stealing? They asked me to read it.) Ye cats! It's the pits. He seems to get worse all the time.
So he is the perfect example, it would seem.
> I have to admit, if I like the art and I like the protagonist, it takes a lot for me to dislike the comic. The writing has to be grossly sub-par. Few writers are really that poor. Often it isn't even really the writing that bugs me, but rather the editorial mandate, good example being "Brand New Day," which is unreadable unless you're happy with the editorial mandate. (Zeb Wells was able to shine under those conditions, but Zeb Wells is upper echelon.)
>
> Most of the time, if I choose books by character and art, I think I'll enjoy the books I end up with. I just won't buy anything by Loeb or mandated by JoeQ. Everything else should be fine.
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be.
Corn -
Gerry was 20 when he scripted over Roy's plot on this, his first FF. It was mine, as well, not counting British reprints
Reading: NOVA #12-15, assorted 60's MUTT AND JEFF, HOT STUFF and SPOOKY THE TUFF LITTLE GHOST, SUPERBOY #153 (my favourite SUPERBOY story written by Frank Robbins and depicted by Bob Brown and Wally Wood - best Bob Brown ever this S/A series!), HAWKMAN SHOWCASE vol. 2 (with any amount of tasty Murphy Anderson; Anderson even inked Kubert later on in the volume), SAGA OF THE SUPER SONS collection principally by Zany Bob Haney and Delightful Dick Dillin, PORT OF SAINTS by William Burroughs and RE/SEARCH #10: INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS - now, some classic old reading.
Listening: The Doors, Sam Cooke, James Brown, John Coltrane, Django Reinhardt and Billie Holiday.
Watching: DR WHO, LIFE ON MARS and OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE. (Note: OUTRAGOUS FORTUNE is not some squalid game-show. It's a Kiwi dynastic bogan soap riot in its 4th season and I've only just discovered it.)
Flick: THIS IS ENGLAND.
