Sometimes I wonder what it is about the interaction of art and style and writing that impacts the readability of a comic. The art doesn't always have to be beautiful or detailed or even particularly good to carry a story sometimes, yeah? But other times, even good art - or even especially good art - can be a problem to the enjoyment of the book.
I recently picked up both Persepolis and Delphine. And at initial glance, its hard to call either one great art. But both have a very distinctive style (much like Order of the Stick does), and they fit with the story being told pretty well. In both cases I was a little hesitant when I started reading because of the art style but I very much enjoyed them once I got into them. I guess we can chalk that under a more detail-oriented "don't judge a book by its cover." But for another, which was trying to tell a serious story in serious tone, the simplistic style of the art made the story a little bit hard to take seriously.
And other times, there's what might be beautiful art to me (Jae Lee here comes to mind), but who, when paired with the sort of story it sometimes being used, makes the whole story kind of weird to watch.
It's hard to figure out, from the outset, when the combination of art and story will or will not work. But the further I go on, the more I start to realize that I'd always rather give it a go and be disappointed than let it pass and miss something interesting.
Sorry so short today. I don't think I explained very well what was on my mind this morning, but I suspect I'll come back to this at some point.
Speaking of Delphine, that's a weird little comic. I quite enjoyed it, and thought it was more atmospheric than most comics I've read lately, but I also suspect its one of those I just won't read very often. Ever have that? where something's good but you don't see yourself returning to it very often?
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