What Makes Comic Book Art “Good”?

This is a big question, but I was curious if anyone has any thoughts on this.

Since comics are a primarily visual form of storytelling, the art, layout, and flow of a page can be just as important, or perhaps even more so, than the script. Good art can elevate something average into something amazing, while bad art can sometimes ruin a perfectly good story. (The one thing that great art can not do is make bad writing any less bad though.) But how should we define what makes good or bad comic art?

Edited by megaeliz on Mar 3rd 2020 at 11:17:37 AM

Not much different than other types of visual media. Is the art technically proficient? Is it appropriate to the subject matter? Does it communicate in a way that reinforces the script? Is the level of readability appropriate? Etc. It's some blend of that type of stuff.

Edited by caivu on Sep 1st 2019 at 1:00:41 PM

Art tends to be subjective from person to person anyway, not everyone’s going to be a Jack Kirby fan. For instance I used to dislike Bill Sienkiewicz’s art because of how “Un-Comicbook” it was nowadays I love for that exact some reason. Also I just got back from reading the first COPRA trade which has beautiful art and is different from what you usually see in comics.

Edited by Bec66 on Sep 1st 2019 at 1:11:15 PM

I do think that there is some room for objectivity though, since even if you don't necessarily like a particular art style, you can usually recognize when something is done well.

Jack Kirby is actually a good example. His style can sometimes be a bit off putting at first glance on their own, but the sense of motion and energy he could bring to his art has been nearly unmatched.

Edited by megaeliz on Sep 1st 2019 at 2:11:46 PM

Well then what do you consider good and bad comic art?

I think my list would look something like this.

Art:

• Is the art relatively consistent between panels?
• Do they have at least a basic understanding of anatomy and perspective?'
• good composition and layout

Visual Storytelling:

• Does it making clear and effective visual storytelling choices?
• Does the page and panel layout and staging of the scenes serve the story effectively?
• Does it have a good sense of dynamic and interesting action or movement?

Anyone have any thoughts/additions?

Edited by megaeliz on Mar 3rd 2020 at 11:23:34 AM

The most important aspect of comics is visual storytelling. You fail at that, you fail comics, no matter how objectively good the artwork itself is. If your reader gets lost at how to even follow the panels, that's it.

There are different art styles, and not everything is gonna be their cup of tea, but even "bad" art style can be saved if you have great grasp of visual language. ONE, of One-Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100, could be considered a "bad" artist; and yet, the amount of emotion and personality he can add to his cast and situations has made both of them as popular as they are.

There's this video from Marvel artist Dani Parker, in which he tells the story on how he submitted his first portfolio to be reviewed by a Marvel scout. The scout was impressed by it and ultimately got him a job at Marvel, but he did highlighted some of the problems of his visual language, like lack space or direction (here's the video, it's in Spanish, but is still interesting to watch and see the comparision of his reviewed pages with the new ones).